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Sept 22, 2024 3:53:14 GMT -5
Post by hun on Sept 22, 2024 3:53:14 GMT -5
An elite grave of the pre-Mongol period, from Dornod Province, Mongolia, part 5
4. Discussion
The 12th century CE was a time of political turmoil across the Mongolian steppe. What little documentary information we have comes from a number of historical sources that are frustratingly contradictory and obscure, but also quite fascinating when systematically compared (Atwood, 2021;Biran and Kim, 2023;Munkh-Erdene, 2011). What the historical record does offer us begins with an intriguing portrait of two centuries of Kitan hegemony over parts of the eastern steppe lands followed by the rise in Manchuria of the Jurchen Jin state (1115–1234 CE). Interactions between these imperial polities and neighboring steppe groups included resource and tax extraction, shifting alliances, cooption, and numerous military engagements (
Munkh-Erdene, 2016). Both Kitan and Jurchen Jin expansion was checked in the west, north, and northwest by groups know by the term Zubu, the exact meaning of which is debated but was clearly associated with the non-Kitan peoples of the Mongolian plateau (Liu, 2018).
The Khar Nuur burial speaks to these turbulent histories. Granted, our study focuses on a single mortuary context with limited excavation, but our results provide some insight to an understanding of Mongolian history during this roughly 80-year period between the Kitan demise (1125 CE) and Chinggis Khan's enthronement (1206 CE). The Khar Nuur burial is located in an eastern region that was inhabited by groups participating in the 12th century Mongol emergence and, prior to that, part of the Kitan and Jurchen Jin frontier zone. As a result, the region was likely embroiled in the political struggles described by the histories, involving the Tatar-Mongol conflicts, residual influence by Kitan loyalists, and Jurchen Jin struggles to stabilize its northern frontier (Atwood, 2021). A comparative perspective from mortuary archaeology helps to contextualize the broader traditions that the Khar Nuur burial practices took part in. Such comparative analysis can also provide an assessment of the affiliations and interactions engaged in by the local Khar Nuur community. Contemporaneous mortuary records available for comparison include the pre-Mongol and early Mongol burials found across the eastern and central steppe of Mongolia (11th to initial 13th c. CE) and Jurchen Jin burials from Manchuria and parts of northern China.
Jurchen Jin mortuary archaeology has consistently emphasized the most impressive burial contexts to the exclusion of the full range of practices in use during this period. These burial contexts generally have substantial underground structures comprised of several brick-built rooms and were probably associated with the uppermost elite leadership (Zhao, 2010). However, small-scale pit graves are also known, some with stone slabs but others have wooden frames or coffins, similar to the Khar Nuur burial. Graves with internal wooden structures or coffins have been found in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Shanxi provinces. They are typically 2 m in length and are relatively shallow (Zhao, 2010:24–25). Good examples are graves M2 and M3 from the Huangjiaweizi site in Zhenlai County, Jilin province. Each burial contained a single skeleton placed in a supine position with relatively few items, mainly consisting of small iron and bronze artifacts (Jilin, 1988). Only a small number of such graves have been excavated and published in China, but none of these smaller graves contain gold or silver artifacts, bronze vessels, or silks which are commonly found in the much larger Jin graves of elite individuals.
The contemporaneous mortuary archaeology of Mongolia demonstrates different patterns from those within the Jurchen Jin region. Only 25 or so burials have been reliably dated by radiocarbon or numismatics to the late Kitan through initial Mongol period and these contexts show variability, especially in burial chamber arrangement, depth of burial pits, and faunal assemblages, but generally have a common underlying structure (Erdenebat, 2009). In contrast to the Jurchen Jin mortuary record which shows significant differences in the degree of architectural investment, the Mongolian steppe record argues for the presence of portable and non-local wealth items as a primary mode of mortuary differentiation (Batdalai, 2024). This should be qualified by two important facts: first, many mortuary contexts have evidence for disruption by cultural and natural processes and, second, novel burial formats are being discovered on a fairly regular basis in Mongolia and previously unknown burials formats of the 12th century may yet be identified.
