{
  "country_code": "MN",
  "id": "genghis-khan-unlocated-tomb",
  "title": "Genghis Khan’s tomb: what a satellite anomaly can establish",
  "category": "disparition",
  "date": "2014-12-30",
  "date_label": "30 December 2014 research publication; no burial discovery is claimed",
  "location": "Khentii sacred landscape, Mongolia",
  "lat": 48.5,
  "lng": 109,
  "location_note": "Broad Khentii orientation marker; deliberately not a candidate grave, survey target or authorised access route.",
  "summary": "A large satellite-image project searched for archaeological features in a landscape associated with Genghis Khan. The remaining mystery is how to distinguish an interesting feature from an identified burial.",
  "documented_claim": "The 2014 paper documents a satellite-based archaeological survey motivated by the tomb search.",
  "unproven_claim": "Crowd agreement or UNESCO association constitutes an authenticated discovery of Genghis Khan’s tomb.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "PLOS ONE — Crowdsourcing the Unknown",
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0114046",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Primary archaeological-survey methods paper",
      "note": "2014 publication with linked 2015 correction; no authenticated tomb announcement.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "UNESCO — Great Burkhan Khaldun sacred landscape",
      "url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1440/",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Heritage landscape assessment",
      "note": "Describes reputed burial association, not a proven grave identification.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Mongolia",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/genghis-khan-unlocated-tomb",
  "source_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0114046",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=48.5&mlon=109#map=8/48.5/109",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "The research survey and sacred association are documented. The tomb’s location is not established by these records.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "The PLOS ONE paper Crowdsourcing the Unknown describes volunteers classifying satellite imagery during a search motivated by Genghis Khan’s unlocated tomb. It reports a large set of tags and a method for combining noisy observations into survey priorities. UNESCO identifies Burkhan Khaldun as a sacred landscape associated with the ruler and describes his burial there as reputed or believed. The two records do not announce an authenticated tomb. A concentrated cluster of image tags is evidence of agreement about a visible feature, not identification of the person buried beneath it.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "How do independent field observations validate a remotely identified feature, and what evidence would be necessary to attribute it to a named ruler? Selection bias and popular expectation must be considered before treating a visually prominent site as the answer.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "The article studies a survey and crowd-classification method, not a completed personal identification. Its 2015 correction should accompany the paper. UNESCO’s wording is an attributed association. Sacred-landscape restrictions and community preferences matter; candidate coordinates are omitted.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "The research survey and sacred association are documented. The tomb’s location is not established by these records.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Read the paper and correction together. Compare feature classes, agreement thresholds and field-validation criteria without publishing candidate grave locations. Distinguish roads, structures and natural shapes from burials. Evaluate any later discovery claim through an authorised published report and explicit dating or attribution evidence.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "June 2010",
      "text": "The paper reports launch of the virtual exploration system.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 December 2014",
      "text": "PLOS publishes the survey-method paper.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "25 March 2015",
      "text": "The journal lists a correction that should be read with the paper.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "The 2014 paper documents a satellite-based archaeological survey motivated by the tomb search.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Crowd agreement or UNESCO association constitutes an authenticated discovery of Genghis Khan’s tomb.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The research survey and sacred association are documented. The tomb’s location is not established by these records.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "An unlocated burial within a culturally associated region",
      "status": "Open historical framework",
      "support": "The landscape association and search motivation are documented.",
      "limits": "Association does not locate a specific grave.",
      "test": "Require authorised archaeological dating and personal-attribution criteria."
    },
    {
      "title": "A selected image anomaly is the ruler’s tomb",
      "status": "Unestablished identification",
      "support": "Crowd agreement can prioritise features for inspection.",
      "limits": "Many feature types produce similar image patterns.",
      "test": "Compare independent validation and alternative feature classifications before asserting a burial."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For Genghis Khan’s tomb: what a satellite anomaly can establish, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Read the paper and correction together. Compare feature classes, agreement thresholds and field-validation criteria without publishing candidate grave locations. Distinguish roads, structures and natural shapes from burials. Evaluate any later discovery claim through an authorised published report and explicit dating or attribution evidence."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Require authorised archaeological dating and personal-attribution criteria. Compare independent validation and alternative feature classifications before asserting a burial. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}