Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-jrqft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T08:09:23.848Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

High-precision dating of ceremonial activity around a large ritual complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2019

Antoine Zazzo ,
Sébastien Lepetz ,
Jérôme Magail  and
Jamyian-Ombo Gantulga
Antoine Zazzo*
Affiliation:
UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, 55 Rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France
Sébastien Lepetz
Affiliation:
UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne Universités, CP 56, 55 Rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France
Jérôme Magail
Affiliation:
Musée d'Anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco, 56 Bis, Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, MC 98 000, Monaco
Jamyian-Ombo Gantulga
Affiliation:
Institute of History and Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Jucov Street-77, Ulaanbaatar-13343, Mongolia
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: zazzo@mnhn.fr)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The deer stone and khirgisuur (DSK) monumental complexes are iconic elements of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1200–700 BC) ceremonial mortuary landscape of the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. A precise chronological framework of these monuments is crucial for understanding their ritual and funerary roles, as well as their wider social functions. The authors establish the first high-precision chronology for a large DSK complex in central Mongolia using 100 new radiocarbon dates. Their chronology suggests that the construction of this DSK complex extended over approximately 50 years, perhaps requiring only locally available human and animal resources, without the need to draw on those of wider regional networks.

Keywords

MongoliaLate Bronze Agedeer stonekhirgisuurchronologyBayesian modelling
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 367 , February 2019 , pp. 80 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allard, F. & Erdenebaatar, D.. 2005. Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia. Antiquity 79: 547–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00114498Google Scholar
Amartuvshin, C. 2007. Archaeology and cultural resource management in Mongolia 2003–2007: a report from the preservation sector. Ulaanbaatar: Mongolian Academy of Science, Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H. 1990. Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17: 431–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(90)90007-RGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, A. 2007. Bayesian buildings: an introduction for the numerically challenged. Vernacular Architecture 38: 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1179/174962907X248074Google Scholar
Bocherens, H., Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Lange-Badre, B., Vandermeersch, B., Borel, J.P. & Bellon, G.. 1991. Isotopic biogeochemistry (13C,15N) of fossil vertebrate collagen: application to the study of a past food web including Neandertal man. Journal of Human Evolution 20: 481–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(91)90021-MGoogle Scholar
Brock, F., Higham, T. & Ramsey, C.B.. 2010. Pre-screening techniques for identification of samples suitable for radiocarbon dating of poorly preserved bones. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 855–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.11.015Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51: 1023–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200034093Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. & Lee, S.. 2013. Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon 55: 720–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200057878Google Scholar
Chatters, J.C., Brown, J.W., Hackenberger, S., McCutcheon, P. & Adler, J.. 2017. Calcined bone as a reliable medium for radiocarbon dating: a test using paired North American samples. American Antiquity 82: 593–608. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2017.27Google Scholar
DeNiro, M.J. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317: 806–809. https://doi.org/10.1038/317806a0Google Scholar
Erdenebaatar, D. 2004. Burial materials related to the history of the Bronze Age on the territory of Mongolia, in Linduff, K.M. (ed.) Metallurgy in ancient Eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River: 189–223. Lewiston (NY): Edwin Mellen.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2009a. The Mongolian deer stone-khirigsuur complex: dating and organisation of a Late Bronze Age menagerie, in Bemmann, J., Parzinger, H., Pohl, E. & Tseveendorzh, D. (ed.) Current archaeological research in Mongolia: 183–99. Bonn: Vor- und Fruhgeschichtliche Archeologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2009b. Pre-Scythian ceremonialism, deer stone art, and cultural intensification in northern Mongolia, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals and mobility: 378–412. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2017. Mongolian deer stones, European menhirs, and Canadian Arctic Inuksuit: collective memory and the function of northern monument traditions. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 24: 149–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-017-9328-0Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. & Bayarsaikhan, J.. 2009. American-Mongolian Deer Stone Project: field report 2009. Arctic Studies Center. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Frohlich, B., Amgalantugs, T., Littleton, J., Hunt, D., Frohlich, T. & Goler, K.. 2008. Bronze Age burial mounds (khirigsuurs) in the Khovsgol aimag, Mongolia: a reconstruction of biological and social histories. Ulaanbataar: Mongolia.Google Scholar