The Khar Nuur burial fits well within the contemporaneous corpus of burials known from Mongolia. General characteristics seen in a number of burials dated to this time period include interment within a burial pit, use of a wooden coffin, a northerly orientation, supine positioning, and a mixture of personal decorations, containers or vessels, as well as everyday use items (
Erdenebat, 2009; Shiraishi, 2002:19–37). Notable differences seen in the Khar Nuur context include the lack of a stone-built surface feature, the absence of pottery (although the bronze and silver vessels might have fulfilled this role), and a shallow interment depth that is an outlier although some shallow burials have been documented (Erdenebat, 2010:367–368). Some of these differences might be explained by the fact that the Khar Nuur grave was dug into an extremely compact enclosure wall. However, what stands out about the Khar Nuur burial, besides its interesting location, is the rich and varied burial goods assemblage, including unique and non-local artifacts and materials.
The artifacts recovered at Khar Nuur are distinctive and such assemblages rarely occur in burials leading up to the Mongol Empire period (Batdalai, 2024). The Khar Nuur burial might best be compared to the late 12th and early 13th century cemetery at Tavan Tolgoi located about 500 km southwest of Khar Nuur in south Sukhbaatar province (Erdenebat and Turbat, 2011). Archaeologists discovered an early Mongol period cemetery with substantial pit burials containing wooden coffins and marked by impressive stone ring features on the surface. Each burial studied revealed impressive artifact assemblages including non-local woods, silk fabrics, silver vessels and cups, and numerous examples of personal decorative items made with gold, silver, and what are likely precious worked stones. These burials have been studied extensively for aDNA, diet, and chronology and are considered to be representative of the uppermost elite or royal lineage of this region not long after their integration into the rising Mongol state (Erdenebat and Turbat, 2011; Fenner et al., 2014; Lkhagvasuren et al., 2016). These burials attest to the central importance of portable wealth for marking mortuary and likely social differences in the steppe regions of this period. Similar to the slightly less opulent Khar Nuur burial, the range of materials and craft specializations seen at Tavan Tolgoi indicate external networks that drew upon non-local products and materials from China and beyond.
5. Conclusion
In light of this historical and archaeological background, the Khar Nuur burial was likely a funerary event carried out in a region experiencing a period of post-imperial destabilization. There is a good possibility that groups inhabiting the Khar Nuur area were involved in the macro-regional political struggles of the period. From the nature of this older woman's burial, she probably belonged to a prestigious lineage of some political standing and her community was on the receiving end of wealth transfers made through networks connected to the south, east, and perhaps to the west as well. As such we might understand this woman's burial and its meaning to her respective community with regard to this greater context. Such questions touch upon archaeological treatments of local identity, social memory, landscape symbolism, and, perhaps, even political theater.
One of the most intriguing aspect of this burial is its placement within the walls of a Kitan era frontier outpost and the reasons behind that choice of location. How the Khar Nuur steppe nomads perceived the abandoned Kitan fortress, its adjacent long wall, and the fairly recent history of the neighboring Kitan Empire is difficult to know, but this funerary event elicits several hypotheses that might explain the burial and its placement. A major part of Kitan frontier strategy relied on co-opting steppe groups to manage the western and northern frontiers (Tian and Wang, 2018), plausibly including the area around Khar Nuur with its section of long wall and associated fortresses. The burial of a high-status woman of advanced age at Cluster 27 could be understood as a funerary event conducted by a local steppe community within a structure they had recently manned and so understood to be part of their own history and indigenous territory. Her burial therefore may have been perceived as affirming local identity and recent social memory.
A second hypothesis is that such enclosures assumed symbolic prestige as prominent locations on the landscape and, in this case, the Kitan enclosure was used as a funerary site for a leading member of the local community to mark her status. Still another hypothesis takes into account the political competition occurring within the greater region that may have inspired steppe groups to assert their presence, strength, and declare possession of territory. Perhaps one way to do so included opulent and public funerary events in conspicuous locales intended to draw the attention of nearby groups. These three hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but could in fact be considered as a combined explanation for social and political processes taking place within a post-Kitan vacuum of political authority and control on the eastern steppe. As imperial authority diminished and nomadic steppe groups competed among themselves and with the distant Jin state, we might expect such combinations of social memory and identity assertion along with displays of elite prestige and power, all enacted during the poignant occasion of an older woman's burial ceremony. These factional and sub-regional dynamics would have gone hand-in-hand with the strategizing and warfare reported in the historical record, eventually ending in Mongol supremacy.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Amartuvshin Chunag: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Gideon Shelach-Lavi: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. William Honeychurch: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Batdalai Byambatseren: Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Orit Shamir: Visualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Uuriintuya Munkhtur: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Daniela Wolin: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Shuzhi Wang: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Nofar Shamir: Formal analysis, Data curation.
