Journey into Other Worlds: Discoveries at the Boundary of Russia and Mongolia

by Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther Jacobson-Tepfer

This book describes the author's intellectual and physical journey to her long-term work in the Altai Mountains of Russia and Mongolia. It recounts the challenges of getting to Siberia and the Russian Altai during the Soviet period and the physical and intellectual challenges of working in the Mongolian Altai—a region that was, at that time, virtually unknown even to researchers.

The focus of the author's work was the rock art and monumental archaeology of northwestern Mongolia. From her decades of survey, documentation, and mapping emerged an ancient world of deep culture and considerable beauty. The author's years in the Altai also revealed the lives of the local herders, inheritors of traditions going back to the Bronze Age.

The book is liberally illustrated with the photographs of Gary Tepfer, the author's husband and partner in this multi-year exploration.

274 pages, Paperback

Published January 12, 2023