Modeling Late Prehistoric Pastoral Adaptations and Interregional Interaction in Northern Mongolia

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Bryan Hanks, Julia K. Clark will investigate pastoral adaptations, inter-regional interaction and settlement patterns diachronically in northern Mongolia's Darkhad Depression. This will be done to elucidate the ways in which this area contributed to broader social, political and economic change in the late prehistoric period. Using a combination of survey and excavation as well as ethnoarchaeological interviews the project will generate empirical data to address the following objectives: 1) correlation between current and late prehistoric/early historic land use practices, 2) correlations between prehistoric ritual monuments and areas of human activity, 3) inter-regional interaction, 4) nature of subsistence practices and their change over time, 5) diachronic shifts in habitation location, organization and/or intensity associated with large scale political formations (Xiongnu). Numerous models have been proposed to explain the transition from an agricultural economy to an agro-pastoral or fully pastoral economy. However, there are far fewer explanatory models for the incorporation or adoption of pastoral strategies into existing hunting, gathering and/or fishing economies. Archaeologists in Mongolia have long relied upon ritual monuments to inform their interpretations of prehistoric behavior. In the early historic period, ritual monuments and written documents from ancient China have supplied the bulk of the information on this period. Only recently have some archaeologists turned their attention toward habitation sites in central Mongolia. Recent archaeological research in the Darkhad Depression has investigated the ritual landscape, and has concluded that the monuments in this region, while not particularly large, are the oldest of their kind known in Mongolia. If these monuments were underwritten by a new pastoral economy and hierarchical social organization, as many have suggested, this could be an important region in understanding the introduction of pastoralism into Mongolia. The intellectual merit of this research is twofold. First, this research aims to use comparative case studies both within and beyond Mongolia in order to model early pastoralist adaptations, early social complexity, and diachronic regional demographic shifts. Secondly, this project will speak to more regionally specific issues such as the impact of both the adoption of pastoralism in regions that had long supported hunter-gatherer-fisher economies as well as the emergence of the Xiongnu Empire upon peripheral regions. Broader impacts include: the operation of long-term, collaborative ties with international colleagues, training opportunities for archaeology students (Mongolian, American and foreign), and the dissemination of the results in journals and volumes.