Source:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352226724000382?via%3Dihub
4. Discussion
The 12th century CE was a time of political turmoil across the Mongolian steppe. What little documentary information we have comes from a number of historical sources that are frustratingly contradictory and obscure, but also quite fascinating when systematically compared (Atwood, 2021;Biran and Kim, 2023;Munkh-Erdene, 2011). What the historical record does offer us begins with an intriguing portrait of two centuries of Kitan hegemony over parts of the eastern steppe lands followed by the rise in Manchuria of the Jurchen Jin state (1115–1234 CE). Interactions between these imperial polities and neighboring steppe groups included resource and tax extraction, shifting alliances, cooption, and numerous military engagements (
Munkh-Erdene, 2016). Both Kitan and Jurchen Jin expansion was checked in the west, north, and northwest by groups know by the term Zubu, the exact meaning of which is debated but was clearly associated with the non-Kitan peoples of the Mongolian plateau (Liu, 2018).
The Khar Nuur burial speaks to these turbulent histories. Granted, our study focuses on a single mortuary context with limited excavation, but our results provide some insight to an understanding of Mongolian history during this roughly 80-year period between the Kitan demise (1125 CE) and Chinggis Khan's enthronement (1206 CE). The Khar Nuur burial is located in an eastern region that was inhabited by groups participating in the 12th century Mongol emergence and, prior to that, part of the Kitan and Jurchen Jin frontier zone. As a result, the region was likely embroiled in the political struggles described by the histories, involving the Tatar-Mongol conflicts, residual influence by Kitan loyalists, and Jurchen Jin struggles to stabilize its northern frontier (Atwood, 2021). A comparative perspective from mortuary archaeology helps to contextualize the broader traditions that the Khar Nuur burial practices took part in. Such comparative analysis can also provide an assessment of the affiliations and interactions engaged in by the local Khar Nuur community. Contemporaneous mortuary records available for comparison include the pre-Mongol and early Mongol burials found across the eastern and central steppe of Mongolia (11th to initial 13th c. CE) and Jurchen Jin burials from Manchuria and parts of northern China.
Jurchen Jin mortuary archaeology has consistently emphasized the most impressive burial contexts to the exclusion of the full range of practices in use during this period. These burial contexts generally have substantial underground structures comprised of several brick-built rooms and were probably associated with the uppermost elite leadership (Zhao, 2010). However, small-scale pit graves are also known, some with stone slabs but others have wooden frames or coffins, similar to the Khar Nuur burial. Graves with internal wooden structures or coffins have been found in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Shanxi provinces. They are typically 2 m in length and are relatively shallow (Zhao, 2010:24–25). Good examples are graves M2 and M3 from the Huangjiaweizi site in Zhenlai County, Jilin province. Each burial contained a single skeleton placed in a supine position with relatively few items, mainly consisting of small iron and bronze artifacts (Jilin, 1988). Only a small number of such graves have been excavated and published in China, but none of these smaller graves contain gold or silver artifacts, bronze vessels, or silks which are commonly found in the much larger Jin graves of elite individuals.
The contemporaneous mortuary archaeology of Mongolia demonstrates different patterns from those within the Jurchen Jin region. Only 25 or so burials have been reliably dated by radiocarbon or numismatics to the late Kitan through initial Mongol period and these contexts show variability, especially in burial chamber arrangement, depth of burial pits, and faunal assemblages, but generally have a common underlying structure (Erdenebat, 2009). In contrast to the Jurchen Jin mortuary record which shows significant differences in the degree of architectural investment, the Mongolian steppe record argues for the presence of portable and non-local wealth items as a primary mode of mortuary differentiation (Batdalai, 2024). This should be qualified by two important facts: first, many mortuary contexts have evidence for disruption by cultural and natural processes and, second, novel burial formats are being discovered on a fairly regular basis in Mongolia and previously unknown burials formats of the 12th century may yet be identified.
The Khar Nuur burial fits well within the contemporaneous corpus of burials known from Mongolia. General characteristics seen in a number of burials dated to this time period include interment within a burial pit, use of a wooden coffin, a northerly orientation, supine positioning, and a mixture of personal decorations, containers or vessels, as well as everyday use items (
Erdenebat, 2009; Shiraishi, 2002:19–37). Notable differences seen in the Khar Nuur context include the lack of a stone-built surface feature, the absence of pottery (although the bronze and silver vessels might have fulfilled this role), and a shallow interment depth that is an outlier although some shallow burials have been documented (Erdenebat, 2010:367–368). Some of these differences might be explained by the fact that the Khar Nuur grave was dug into an extremely compact enclosure wall. However, what stands out about the Khar Nuur burial, besides its interesting location, is the rich and varied burial goods assemblage, including unique and non-local artifacts and materials.
