William Honeychurch

The Xiongnu settlements of Egiin Gol, Mongolia

Abstract The Xiongnu people have long been considered an archetypical nomadic group, characterised archaeologically mainly from their tombs – which have reinforced the stereotype. Thanks to a sophisticated survey project, the authors are able to reveal the Xiongnus economic complexity. Although primarily pastorialists they practiced cultivation and their ceramics reveal a settlement hierarchy which chimes with the broader social and settlement system of the region.

A Nested Approach to Survey in the Egiin Gol Valley, Mongolia

Abstract Defining an appropriate and adequate survey area is usually the first and most difficult step in survey research design. This paper presents an example from the Egiin Gol Survey project in which current models for nomadic polity development were evaluated against spatial data collected from a valley in north central Mongolia. The survey presented methodological challenges since no prior systematic survey had been conducted in Mongolia and the mobility of steppe groups likely produced significant variation in social scales across the region in question. To address these factors, we did not select a pre-defined survey area with a fixed boundary. Instead, we expanded our regional perspective by creating zones of different survey resolution and applying knowledge of site location from higher resolution surveys to areas still unstudied. Through this nested resolution method, we acquired data at progressively lower cost, enlarged our survey coverage dramatically, and accounted for shifts in socio-spatial scales relevant to our research problem.

Pastoral nomadic voices: a Mongolian archaeology for the future

Abstract To explore the question of why archaeology matters to society, this study turns to the recent attempt to promote economic development in the eastern steppe nation of Mongolia. The past two decades have witnessed transformation of Mongolias largely pastoral-based economy and society according to models advocated by international development agencies and adopted by the Mongolian government. The preconceptions of nomadic pastoralism embedded in policy decisions and resource allocations are unsupportable given the archaeology, history and ethnography of the region. As a result of these embedded assumptions about nomads, Mongolias transition to free market economics has been devastating for the rural sector. Given the unique time depth and variation available through the material record, I argue that archaeologists have a responsibility to apply their research and ask salient questions of narrowly conceived agendas for development. In Mongolia, archaeology and the material record matter because they provide an authoritative voice by which to challenge contemporary ideologies.

ASIA, CENTRAL AND NORTH, STEPPES, DESERTS, AND FORESTS

Central Eurasia is a broad belt of steppe grasslands fringed by forests to the north and by high mountains and dry deserts to the south. This great swathe of land is arid and cold and is characterized by nomadic horse-riding peoples with cultures long adapted to this harsh environment. With time, the first Central Eurasians adapted and prospered under these conditions, such that their descendants eventually peopled the New World, forged roads of communication between Old World civilizations, and assembled some of the most impressive empires in human history. This essay examines the archaeological heritage of eastern Central Eurasia and focuses on the development of pastoral nomadic economies, horse traction and riding, advanced metallurgical technologies, early status systems, and the first states to arise on the eastern steppe lands.

The Development of Cultural and Social Complexity in Mongolia

Pastoral nomadic peoples are not usually thought of as architects of complex political organization. Most anthropological and historical literature on nomads repeats a common theme when it comes to their organizational potential—due to their mobility, lack of economic surplus, and fierce independence, herders tend not to organize politically, or do so only on a small-scale or temporary basis. Not surprisingly, such theories have difficulty accounting for the empires of Mongolia which were large, complex, powerful, and numerous. Yet, the dominant explanations for polities of the Asian steppe suggest that they must have been dependent on sedentary neighbors for critical resources and models of organization. This historically embedded concept of nomadic raiders along the frontiers depending on and appropriating the resources of neighboring states is still alive and well in twenty-first century scholarship. Archaeological approaches, however, are changing these stereotypical ideas about nomadic societies in many parts of the Old World and have generated new conceptions of nomads and their complexity. The material record left behind by ancient herding peoples in Mongolia tells a very different story of their lifeways and organization. I review recent archaeological research in Mongolia beginning with the earliest adoption of herd animals and ending with the rise of the first nomadic state. During this time span of more than 3000 years, archaeology has documented sophisticated cultures, advanced technologies, and experiments with many kinds of political formations. These early precedents produced the organizational foundations that underwrote the subsequent empires of Mongolia.

Iron technology and medieval nomadic communities of East Mongolia

Numerous iron objects from the medieval sites in Mongolia were metallographically examined for a comparative study intending to probe indigenous and foreign impacts on the establishment of local iron tradition. The artifact assemblage includes iron and cast iron objects recovered during the recent Mongol-American joint expedition to sites in the eastern part of Mongolia. Cast iron objects, dominating the assemblage, were mostly in the form of small fragments or square bars, which would be of little value if they were to be used for casting. However, their greatly varying microstructures reveal evidence of various small-scale steelmaking processes involving cast iron. This observation suggests that most of them were prepared as a practical means to procure steel, a highly valued commodity particularly among nomadic communities. In contrast, other iron objects with microstructures characteristic of inferior bloomery products constituted only a minor part of the assemblage. We discuss the results of our analysis from a comparative perspective and propose that this unique ironworking tradition discovered in eastern Mongolia reflects the distinctive geographical and sociopolitical background of the nomadic groups and periods concerned.

The Late and Final Bronze Age Cultures of Mongolia, 1400–700 BC

While a great deal of scholarship has been dedicated to the Late Bronze Age cultures of Inner Asia generally the site types, material patterns, and ancient lifeways of Mongolia during this time period are still little known. In terms of understanding organizational changes in Inner Asia, however, Mongolia is a critical region. This chapter provides an overview of major sites and material patterns of the Late and Final Bronze Age archaeological record from Mongolia. I pay particular attention to issues of subsistence and mobility, monumentality and social differentiation, and the development of metallurgical and transport technologies.

Steppe Cores, Sedentary Peripheries, and the Statecraft of Empire

This final chapter highlights the outcomes and broader importance of this reassessment of formative Inner Asian politics. The political traditions of Inner Asia and China represented very different approaches to organizing a state. These differences in political organization, combined with intensive interaction and competition, produced synthesized versions of statecraft which I argue were essential to the development of later imperial states such as the Mongolian empire. In conclusion, I bring forward in time my arguments for pastoral lifeways, mobility, and spatial politics in order to assess contemporary Mongolia’s integration within the globalizing world.

Voices from the Steppe

This chapter introduces the problem of studying the nomadic states of Inner Asia and specifically the Xiongnu state of the third century BC. Nomadic peoples in general have not been portrayed with much veracity in the historical record and ethnographic accounts, although detailed, mostly describe the conditions of mobile herders during the mid- to late twentieth century in the context of modern nation states. archaeology offers one way of retrieving an indigenous record of the past lifeways of nomadic peoples and is a primary source of data on state formation among steppe nomads. An archaeological study of the Xiongnu state and its Bronze and Early Iron Age antecedents presents a valuable comparative perspective for understanding mainstream topics in anthropology including political transformations, changes in complexity, and inter-regional interaction.

The Heartland of Inner Asia: Mongolia and Steppe Pastoral Nomadism

The Mongolian economy is still reliant on pastoral nomadism for food, materials, and export products such as cashmere. Chapter four situates the research questions of this book in the world of the eastern steppe and the pastoral nomadic peoples that inhabit Inner Asia today. Following a brief description of Inner Asian geography and environments, I discuss the significant results of Simukov’s research on Mongolian mobility patterns during the early twentieth century. I then follow with an overview of recent ethnography at the two study areas of Egiin Gol and Baga Gazaryn Chuluu where modern mobile herding is the dominant local lifeway.