Reconstruction of Holocene Vegetation, Climate, and Land Use Changes Based on Pollen Analysis of Cores From Lake Khargal Mongolia

Barna, Joshua; Fowell, Sarah J.; Bigelow, Nancy H.; Heninger, Camille; Orkhonselenge, Alexander; Gardner, William; Burentogtokh, Jargalan; Honeychurch, William

doi:10.1130/abs/2022am-381322

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“…In contrast, the regional perspective available from Egiin Gol, in conjunction with faunal, archaeobotanical, isotopic, and lake sediment analyses, demonstrates the integration of mobile herding with the new productive emphasis on agriculture. Cores from nearby Khargal Lake reveal the coeval appearance of pollens associated with agriculture but also a notable uptick in Sporormiella sp., a fungal spore that is found on the dung of domestic livestock [74]. From a settlement perspective, survey results show fewer upper tributary valley habitations in areas where protection from winter conditions would have been optimal; however, these winter sites are indeed present.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Even though local climate regimes have been variable, this has not imposed major changes in geomorphological regimes [72,73]. Lake core analysis at Khargal Lake (75 km to the northwest) indicates that the Xiongnu period local climate began to ameliorate around 250-200 BC and by the turn of the millennium became more like the contemporary climate experienced over the past few decades [74]. This reinforces observations by archaeobotanists that the same vegetation types and arboreal species seen today at Egiin Gol also appear as macroand microbotanical remains in burials and habitation sites of the Xiongnu period [75,76].…”

Section: The Egiin Gol Valley Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multiresource Pastoralism, Dynamic Foodways, and Ancient Statecraft in Mongolia

Honeychurch,

Amartuvshin,

Wright

et al. 2023

Land

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Pastoral nomadic regional confederations, states, and empires have assumed a prominent place in the histories of the Eurasian steppe zone; however, anthropological theory devoted to understanding these political systems is still debated and relatively inchoate. A major question concerns the techniques of political integration that might have brought together dispersed mobile herders under the aegis of these complex, large-scale steppe polities. The first such polity in East Asia, the Xiongnu state (c. 250 BC–150 AD) of Mongolia, has been characterized as a polity built by mobile herders, but in fact the steppe populations of this period followed quite diverse lifeways. Most notably, the establishment of more permanent settlements for craft and agricultural production has complicated the typical narrative of the pastoral nomadic eastern steppe. This study considers ways to conceptualize these interesting variations in lifeway during the Xiongnu period and raises the question of how they might have promoted a novel Xiongnu political order. We analyze transformations within the Egiin Gol valley of northern Mongolia to better understand the organizational, productive, and settlement dynamics and present the first regional landscape perspective on the local transformations incurred by the creation of a Xiongnu agricultural hub. To understand these radical changes with respect to the long-term pastoral nomadic and hunting-gathering traditions of the valley’s inhabitants, Salzman’s flexibility-based model of multiresource pastoralism is of great use. Egiin Gol valley transformations indeed attest to a scale of political economy far beyond the bounds of this local area and suggest an innovative role for indigenous farming in Eurasian steppe polity building.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: The Egiin Gol Valley Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%