Economic diversification supported the growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires
| Autor: | Ricardo J. Fernandes, Alicia R. Ventresca Miller, Bryan Kristopher Miller, Richard W. Hagan, Erdene Myagmar, Madeleine Bleasdale, Shevan Wilkin, Robert N. Spengler, Jana Zech, Patrick Roberts, Sodnom Ulziibayar, Nicole Boivin, William Timothy Treal Taylor |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Stable isotope analysis Population dynamics Steppe media_common.quotation_subject Pastoralism lcsh:Medicine Subsistence economy Diversification (marketing strategy) 01 natural sciences Article Prehistory 0601 history and archaeology lcsh:Science 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Isotope analysis media_common 2. Zero hunger geography Multidisciplinary geography.geographical_feature_category 060102 archaeology lcsh:R Empire 06 humanities and the arts Systematic testing Archaeology Ethnology lcsh:Q |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | Populations in Mongolia from the late second millennium B.C.E. through the Mongol Empire are traditionally assumed, by archaeologists and historians, to have maintained a highly specialized horse-facilitated form of mobile pastoralism. Until recently, a dearth of direct evidence for prehistoric human diet and subsistence economies in Mongolia has rendered systematic testing of this view impossible. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of human bone collagen, and stable carbon isotope analysis of human enamel bioapatite, from 137 well-dated ancient Mongolian individuals spanning the period c. 4400 B.C.E. to 1300 C.E. Our results demonstrate an increase in consumption of C4 plants beginning at c. 800 B.C.E., almost certainly indicative of millet consumption, an interpretation supported by archaeological evidence. The escalating scale of millet consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe over time, and an expansion of isotopic niche widths, indicate that historic Mongolian empires were supported by a diversification of economic strategies rather than uniform, specialized pastoralism. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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