Between Nomad and Sedentary Cultures: New Perspectives
in Inner Asian Archaeology
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
June 13, 2013, Rabin 3001
Supported by
Abstracts:
Panel A: Interactions among Nomad, Semi-Nomad and Sedentary Societies
During the Bronze and Iron Age:
Gideon Shelach, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Xiaoheishigou (小黑石沟): What can we learn from one grave on metallurgy and
the interaction between nomads, semi-nomads and sedentarists during the
beginning of the first millennium BCE
Grave no. 1 of Xiaoheishegou (located near Ningcheng city, in the eastern part of
Inner Mongolia) is the singular richest grave associated with the so-called Upper
Xiajiadian culture and one of the richest graves ever to be discovered in the northern
frontier zone of China. Dated to the 9th or 8th century BCE, it contained more than one
thousand artifacts, including no less than 500 bronze artifacts. More important than
the sheer amount of bronze artifacts is their diversity and points of reference. While
some of the bronze ornaments are comparable to those found in many Upper
Xiajiadian graves, other artifacts, such as knifes with animal motifs, are similar to
those found throughout the steppe area (including Mongolia and central Asia). Some
of the bronze vessels found inside grave no. of Xiaoheishigou are clearly of Chinese
(i.e. Zhou) origins while other are unique to this grave. Not only the bronze artifacts
speak for a wide range of interactions but casting molds, also found inside the grave,
raise the issue of production and dissemination of bronze artifacts. The paper will
attempt to disentangle the different threads of interaction that are related to the
Xiaoheishigou discovery and examine them in the context of early first millennium
BCE cultural makeup of Central Asia, Mongolia, the northern Frontiers of China and
China proper.
Bryan K. Miller, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Between the Steppe and the Silk Roads: Globalization and Socialization at the
Periphery of Xiongnu Empire
Recent investigations of cemeteries of the Xiongnu empire in the Mongolian Altai
have elucidated the participation of both regional and local elites in long-distance
interregional networks of interaction as well as intraregional networks of sociocultural integration. More importantly, these investigations have provided evidence
that communities outside of the core territories, and individuals outside of the
uppermost echelon, participated in large-scale economic and social networks to a
much greater degree than previously understood. By employing models of
globalization and socialization as concurrent, rather than sequential, processes, we
may demonstrate the ways in which various scales and manners of connectivity
overlapped and were integrated into strategies of political cohesion.
Chen Bo , The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
A New Development of the Sedentary Society in China: A Perspective on the
City System Established in the Han Empire (206 BC—221 AD)
When the Xiongnu Empire was dominating the steppe, the Han Empire (206BC--221AD), its southern neighbor, accomplished for the first time in Chinese history the
ideal of Great Unification This achievement was realized by occupying “All under
Heaven” (天下) and, more importantly, implementing new unifying institutions. One
of the most significant new institutions was the establishment of a nationwide city
system launched since 201 BCE. This city system signifies that the sedentary society
in ancient China moved into a new stage, i.e. the numerous settlements located in an
unprecedentedly large realm were integrated for the first time. In order to reveal the
characteristics of this new development, I conducted a research on the Han cities and
city system. My study identifies patterns of city distributions and uses a GIS
framework for analyzing the city-environment relations. The research revealed that
considerations of food production, transportation, political ideology, and military
deployment affected the characteristics of the city system. The paper reviews these
considerations and analyzes how the Han city system dramatically changed the
balance between nomad and sedentary societies in East Asia.
Panel B: The Archaeology of Chinggis Khan: The Mongol Empire in
Comparative Perspective
Jan Bemmann, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Urbanization and Centrality in Nomadic Empires
Two key concepts to analyze nomadic empires in Inner Asia - urbanization and
centrality- are, besides agriculture, the main aspects to be analyzed if we want to
achieve a better understanding of the rise and fall of nomadic empires. All three
aspects are normally not associated with the typical nomadic way of life, but
urbanization and centrality could also give us an idea on how the respective empires
tried to control the space/area of their dominion. The talk will show some examples of
our present state of knowledge and compare the archaeological remains of the
empires, emphasizing the example of the Mongol Empire.
Enkhtur Altangerel, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
The Progress of Middle Age Archaeology in Mongolia
The paper reviews the main recent discoveries, sites and projects in the archaeology
of Mongolia's "Middle Ages", from the Turkic period (6th-8th centuries), through the
Uiguhr empire (744-840), the Kitan Liao period (10th-12th centuries) and up to the
Mongol Empire (12th-14th centuries). These various new developments, mostly
carried out by international teams (from Holland, Japan, Russia, Germany, China,
Korea and the USA) suggest that the study of the archarology of Mongolia's Middle
Ages is now entering into a new stage.
for summary see:
http://www.eacenter.huji.ac.il/uploaded/fck/Enkhtur Altangerel-summary.docx
Nikolay N. Kradin, The Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Vladivostok
Urbanization in the Liao and Mongol Empires: A Comparative Analysis
The urbanization processes in Mongolia and East Baikal during the periods of the
nomadic empires of Liao (907-1125) and Mongol-Yuan (1206-1368) are addressed in
this paper. The Kitans built large cities with gorgeous temples and palaces to house
the imperial court and the emperor's officials. There were about fifty known Kitan
towns. In 2004-2012, the fortress settlements and towns of the Liao Empire on the
territory of Mongolia were surveyed. Block structure of the town’s layout was found
in this horizon, and the presence of deported Bohai people was discovered. The
Kitans have also raised a great wall for protection against early Mongols (745 km).
