Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:31:35.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Francis Allard  and
Diimaajav Erdenebaatar
Francis Allard
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. (Email: allard@iup.edu)
Diimaajav Erdenebaatar
Affiliation:
Institute of History, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia (Email: ediimaajav@yahoo.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The khirigsuurs are large and complex ritual sites that are major features in the landscape of Bronze Age Mongolia and represent considerable investment. The authors present recently investigated examples of this important class of monument, describe their attributes and offer preliminary deductions of the kind of society they imply – and whether it was truly nomadic.

Keywords

Bronze AgeMongolianomadismritual monuments
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 547 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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. 2002. A Xiongnu cemetery found in Mongolia. Antiquity 76: 637–8.Google Scholar
Allard, F., Erdenebaatar, D. & Houle, J.L.. Forthcoming. Recent archaeological research in the Khanuy River valley, Central Mongolia, in Tsetskhladze, G.R. (ed.). Beyond the steppe and the sown: integrating local and global visions. Proceedings of the University of Chicago Eurasian Archaeology Conference. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Anthony, D.W. 1998. The opening of the Eurasian steppe at 2000 BCE, in Mair, V.H. (ed.). The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age peoples of eastern Central Asia, vol 1: Archaeology, migration and nomadism, linguistics: 94–113. Washington: Institute for the Study of Man Inc.Google Scholar
Anthony, D.W. & Brown, D.R.. 2000. Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian steppes: diet, ritual and riding. Antiquity 74: 75–86.Google Scholar
Askarov, A., Volkov, V. & Ser-Odjav, N.. 1992. Pastoral and nomadic tribes at the beginning of the First Millennium, B.C., in Dani, A.H. & Masson, V.M. (ed.). History of civilization of Central Asia, vol 1: The dawn of civilization: earliest times to 700 BC: 459–72. Paris: Unesco Publishing.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1992. Prey into hunter: the politics of religious experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1993. Altering the earth. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Cribb, R. 1991. Nomads in archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Derevyanko, A.P. & Dorj, D.. 1992. Neolithic tribes in northern parts of Central Asia, in Dani, A.H. & Masson, V.M. (ed.). History of civilization of Central Asia, vol 1: The dawn of civilization: earliest times to 700 BC: 169–89. Paris: Unesco Publishing.Google Scholar
Erdenebaatar, D. 2002. The four sided grave and khirigsuur cultures of Mongolia. UlaanBaatar: Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History (in Mongolian).Google Scholar
Erdenebaatar, D. 2004. Burial materials related to the history of the Bronze Age in the territory of Mongolia, in Linduff, K.M. (ed.). Metallurgy in ancient eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
Irons, W. 1979. Political stratification among pastoral nomads, in L’équipe écologie et anthropologie des sociétés pastorales (ed.). Pastoral production and society: 361–74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ishjamts, N. 1994. Nomads in eastern Central Asia, in Harmatta, J., Puri, B.N. & Etemadi, G.F. (ed.). History of civilizations of Central Asia, vol 2: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 BC to AD 250: 151–69. Paris: Unesco Publishing.Google Scholar
Jagchid, S. & Hyer, P.. 1979. Mongolia’s culture and society. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Khazanov, A.M. 1994. Nomads and the outside world, 2nd edn. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Koryakova, L. 2000. Some notes about the material culture of Eurasian nomads, in Davis-Kimball, J., Murphy, E.M., Koryakova, L. & Yablonsky, L.T. (ed.). Kurgans, ritual sites, and settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron age (BAR International Series 890): 13–8. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. 2000. The Eurasian steppes: the transition from early urbanism to Nomadism, in Davis-Kimball, J., Murphy, E.M., Koryakova, L. & Yablonsky, L.T. (ed.). Kurgans, ritual sites, and settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron age (BAR International Series 890): 118–25. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. 2001. Andronovo, in Peregrine, P.N. & Ember, M. (ed.). Encyclopedia of prehistory, vol 4: Europe: 1–21. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. 2003. Origins of pastoralism on the Eurasian steppes, in Levine, M., Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.). Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse: 203–32. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Levine, M. 1999. The origins of horse husbandry on the Eurasian steppe, in Levine, M., Rassamakin, Y., Kislenko, A. & Tatarintseva, N. (ed.). Late prehistoric exploitation of the Eurasian steppe: 5–58. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Mallory, J.P. 1989. In search of the Indo-Europeans. Language, archaeology and myth. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Mallory, J.P. & Adams, D.Q. (ed.). 1997. Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.Google Scholar
Olsen, S.L. 2003. The exploitation of the horse at Botai, Kazakhstan, in Levine, M., Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.). Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse: 83–103. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Sarangerel, . 2000. Riding windhorses. Rochester: Destiny Books.Google Scholar
Shishlina, N. 2001. Eurasian steppe nomad, in Peregrine, P.N. & Ember, M. (ed.). Encyclopedia of prehistory, vol 4: Europe: 124–38. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.Google Scholar
Shishlina, N. 2003. Yamnaya culture pastoral exploitation: a local sequence, in Levine, M., Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.). Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse: 353–65. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Volkov, V.V. 1995. Early nomads of Mongolia, in Davis-Kimball, J., Bashilov, V.A. & Yablonsky, L.T. (ed.). Nomads of the Eurasian steppes in the Early Iron Age: 319–33. Berkeley, CA: Zinat Press.Google Scholar