Salkhit ( mn, Салхит, "windy") is a settlement in the Khongor

sum Sum most commonly means the total of two or more numbers added together; see addition. Sum can also refer to: Mathematics * Sum (category theory), the generic concept of summation in mathematics * Sum, the result of summation, the additio ...

(district) of

Darkhan-Uul Province Darkhan-Uul ( mn, Дархан-Уул, literally ''Blacksmith Mountain'') is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia. It is located in the north of the country. History The city Darkhan was founded on October 17, 1961, as a second indus ...

in northern

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Geography

Salkhit is located on the Kharaa gol river (a right tributary of the

Orkhon river The Orkhon River (; mn, Орхон гол, ''Orkhon gol'', Old Chinese: 安侯水 ''(*arhoushui)'') is a river in Mongolia. The Orkhon river derives its name from the Old Turkic prefix "or" meaning "middle", and "khan" or king. It rises in ...

), 13 km south of the center of the

of Khongor, and 33 km south of the

aimag An aimag (, ; xal, әәмг, ), originally a Mongolian word meaning 'tribe', is an administrative subdivision in Mongolia, Russia, and in the Inner Mongolia region of China. Mongolia In Mongolia, an aimag is the first-level administrative ...

capital Darkhan.

Economy

Salkhit is the railway station where the 164 km long Salkhit–

Erdenet Erdenet ( mn, Эрдэнэт, literally "with treasure") is the third-largest city in Mongolia, with a 2018 population of 98,045, and the capital of the aimag (province) of Orkhon. Located in the northern part of the country, it lies in a valley ...

line starts. This line was built to the copper producing city of Erdenet in 1975, with Soviet assistance.

Prehistory

An archaic ''Homo sapiens'' skullcap with archaic features similar to those of

Neanderthals Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

, ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

'' and Asian archaic ''Homo sapiens'' was found near Salkhit in 2006 during gold mining operations at depth 5–6 m. Original estimates dated the skullcap to about 22,100 years old, but later re-dating in 2010 indicated 23,630 BP. In 2019, the Salkhit skull was again radiocarbon dated, analyzing hydroxyproline in bone-extracted collagen, placing it in the range 34,950–33,900

cal BP Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becau ...

. Despite its archaic features, genetic reconstruction of ancient DNA from the skull indicates the specimen falls on a novel branch of mtDNA haplogroup N, one of two basal haplogroups ancestral to all non-African populations. Application of a molecular clock to the mtDNA sequence yielded a date for the skull of 12,910 to 39,410 years BP. The Salkhit individual was found to have carried c. 74–78% 'Basal East Asian' Tianyuan-like ancestry and c. 22–26% Early West Eurasian Kostenki14-like ancestry. The Salkhit individual displayed a complex relationship to the Ancient North Eurasian.

References

Populated places in Mongolia {{Mongolia-geo-stub