Mongolia’s largest Hun tomb held a trove of treasures, including glass that may be Roman

At the center of the biggest Xiongnu tomb ever confirmed in Mongolia, the burial itself is oddly modest: two nested wooden chambers around a single coffin, set in a pit that bottoms out at about 14.5 meters. Around that small core, a Korean-Mongolian team recovered 413 finds, among them a handled glass cup that may have been made in the Roman Empire.

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Xiongnu is the name archaeologists use for the steppe power that popular accounts often call the Huns. The tomb, numbered 160, stands in the Duurlig Nars cemetery of eastern Mongolia, and its excavators say it dates to the late first or second century CE, when Xiongnu strength was fading.

Seventy-three meters of stepped earth and nine layers of stone

The National Museum of Korea’s own announcement, dated Nov. 6, says the work was a joint project with the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the National Museum of Mongolia. Digging began in 2023 and wrapped up in 2026. Including the southern entrance passage, the tomb runs about 73 meters. Builders cut the ground into terraces and then sealed the structure with nine rounds of stone fill.

The depth is the surprise. A similarly sized tomb in central Mongolia reaches about 22 meters, yet the floor here sits roughly 14.5 meters down, and a smaller companion tomb excavated in 2019 showed the same pattern. Arkeonews, which reported the find on Nov. 10, notes that the central section is small compared with comparable Hun tombs. The museum reads that shrunken core as a possible sign of social change while Xiongnu power declined, an interpretation the museum offers rather than a demonstrated cause.

Earlier figures were larger. A July report in the Korea Times, tied to the UNESCO listing of Xiongnu noble tombs, gave Tomb 160 an estimated length of 88 meters and a depth of 18 meters. The November announcement is the later and more specific one, and it is the source for the 73-meter and 14.5-meter figures used here.

Glass, jade and a crystal first among the 413 finds

The glass is the item that draws the attention. The museum describes a transparent cup with a handle that may be Roman in origin, but its production center is not yet established, and the team plans a chemical analysis of the glass to confirm where it came from. Until that result exists, “possibly Roman” is the strongest claim the evidence supports.

Fifteen jade objects were stacked at the bottom of the coffin. They echo the Han Dynasty bi disk but are irregular and finely carved, which the museum takes as Xiongnu adaptation of Han funeral custom. A museum official, quoted in a Korean-language report, said the Xiongnu borrowed Han burial practices but reshaped their form.

Gourd-shaped silver horse ornaments, made from thin silver sheet, resemble pieces from Lelang-period tombs near Pyongyang, including Seokam-ri Tomb 219. One has a crystal set in its center, and a round ornament combines gold leaf with red and blue material under a crystal layer. The museum calls the crystal-inlaid style a first for Xiongnu tombs. A lacquer-coated carriage lay directly above the central burial, which the same official read as another sign of high rank.

The museum’s broader reading, as rendered in the Korean report, is that the assemblage shows the Xiongnu tied into a trade and exchange network stretching from Rome to the Korean Peninsula. That is a large claim to hang on one cup, and the team itself treats the glass as unproven. The stronger evidence for long-distance contact is the cluster of items that resemble known objects elsewhere: the silver ornaments match pieces held by the National Museum of Korea, and the jade follows a Han model.

Teeth, hair and the reports still to come

Researchers also collected teeth and hair from the coffin. DNA analysis could eventually show the occupant’s sex, age and any kinship with people buried in the associated graves. No results have been announced, and none of the sources give a timetable for them.

The artifacts are slated to travel to Korea this year for conservation and scientific study, with two Mongolian researchers joining as trainees, and a 3D record of the dig will be turned into digital content. Findings were presented at the 50th Korean Archaeological Society conference on Nov. 6 and 7, and a comprehensive excavation report will follow after analysis, with no date given.

The political backdrop is cordial. Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh visited the site on Aug. 21, which the museum says was the first visit by a Mongolian president, and described the joint research as a clear symbol of friendship and cooperation. A Seoul Economic Daily report adds that the museum’s work at Duurlig Nars, a group of about 300 tombs, helped lead to the cemetery’s World Heritage inscription this summer.

What remains unresolved is the glass. If the chemical analysis does trace the cup to a Roman workshop, it would join the silver ornaments that look Korean and the jade that looks Han in a single grave, a tomb whose small center now has to be explained by everything piled around it.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.