The artifacts recovered at Khar Nuur are distinctive and such assemblages rarely occur in burials leading up to the Mongol Empire period (Batdalai, 2024). The Khar Nuur burial might best be compared to the late 12th and early 13th century cemetery at Tavan Tolgoi located about 500 km southwest of Khar Nuur in south Sukhbaatar province (Erdenebat and Turbat, 2011). Archaeologists discovered an early Mongol period cemetery with substantial pit burials containing wooden coffins and marked by impressive stone ring features on the surface. Each burial studied revealed impressive artifact assemblages including non-local woods, silk fabrics, silver vessels and cups, and numerous examples of personal decorative items made with gold, silver, and what are likely precious worked stones. These burials have been studied extensively for aDNA, diet, and chronology and are considered to be representative of the uppermost elite or royal lineage of this region not long after their integration into the rising Mongol state (Erdenebat and Turbat, 2011; Fenner et al., 2014; Lkhagvasuren et al., 2016). These burials attest to the central importance of portable wealth for marking mortuary and likely social differences in the steppe regions of this period. Similar to the slightly less opulent Khar Nuur burial, the range of materials and craft specializations seen at Tavan Tolgoi indicate external networks that drew upon non-local products and materials from China and beyond.
5. Conclusion
In light of this historical and archaeological background, the Khar Nuur burial was likely a funerary event carried out in a region experiencing a period of post-imperial destabilization. There is a good possibility that groups inhabiting the Khar Nuur area were involved in the macro-regional political struggles of the period. From the nature of this older woman's burial, she probably belonged to a prestigious lineage of some political standing and her community was on the receiving end of wealth transfers made through networks connected to the south, east, and perhaps to the west as well. As such we might understand this woman's burial and its meaning to her respective community with regard to this greater context. Such questions touch upon archaeological treatments of local identity, social memory, landscape symbolism, and, perhaps, even political theater.
One of the most intriguing aspect of this burial is its placement within the walls of a Kitan era frontier outpost and the reasons behind that choice of location. How the Khar Nuur steppe nomads perceived the abandoned Kitan fortress, its adjacent long wall, and the fairly recent history of the neighboring Kitan Empire is difficult to know, but this funerary event elicits several hypotheses that might explain the burial and its placement. A major part of Kitan frontier strategy relied on co-opting steppe groups to manage the western and northern frontiers (Tian and Wang, 2018), plausibly including the area around Khar Nuur with its section of long wall and associated fortresses. The burial of a high-status woman of advanced age at Cluster 27 could be understood as a funerary event conducted by a local steppe community within a structure they had recently manned and so understood to be part of their own history and indigenous territory. Her burial therefore may have been perceived as affirming local identity and recent social memory.
A second hypothesis is that such enclosures assumed symbolic prestige as prominent locations on the landscape and, in this case, the Kitan enclosure was used as a funerary site for a leading member of the local community to mark her status. Still another hypothesis takes into account the political competition occurring within the greater region that may have inspired steppe groups to assert their presence, strength, and declare possession of territory. Perhaps one way to do so included opulent and public funerary events in conspicuous locales intended to draw the attention of nearby groups. These three hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but could in fact be considered as a combined explanation for social and political processes taking place within a post-Kitan vacuum of political authority and control on the eastern steppe. As imperial authority diminished and nomadic steppe groups competed among themselves and with the distant Jin state, we might expect such combinations of social memory and identity assertion along with displays of elite prestige and power, all enacted during the poignant occasion of an older woman's burial ceremony. These factional and sub-regional dynamics would have gone hand-in-hand with the strategizing and warfare reported in the historical record, eventually ending in Mongol supremacy.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Amartuvshin Chunag: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Gideon Shelach-Lavi: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. William Honeychurch: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Batdalai Byambatseren: Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Orit Shamir: Visualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Uuriintuya Munkhtur: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Daniela Wolin: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Shuzhi Wang: Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation. Nofar Shamir: Formal analysis, Data curation.
Source:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352226724000382?via%3Dihub
