Crafting the Nomadic State: Isotopic Perspectives Into Pastoral Practices, Mobility, and Subsistence During the Xiongnu Period of Mongolia

Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Honeychurch, William

Abstract

This dissertation explores the intersection between subsistence systems and the development of ancient political complexity on the Mongolian steppes. It approaches this topic through comprehensive evaluation of what diachronic patterns in human and livestock diet and mobility regimes can reveal about the role of the state in incorporating disparate pastoral communities into a single nomadic polity. These dynamics are empirically explored within a case study that employs geographic information systems (GIS), radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope analysis, and stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis to chart transformations in pastoral practices, mobility, and subsistence from the Late Bronze Age through the Xiongnu Period (c.1500 BC-200 AD). This timeframe encompasses the spread of nomadic pastoralism throughout Mongolia, the adoption of horseback riding, and the rise of the Xiongnu state (c.250 BC-200 AD), the first nomadic polity in eastern Eurasia. Samples for these analyses derive from field work carried out during the Shiriin Chuluu Archaeology Project (2018-2023) in the Gobi-steppe of southeastern Mongolia. They include modern materials applied in strontium mapping (plants and Ovis aries/Capra hircus skeletal remains) and assemblages of archaeological humans and livestock remains (Ovis aries, Capra hircus, Bos taurus, Equus caballus) recovered from mortuary sites. The resulting data are presented as three separate but interrelated articles in chapter form.Chapter 2 describes the creation of a bioavailable strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isoscape for southeastern Mongolia. This includes a discussion of 87Sr/86Sr analysis in archaeology and the unique challenges that studying ancient nomadic communities presents for this methodology. These discussions are followed by an outline of this doctoral project’s isoscape research design and the associated field collection project carried out to collect modern baseline samples (plant and sheep/goat crania) from the Shiriin Chuluu micro-region and surrounding 100 km² area. 87Sr/86Sr data generated from modern samples are used to test the predictive accuracy of various interpolation methods and create multiple bioavailable strontium rasters and posterior probability surfaces. The methods testing employed in this chapter provides the empirical foundations for analyses carried out in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 focuses on the role of movement in the enigmatic political institutions of the Xiongnu state. It presents an argument that deconstructs the longstanding notion of mobility as a hindrance to political stability and statecraft (sensu Barfield 2001) and instead proposes that expanding systems of movement were crucial components of pastoral subsistence and hierarchy in this region. This hypothesis is tested through 87Sr/86Sr analysis of long term changes in local human and livestock mobility, as determined by diachronic frequency of “local” and “non-local” pastoralists and livestock present among Shiriin Chuluu populations from the Late Bronze Age through the Xiongnu Period. This analysis demonstrates increased presence of foreign-born elites and non-local animal sacrifices in association with local integration into the Xiongnu state. Patterns in human data also indicate that female patrilocal exogamy was practiced among local Xiongnu elites. These data together suggest that Xiongnu rule allowed local elites to expand long-distance social networks and territorial alliances, likely including incentives such as access to new pasture and economic crop resources. Chapter 4 further explores the idea that Xiongnu statecraft was built on a foundation of incentives that improved the daily livelihoods of local elites upon integration. These dynamics are examined locally through the diachronic reconstruction of human and livestock dietary regimes with stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope dietary analysis. These results are then compared to datasets from other Gobi-steppe sites. Human and livestock dietary patterns spanning the Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Xiongnu Period at Shiriin Chuluu and across the Gobi-steppe indicate that Xiongnu statecraft embraced the dietary wants and needs local elites by improving availability of previously existing culinary elements (e.g. millets) while simultaneously providing access to new foodstuffs (e.g. rice) and expanding pastoral resources through new sources of pasture and fodder. The endogenous political institutions, polities, and statecraft processes of nomadic pastoralists of Inner Asia remain poorly understood despite the influx of archaeological research in the last twenty years. Often cast as barbarian conquerors in historic texts, these groups developed and implemented unique scales and forms of political and social organization that defy easy classification. New insights into the dynamics of these formations constitute invaluable cross-cultural data regarding the range of social, political, and economic structures that have existed in the human past. The doctoral research presented here bridges knowledge gaps in the range of sociopolitical complexity of pastoral groups on the Mongolian steppe while broadening and strengthening this corpus across the world.

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