Gantulga, J.-O. 2015. Recherches sur les monuments funéraires des nomades de l'Age du bronze et du début de l'Age du fer en Mongolie. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Bourgogne.Google Scholar
Higham, T.F.G., Jacobi, R.M. & Ramsey, C.B.. 2006. AMS radiocarbon dating of ancient bone using ultrafiltration. Radiocarbon 48: 179–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200066388Google Scholar
Honeychurch, W., Wright, J. & Amartuvshin, C.. 2009. Re-writing monumental landscapes as Inner Asian political process, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Monuments, metals, and mobility: trajectories of complexity in the late prehistory of the Eurasian Steppe: 330–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511605376.019Google Scholar
Houle, J.-L. 2009. Socially integrative facilities and the emergence of societal complexity on the Mongolian Steppe, in Hanks, B.K. & Linduff, K.M. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals and mobility: 358–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511605376.020Google Scholar
Houle, J.-L. 2010. Emergent complexity on the Mongolian Steppe: mobility, territoriality, and the development of early nomadic polities. Pittsburgh (PA): University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Houle, J.-L. 2017. Long-term occupation and seasonal mobility in Mongolia: a comparative study of two mobile pastoralist communities, in Weber, K.O., Hite, E., Khatchadourian, L. & Smith, A.T. (ed.) Fitful histories and unruly publics: rethinking temporality and community in Eurasian archaeology: 155–74. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Jacobson-Tepfer, E. 2001. Cultural riddles: stylized deer and deer stones of the Mongolian Altai. Bulletin of the Asia Institute 15: 31–56.Google Scholar
Lanting, J.N., Aerts-Bijma, A.T. & Van Der Plicht, J.. 2001. Dating of cremated bones. Radiocarbon 43(2A): 249–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200038078Google Scholar
Magail, J. 2008. Tsatsiin Ereg, site majeur du début du Ier millénaire en Mongolie. Bulletin d'anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco 48: 107–21.Google Scholar
Magail, J. 2015. Les stèles ornées de Mongolie dites ‘pierres à cerfs’, de la fin de l’âge du Bronze, in Rodriguez, G. & Marchesi, H. (ed.) Statues-menhirs et pierres levées du Néolithique à aujourd'hui: 89–101. Saint-Pons-de-Thomières: Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Languedoc-Roussillon Groupe Archéologique du Saint-Ponais.Google Scholar
Makarewicz, C.A., Winter-Schuh, C., Byerly, H. & Houle, J.-L.. 2018. Isotopic evidence for ceremonial provisioning of Late Bronze Age khirigsuurs with horses from diverse geographic locales. Quaternary International 476: 70–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.02.030Google Scholar
Marchina, C., Lepetz, S., Magail, J. & Salicis, C.. 2017. The skull on the hill. Anthropological and osteological study of horse skull repositories among contemporary herders in Mongolia (Arkhangai province). Anthropozoologica 53: 171–83. https://doi.org/10.5252/az2017n2a3Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J. et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50 000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947Google Scholar
Taylor, W. 2017. Horse demography and use in Bronze Age Mongolia. Quaternary International 436(A): 270–82.Google Scholar
Taylor, W., Jargalan, B., Lowry, K., Clark, J., Tuvshinjargal, T. & Bayarsaikhan, J.. 2017. A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe. Journal of Archaeological Science 81: 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.03.006Google Scholar
van Klinken, G.J. 1999. Bone collagen quality indicators for palaeodietary and radiocarbon measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 687–95. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1998.0385Google Scholar
Volkov, V.V. 2002. Olennye Kamni Mongolii (2nd edition). Moscow: Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Wright, J. 2014. Landscapes of inequality? A critique of monumental hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age. Asian Perspectives 51: 139–63. https://doi.org/10.1353/asi.2014.0008Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Zazzo et al. supplementary material

Zazzo et al. supplementary material 1

Download Zazzo et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 650 KB