Before the Khans: The Archaeology of the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia

A prevailing view in anthropological and archaeological theory has been that nomadic societies are incapable of forming complex political polities that endure in the longue durée. Here, Dr. Erik Johannesson challenges this view by presenting the results of over a decade of archaeological research on the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia (209 BC-200 AD). According to Chinese texts, the Xiongnu Empire was formed when the charismatic leader Motun unified the nomadic steppe tribes of Mongolia and Siberia into a powerful confederacy that quickly emerged as a regional enemy of the Han Dynasty. The formation of this polity is identified archaeologically with sweeping changes in material culture, technology, and funerary customs. Drawing on fieldwork from Baga Gazaryn Chuluu in the north Gobi and Shombuuzin Belchir in the Altai foothills, this presentation will explore the archaeology of the Xiongnu Empire and how political centralization manifests in mortuary practice. Adopting a diachronic perspective, Xiongnu mortuary monuments will be discussed vis-à-vis preceding funerary traditions to illustrate that Xiongnu tombs represent a conspicuous inversion of previous customs. A scalar landscape approach will then be used to demonstrate how mortuary ideology was manipulated by the Xiongnu elite to incorporate local lineages of leadership into a broader Xiongnu political economy. Finally, the reopening of tombs in antiquity and osteological evidence of violent trauma will be discussed to illustrate that mortuary contexts formed important loci of Xiongnu state-craft, and arenas in which political ideologies were both imposed and contested. For more information see arkycalgary.com.

Location:

Earth Sciences 162 (Tom Oliver Room)

Speaker:

Erik Johannesson (erikgjoh@gmail.com)

More information at http://www.ucalgary.ca/events/calendar/khans-archaeology-xiongnu-empire-mongolia