Bioarchaeology of the Mongol Empire

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mongol Empire of the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries was a time of great interconnectedness, characterized by the widespread movement of people, goods, technologies, and practices across Eurasia. Our knowledge of this period comes from a variety of sources, including texts, a rich array of material culture, and archaeological investigations of settlements and cemeteries. While popular interest in finding the tomb of Chinggis Khan has garnered significant attention, it is the systematic excavation and analysis of mortuary contexts and the individuals interred within over the past several decades that has provided a pathway for reconstructing the diverse experiences of people living within the Mongol Empire. In this presentation, we will outline the questions that are guiding current bioarchaeological research in Mongolia and, drawing on examples from recent excavations, detail the contributions of this approach to our understanding of this important period. ***This presentation will include images of human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53603