Archaeology, Society and Environment: A Collage from Mongolia (original) (raw)

Abstract

Extensive archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in northern-central Mongolia has identified a pattern of habitation in the Bronze and Iron Ages that seems broadly similar to that of today and zooarchaeological data and stable isotope analysis of horse teeth and lake cores suggest that the corresponding climate also compares favourably with that of today. This apparent stability and consistency masks more subtle adaptations in the way that the human population of the region adapted to its environment. Ethnoarchaeological and zooarchaeological studies indicate a system of subsistence focused on the seasonal exploitation of pastures and resources in the Bronze Age, with large monuments of that period at the centre of the seasonal migration paths. Many of these Bronze Age seasonal habitation sites are occupied today and, also, in the Iron Age. At that time though, the monumental focus of the region switches to the periphery and one area of the existing areas of habitation becomes exploited more intensively. From the end of the Iron Age, however, there are scant traces of occupation on the sites until the present day but there are archaeological indicators of habitation on the opposite edge of the region from the Iron Age monumental sites. Stable isotope analysis and regional palynological studies suggest that this shift in the human ecology of the region may coincide with a change in the climate and, thus represent adaptation to differing resource availability. The research presented here then, presents a picture of a region in which changes in subsistence strategy have happened at least twice as a result of (or, at least, coincident with) local and regional climate change. At the same time, changes to the social dynamics of the population and to the corresponding strategies of resource use also occurred at least once within the same environmental constraints.

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