Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:20:06.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Medieval long-wall construction on the Mongolian Steppe during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries AD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2020

Gideon Shelach-Lavi ,
Ido Wachtel ,
Dan Golan ,
Otgonjargal Batzorig ,
Chunag Amartuvshin ,
Ronnie Ellenblum  and
William Honeychurch
Gideon Shelach-Lavi*
Affiliation:
Department of Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Ido Wachtel
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dan Golan
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher
Otgonjargal Batzorig
Affiliation:
Oyu Tolgoi Mines, Inc., Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Chunag Amartuvshin
Affiliation:
Institute of History and Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Ronnie Ellenblum
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
William Honeychurch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The long walls of China and the Eurasian Steppe are considered to have functioned as either defensive structures against aggressive nomadic tribes, or as elements to control the movement of local nomadic groups following imperialist expansion. This article focuses on a hitherto understudied 737km-long medieval wall running from northern China into north-eastern Mongolia. Built by either the Liao or Jin Dynasties, the wall features numerous auxiliary structures that hint at its function. In research relevant to interpreting other Eurasian and global wall-building episodes, the authors employ extensive archaeological survey and GIS analysis to understand better the reasons behind the wall's construction, as well as its various possible functions.

Keywords

ChinaMongoliaLiaoJinlong wallspastoralism
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 375 , June 2020 , pp. 724 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baasan, T. 2006. Chingisiin Dalan gezh iuu ve? Ulaanbaatar: Admon.Google Scholar
Barfield, T.J. 1989. The perilous frontier: nomadic empires and China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Biran, M. 2007. Chinggis Khan. Oxford: One World.Google Scholar
Burentogtokh, J. 2017. Pastoralists, communities and monumentality during the Mongolian Bronze Age. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Chichagov, V.P., Chichagova, O.A., Cherkinskii, A.E. & Avirmid, B.. 1995. Novye dannye o vozraste ‘Vala Chingiskhana’. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk, Seriia geograficheskaia 1: 97–106.Google Scholar
Di Cosmo, N. 2002. Ancient China and its enemies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511511967CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellenblum, R. 2012. The collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean: climate change and the decline of the East, 950–1072. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139151054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzhugh, W., Rossabi, M. & Honeychurch, W. (ed.). 2013. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (2nd edition). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Franke, H. 2008. The Chin Dynasty, in Franke, H. & Twitchett, D. (ed.) The Cambridge history of China, volume 6: alien regimes and border states, 907–1368: 215–320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521243315.005Google Scholar
Franke, H. & Twitchett, D. (ed.). 2008. The Cambridge history of China, volume 6: alien regimes and border states, 907–1368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521243315Google Scholar
Janz, L., Odsuren, D. & Bukhchuluun, D.. 2017. Transitions in palaeoecology and technology: hunter-gatherers and early herders in the Gobi Desert. Journal of World Prehistory 30: 1–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-016-9100-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jing, A. 2006. Zhongguo Changcheng Shi. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Jing, A. & Miao, T.. 2008. Liao Jin bianhao yu changcheng. Dongbei Shidi 6: 18–31.Google Scholar
Kirillov, I. & Kovychev, E.. 2002. Kidanskie drevnosti Priargun'ia. Arkheologiia Dalnauka: 245–52.Google Scholar
Kiselev, S. 1958. Drevnie goroda Zabaikal'ia. Sovetskaia Arkheologiia 4: 107–19.Google Scholar
Kovalev, A. & Erdenebaatar, D.. 2010. About Chinggis Khaan's wall in Mongolia. Nomadic Studies 17: 28–33.Google Scholar
Lattimore, O. 1937. Origins of the Great Wall of China: a frontier concept in theory and practice. Geographical Review 27: 529–49. https://doi.org/10.2307/209853CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lattimore, O. 1963. The geography of Chingis Khan. The Geographical Journal 129: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2307/1794892CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Y., Shelach-Lavi, G. & Ellenblum, R.. 2019. Short-term climatic catastrophes and the collapse of the Liao Dynasty (907–1125): the textual evidence. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 49: 591–610. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_01339CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunkov, A., Kharinskii, A.V., Kradin, N.N. & Kovychev, E.V.. 2011. The frontier fortification of the Liao Empire in eastern Transbaikalia. The Silk Road 9: 104–21.Google Scholar
Ma, Y. 2013. Jin jiehao beixian’ zhi yiyi. The Chinese Great Wall Museum Journal: 37–43.Google Scholar
Makino, K. 2007. Typological and chronological analysis of Khitan-type pottery in the Middle Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Unpublished MA dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Park, J., Honeychurch, W. & Chunag, A.. 2019a. The technological and chronological implication of 14C concentrations in carbon samples extracted from Mongolian cast iron artifacts. Radiocarbon 61: 831–43. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2019.4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, J., Honeychurch, W. & Chunag, A. 2019b. Novel micro-scale steel-making from molten cast iron practised in medieval nomadic communities of east Mongolia. Archaeometry 61: 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12413CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pines, Y. 2018. The earliest ‘Great Wall’? The Long Wall of Qi revisited. Journal of the American Oriental Society 138: 743–62. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.138.4.0743CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ping, Y. 2008. Jin Changcheng de kaogu faxian yu yanjiu, in Sun, W. & Wang, Y. (ed.) Jin Changcheng yanjiu lunji: 88–166. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Rao, M.P., Davi, N.K., D'Arrigo, R.D., Skees, J., Nachin, B., Leland, C., Lyon, B., Wang, S.-Y. & Byambasuren, O.. 2015. Dzuds, droughts, and livestock mortality in Mongolia. Environmental Research Letters 10: 074012. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/7/074012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R. 2011. Herbivorous livestock dung: formation, taphonomy, methods for identification, and archaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 205–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelach-Lavi, G., Teng, M., Goldsmith, Y., Wachtel, I., Ovadia, A., Wan, X. & Marder, O.. 2016. Human adaptation and socio-economic change in northeast China: results of the Fuxin regional survey. Journal of Field Archaeology 41: 467–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2016.1194688CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiraishi, N. & Tsogtbaatar, B.. 2009. A preliminary report on the Japanese-Mongolian joint archaeological excavation at the Avraga site: the Great Ordu of Chinggis Khan, in Bemmann, J. & Pohl, E. (ed.) Current archaeological research in Mongolia (Bonn Contributions to Asian Archaeology 4): 549–62. Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.Google Scholar
Standen, N. 2007. Unbounded loyalty: frontier crossings in Liao China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, T. 2016. Investigating the presumed causal links between drought and dzud in Mongolia. Natural Hazards: 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2848-9Google Scholar
Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S.K., Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V. & Midgley, P.M.. 2013. Climate change 2013: the physical science basis: contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Available at: http://www.climatechange2013.org/report (accessed: 12 March 2020).Google Scholar
Sun, W. 2010. Jin Changcheng yanjiu gaishu. Zhongguo bianjiang shidi yanjiu 20(1):139–47.Google Scholar
Sun, W. & Wang, Y. (ed.). 2008. Jin Changcheng yanjiu lunji. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Tan, Q. (ed.). 1996. Zhongguo lishi dituji. Beijing: Zhongguo ditu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Waldron, A. 1990. The Great Wall of China: from history to myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, G. 1921. Jin jie haokao. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Wittfogel, K.A. & Feng, C.. 1949. History of Chinese society: Liao. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Shelach-Lavi et al. supplementary material

Shelach-Lavi et al. supplementary material

Download Shelach-Lavi et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 203.6 KB