Along the wall, paired fortresses - round and square - were located with intervals of
40-50 km. During the Mongolian period, the model of urbanization have changed.
Excavations of the palace country-seats of Khirkhira, Kondui, and Alestui and the
burial ground of Okoshki in the East Baikal area have begun. The excavations of
these towns show that their population was international. The Mongols quite soon
after the establishment of their empire felt the deficit of trained specialists in various
trades. Moreover, they understood even sooner that a qualified specialist was as
important a resource as the cattle or the material goods. By means of forced
relocation of a large mass of people, or through co-opting a vast number of
adventurers, profiteers and gentlemen of fortune, the Mongols set up the conditions
for an unprecedented intercultural exchange and integration of cultures, religions and
civilizations. An example of this multicultural interaction is Kharkhorin - the Capital
of the Mongol Empire.
Amy Hessl, West Virginia University USA
Pluvials, Droughts, Energetics, and the Mongol Empire
Amy E Hessl1, Neil Pederson2, Baatarbileg Nachin3, Oyunsanaa Byambasuren4
1. Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United
States.
2. Tree Ring Laboratory of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia
University, Palisades, NY, United States.
3. Forestry, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
4. Global Fire Monitoring Center, University of Freiburg, Germany
ABSTRACT: The environmental context of the Mongol Empire, the largest
contiguous land empire the world has ever known, is poorly described. At its peak in
the late 13th century, the empire influenced areas from the Hungary to southern Asia
and Persia. Powered by domesticated herbivores, the Mongol Empire grew at the
expense of agriculturalists in Eastern Europe, Persia, and China. What environmental
factors contributed to the rise of the Mongols? What factors influenced the
disintegration of the empire by 1300 CE? Until now, little high resolution
environmental data have been available to address these questions.
We use tree-ring records of past temperature and precipitation to illuminate the role of
energy and water in the evolution of the Mongol Empire. The study of energetics has
long been applied to biological and ecological systems but has only recently become a
theme in understanding modern coupled natural and human systems. Because water
and energy are tightly linked in human and natural systems, studying their synergies
and interactions make it possible to integrate knowledge across disciplines and human
history, yielding important lessons for modern societies. We focus on the role of
energy and water in the trajectory of an empire, including its rise, development, and
demise. Our research is focused on the Orkhon Valley, seat of the Mongol Empire,
where recent paleoenvironmental and archeological discoveries allow high-resolution
reconstructions of past human and environmental conditions for the first time.
Our tree-ring reconstruction of hydroclimate, from 949-2011 CE, indicates that the
period 1208-1226 CE, during the expansion of the Mongols, is one of the longest and
most consistent pluvials in our millennium long record. Inferred temperature from a
nearby millennium-long tree ring record indicates warm conditions beginning in the
early 1200's and ending with a plunge into cold temperatures in 1260. Abrupt cooling
in central Mongolia at this time is consistent with a well-documented volcanic
eruption that caused massive crop damage and famine throughout much of Europe
and Asia. In Mongol history, this abrupt cooling also coincides with the move of the
capital from Central Mongolia (Kharkhorin, aka Karakorum) to China (Beijing). In
combination, these tree-ring records of water and temperature suggest that 1) the rise
of the Mongol Empire occurred during an unusually prolonged period warm and wet
climate and 2) the transformation of the Empire occurred following a plunge into cold
and drier conditions in Central Mongolia.
As part of a recently funded National Science Foundation project, we will also be
using data from historic documents, ecological modeling, and lake sediments to
investigate how the expansion and contraction of the empire was related to moisture
and temperature variability. Our tree ring record from central Mongolia extends from
90 BCE to 2011 CE, but is poorly replicated prior to about 200 CE. In future work,
we will sample additional lava flows in central Mongolia to add site replication and
greater temporal depth. This effort could be further enhanced with archeological
samples from prior to 200 CE. Our long record could also be used for dating wooden
archeological samples from about 200 CE to present.
Concluding Panel: Comparative View from Western Asia:
Gideon Avni, Israel Antiquities Authority
The ’Far West’ Perspective: The Archaeology of Nomad-Sedentary Interactions
in the Near East during a Period of Change - 6th-11th Centuries CE
Anatoly Khazanov's article "Mohammad and Jenghiz Khan Compared", published
twenty years ago in 1993, provides one of the very few attempts of a comparison,
based on an anthropological approach, between the Muslim and Mongol expansions.
While Khazanov focused on the "religious factor in world empire building", this
presentation takes a "bottom up" approach based on archaeological findings, to
evaluate the roles of nomad and sedentary societies in the process of political, cultural
and religious change in the Near East during the second half of the first millennium.
The process of change, as reflected in hundreds of surveyed and excavated sites in the
Levant, raises many questions about the nomads’ part in the crystallization of the
Muslim empire. The notion of nomads as the movers and shakers of the new religious
and political power is challenged by archaeological and epigraphic material which
indicates the existence in central and northern Arabia of developed and multiresourced societies, supported by an economy based on agriculture, herdsman
husbandry, mining and industry.
This updated picture of pre-Islamic societies and their contacts with the
Mediterranean and the Near East empires — Byzantium and Persia, shed light on
some interesting issues concerning the interaction between desert and steppe societies
and their neighboring empires. Looking toward Central Asia and China from a Near
Eastern perspective, contributes a new dimension for comparative analysis, focused
on the archaeological evidence as a major proxy.
The workshop is supported by the Humboldt Foundation with the participation of The
Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies and the ERC project Mobility, Empire and
Cross Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia.