Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia

DOCUMENT Citation Only Taylor Hermes.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Afanasievo culture in the Altai Mountains (ca. 3300–2800 BCE) has long captured our attention as the first pastoralists to spread to Inner Asia. Known almost exclusively through osteological remains and material culture from mortuary contexts, settlement data have remained scarce for characterizing the subsistence...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Isaac Hart. William Taylor. Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav. Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although the late Holocene saw tremendous changes in foodways across the eastern Eurasian steppe, poor preservation of organic and faunal remains make it challenging to trace important changes like the introduction of pastoralism during the Bronze Age and beyond. Here we present preliminary results from two archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zhuldyz Tashmanbetova. Paula Doumani Dupuy. Galymzhan Kiyasbek. Reed Coil. Aidyn Zhuniskhanov.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The period prior to the emergence of agriculture and pastoralism is one of the most understudied and least deciphered time periods in Eurasian steppe archaeology. A shortage of stratified or well-preserved early Holocene campsites means that our knowledge of this period heavily relies on lithic assemblages not always with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Eklund. Jargalan Burentogtokh. William Gardner.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For mobile pastoralists, monuments are places of permanence and stability in a landscape inhabited and perceived through movement. It is within these monumental spaces that dispersed peoples gather as a community, and through secular and ritual activities, organize and reaffirm social bonds and institutions, and maintain...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Denis Sharapov.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Due to the heavy influence of sixteenth- to nineteenth-century ethnography, many researchers still consider the Late Bronze Age (LBA) (2100–1300 BC) populations of the Trans-Ural steppe/forest-steppe to be nomadic pastoralists—a situation where most or all of human population is involved in periodic movements between...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aspen Greaves. Jargalan Burentogtokh. Jang-Sik Park. William Gardner.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two models are employed to explain iron objects in assemblages from nomadic peoples of Mongolia. One argument posits that pastoralists imported Chinese iron objects, and when they practiced metallurgy, used methods learned from Chinese craftsmen. Another model, notably argued for by Jang-Sik Park, suggests that nomads...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Asa Cameron. Christina Carolus. Bukhchuluun Dashzeveg.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the appearance of monumental traditions in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1000 BC) through the emergence of the Xiongnu state (ca. 250 BC–150 AD), populations of the semiarid Gobi-steppe of Mongolia underwent a series of dramatic transitions. These changing dynamics altered how people interacted with and moved within...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jack Berner. Denis Sharapov. Andrei Logvin. Irina Shevnina.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Bronze Age (2100–1400 BCE) of the Ural-Tobol interfluve saw the emergence and decline of proto-urban fortified settlements occupied by pastoralists and metallurgists. These sites have been interpreted as centers for military defense, ritual-political nodes, strategic centers to protect natural resources or avoid...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arlene Rosen. Jennifer Farquhar. James Eighmey. Sarantuya Dalantai. Yadmaa Tserendagva.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological surveys in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia have begun to reveal new information about the landscape distribution and seasonal movements of mobile populations in this semi-arid steppe environment on the eve of the late Holocene adoption of pastoralism. However, until recently we’ve had little information about...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Fitzhugh. Richard Kortum.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Petroglyph research and archaeology provide different avenues into the past. Commonly viewed as distinct disciplines, they have looked ill-suited to integration (Jacobson 2023). This specific task, however, was a focus of a National Endowment for the Humanities-supported field project conducted by East Tennessee State...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Kortum. William Fitzhugh.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ongoing Khoton Lake project documents several hundred archaeological sites and environmental conditions spanning the past 8,000 years. Forty excavated sites ranging from pre-Neolithic to the Bronze, Iron, Turkic, and medieval periods occur as dwellings, ritual, mortuary, ceremonial, and special-purpose places. In many...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen Pearson.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Though the well-preserved textile finds from Noin Ula are some of the best known archaeological objects from this period in Mongolia, textiles and leather objects from Xiongnu circular graves are comparatively understudied. In part this is due to differences in preservation; circular graves are shallower than terrace tombs...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Hrivnyak. Jacqueline Eng. Erdene Myagmar.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the vast Eurasian steppes, early populations utilized subsistence strategies that were uniquely developed in response to local environmental settings, and recent bioarchaeological work has underscored this connection. This study explores the relationship between dietary intake and dental pathology, focusing on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gideon Shelach-Lavi.

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We report on the work done in Eastern Mongolia on walls, linear barriers contracted between the tenth and thirteenth centuries AD. Our project includes remote sensing, surveys, and excavations.