The Northern Hinterland of Mongolian Empire: Urban centers of Transbaikalia

Summary

In Yuan shih chronicle Hasar, the brother of Chinggis Khan, is described as having the territory of the Argun river and nearby steppe. In the new Yuan empire, after change of the capital from the Onon – Herlen to the Orkhon valley, Eastern Mongolia and Transbaikalia were transformed from heartland into hinterland. Because of previous betrayals by his family Chinggis granted Hasar only four thousand yurts. Also, a city was built in what is today the Hailar/Hulumbur area of Inner Mongolia. This site, known as Khirkhira town or the Kondui palace was excavated by S. Kiselev in 1957-1959. After, 2000 Russian scholars continued the studies of Mongolian urbanization in this area. This presentation will discuss results of those new archaeological discoveries. The excavations of three sites were studied; and it was different types of sites. Khirkhira was a real urban centre and royal residence. Kondui was an imperial palace with servicing settlements, and Alestui an out-of-town palace.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Medieval Cities in the Eurasian Steppe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15866