From Campsite to Capital – Mobility Patterns and Urbanism in Inner Asia

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From Campsite to Capital – Mobility Patterns and Urbanism in Inner Asia," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

With the proposed symposium we would like to explore the relations between pastoralist groups and their various approaches to habitation and mobility through time. Especially complex, large agglomerations of people were long thought to be outside the realm of pastoralism, although urban sites such as the Uighur capital Kharbalgasun prove this assumption to be wrong. The past twenty years saw a rise in research in Inner Asia, especially surveys helped to revise overcome ideas about pastoralist lifestyles. The papers of this symposium present pastoralist societies beyond hackneyed clichés.