Maddi Mosher
July 3, 2026

Once upon a time at a NOMAD dig, two students took a water break while waiting for excavation photos. We had been excavating all morning, salvaging what we could from a looted Mongol-period burial. As we returned to the large larch tree where they had left their water, I looked up and saw a bird’s nest. 

With delight in the idea of finding baby birds, I suggested to Matt, the other student, to climb the tree and see if there were baby birds in the nest. As the idea caught hold, Caitlin joined us. We approached the tree, looking for an easy way up.

As Matt, the sacrificial student, grabbed the first branch to climb the tree he noticed that there was a stirrup in the tree. He didn’t think much of it. We were in herding country, and there were horses and herdsmen everywhere. It is common practice among the herders to hang lost items in nearby trees to make it more visible—a kind of steppe lost-and-found.

Before he climbed, Matt pointed out the discovery to me and Caitlin. We moved closer to the tree, and I noticed something odd, and  yelled for our site director, surprising the other two students.

Stirrups haven’t changed much over the years, so the stirrup could have been just a few years old. But I had noticed something else. Strung through the stirrup, there was a Mongol arrowhead. I realized we were looking at something quite different—these were lost artifacts from the looted grave we were working on. Our site directors agreed that both the stirrup and the arrowhead had most likely been excavated from the site by looters, then forgotten on the side of the mountain. 

Together we collected the stirrup and arrowhead—the best find of the day. We also had a good giggle at the herder who found the stirrup and arrowhead on the ground and probably hung it in the tree for the herder who had lost them. He will probably never know that his kind gesture reunited the Mongol artifacts with the grave that they came from. 

But we had not forgotten our task. Once the stirrup and arrowhead had been safely collected, bagged, and labeled, we took again to the tree, and climbed to the bird’s nest. There were indeed baby birds! Stirrups, arrowheads, baby birds—truly a magical day in Mongolia!