Horse sacrifice and butchery in Bronze Age Mongolia

Taylor, William; Fantoni, Marcello; Marchina, Charlotte; Lepetz, Sébastien; Bayarsaikhan, Jamsranjav; Houle, Jean-Luc; Pham, Victoria; Fitzhugh, William W.

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102313

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In semi‐arid Mongolia, anthropogenic activity has strongly influenced soil erosion and landscape changes since the introduction of horse‐borne mobile pastoralism ~5 cal. ka bp (Fernández‐Giménez et al, 2017; Taylor et al, 2020). Even today, large parts of the country are used by nomadic pastoralism with large herds of sheep, goats, camels, cows/yaks and horses (Upton, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The spatial distribution of sedimentary compounds and their environmental implications in surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur (Mongolian Altai)

Strobel

Struck

Zech

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lake sediments are valuable natural archives to reconstruct paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental changes which consist of inorganic and organic sediment compounds of allochthonous origin from the catchment and of autochthonous production in the lake. However, for robust paleo-reconstructions it is important to develop a better understanding about sedimentation processes, the origin of inorganic and organic sediment compounds and their distribution within the lake. In this context, modern process studies provide important insights, although environmental and anthropological changes can affect the spatial distribution of sediment compounds through time. Therefore, in this study the spatial distribution of grain size and geochemical proxies in 52 surface sediment samples from Lake Khar Nuur, a small high-altitude lake in the Mongolian Altai with a small and anthropogenically used hydrological catchment, is investigated. The results show a distinct sediment focussing in the two deep basins of the lake, which therefore act as accumulation zones. In those accumulation zones, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (N) and their isotopic composition (δ 13 C TOC , δ 15 N) as well as n-alkanes indicate that organic sediment compounds are a mixture of both allochthonous and autochthonous origin. While the recent catchment vegetation consists of grasses/herbs and the shrub Betula nana (L.) with distinct differences in their n-alkane homologue patterns, those differences are not reflected in the sediment surface samples which rather indicates that grass-derived n-alkanes become preferentially incorporated in the lake. Extensive anthropogenic activity such as grazing and housing in the southern part of the catchment causes soil erosion which is well reflected by high TOC, N and sulphur (S) contents and 15 N depleted δ 15 N values at the central southern shore, i.e. increased allochthonous sediment input by anthropogenically-induced soil erosion. Overall, the surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur origin from allochthonous and autochthonous sources and are focussed in the accumulation zones of the lake, while their distribution is both environmentally and anthropogenically driven.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The spatial distribution of sedimentary compounds and their environmental implications in surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur (Mongolian Altai)

Strobel

Struck

Zech

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that deposition of an animal’s body in different societies and periods could have expressed different intentions. [ 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses in the Early Medieval (10th–13th c.) Religious Rituals of Slavs in Polish Areas—An Archaeozoological, Archaeological and Historical Overview

Makowiecki

Chudziak

Szczepanik

et al. 2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge about horses from early medieval (10th–13th c.) Poland has been largely based on historical and archaeological data. Archaeozoological information has only been used to a limited extent. Therefore, this article aims to present the current state of knowledge on this subject, drawing on archaeozoological data from studies of horse bones. Apart from confirming earlier reflections regarding the sacred significance of the horse, additional information was obtained about specific individuals who were the subject of magical treatments. It turned out that sites with horse skeletons and skulls are few compared to the familiar presence of horse remains among kitchen waste. This contrasts with the neighbouring regions, where horses were buried more frequently among the Germans, Scandinavians and Prussians. Some new data have been obtained thanks to taphonomic analyses, which demonstrated that horse skulls of apotropaic status were not only exposed to public viewing but were also deposited under stronghold ramparts. Horses suffering from infectious diseases could also be buried under such ramparts. Considerations in the article lead to conclusions that horses were used in religious rituals as sacrificial animals, apotropaic deposits, as fortune-telling animals and cosmological figures.

show abstract

“…The use of horses and camels provided mobility and some military superiority for the nomads over the farmers of Eurasia in the preindustrial era [ 53 ]. The widespread use of ritual horse sacrifices, typical of this culture, occurred at the same time as the spread of horse riding, horse milk utilization, and a significant increase in the proportion of horse meat in the human diet in most of Central Asia [ 54 ]. The Mongolian tribes of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture interacted with the population of other regions, including remote ones (China, the Middle East, and North Asia) [ 16 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, which archaeological culture is ancestral in relation to the Xiongnu has not been identified yet [ 18 ]. What unites the cultures of the Khereksur and Deer Stone and the Xiongnu is the ritual burial of heads and hooves of horses, sheep, goats, cattle, camels, and dogs [ 54 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traces of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mongolian Horse Mitochondrial Lineages in Modern Populations

Kusliy

Vorobieva

Tishkin

et al. 2021

Genes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Mongolian horse is one of the most ancient and relatively unmanaged horse breeds. The population history of the Mongolian horse remains poorly understood due to a lack of information on ancient and modern DNA. Here, we report nearly complete mitochondrial genome data obtained from five ancient Mongolian horse samples of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture (late 2nd to 1st third of the 1st millennium BC) and one ancient horse specimen from the Xiongnu culture (1st century BC to 1st century AD) using target enrichment and high-throughput sequencing methods. Phylogenetic analysis involving ancient, historical, and modern mitogenomes of horses from Mongolia and other regions showed the presence of three mitochondrial haplogroups in the ancient Mongolian horse populations studied here and similar haplotype composition of ancient and modern horse populations of Mongolia. Our results revealed genetic continuity between the Mongolian horse populations of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture and those of the Xiongnu culture owing to the presence of related mitotypes. Besides, we report close phylogenetic relationships between haplotypes of the Khereksur and Deer Stone horses and the horses of indigenous breeds of the Middle East (Caspian and Iranian), China (Naqu, Yunnan, and Jinjiang), and Italy (Giara) as well as genetic similarity between the Xiongnu Mongolian horses and those of the most ancient breeds of the Middle East (Arabian) and Central Asia (Akhal-Teke). Despite all the migrations of the Mongolian peoples over the past 3000 years, mitochondrial haplogroup composition of Mongolian horse populations remains almost unchanged.

show abstract

Horse sacrifice and butchery in Bronze Age Mongolia

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

The spatial distribution of sedimentary compounds and their environmental implications in surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur (Mongolian Altai)

The spatial distribution of sedimentary compounds and their environmental implications in surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur (Mongolian Altai)

Horses in the Early Medieval (10th–13th c.) Religious Rituals of Slavs in Polish Areas—An Archaeozoological, Archaeological and Historical Overview

Traces of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mongolian Horse Mitochondrial Lineages in Modern Populations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About