Bronze Age Economic Transitions in Western Mongolia

Summary

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 field sites in western Mongolia with potential to answer important archaeological questions about this important period in Eurasian prehistory. The first site is a high elevation ice field site which was apparently used as an Argali sheep hunting site during and after the Bronze Age. The site holds the remains of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Argali sheep and other large game animals such as elk and ibex. Additionally many artifacts of hunting gear have been recovered including “scare sticks,” wooden arrows, and bone and metal arrowheads, some still hafted to their arrowshaft. Excavations at a second site, a dry cave, have revealed a multi-milennial year history of foodways in western Mongolia and appear to capture the transition from a mostly hunter-gatherer way of life to horse-mounted pastoralism. Findings from these two sites have incredible potential to broaden our understanding of horse domestication and the transition to nomadic pastoralism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41680.0