|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
This monograph uses the latest archaeological results from Mongolia
and the surrounding areas of Inner Asia to propose a novel
understanding of nomadic statehood, political economy, and the
nature of interaction with ancient China. In contrast to the common
view of the Eurasian steppe as a dependent periphery of Old World
centers, this work views Inner Asia as a locus of enormous
influence on neighboring civilizations, primarily through the
development and transmission of diverse organizational models,
technologies, and socio-political traditions. This work explores
the spatial management of political relationships within the
pastoral nomadic setting during the first millennium BCE and argues
that a culture of mobility, horse-based transport, and
long-distance networking promoted a unique variant of statehood.
Although states of the eastern steppe were geographically large and
hierarchical, these polities also relied on techniques of
distributed authority, multiple centers, flexible structures, and
ceremonialism to accommodate a largely mobile and dispersed
populace. This expertise in "spatial politics" set the stage early
on for the expansionistic success of later Asian empires under the
Mongols and Manchus. Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire
brings a distinctly anthropological treatment to the prehistory of
Mongolia and is the first major work to explore key issues in the
archaeology of eastern Eurasia using a comparative framework. The
monograph adds significantly to anthropological theory on
interaction between states and outlying regions, the emergence of
secondary complexity, and the growth of imperial traditions. Based
on this approach, the window of Inner Asian prehistory offers a
novel opportunity to investigate the varied ways that complex
societies grow and the processes articulating adjacent societies in
networks of mutual transformation.
This monograph uses the latest archaeological results from Mongolia
and the surrounding areas of Inner Asia to propose a novel
understanding of nomadic statehood, political economy, and the
nature of interaction with ancient China. In contrast to the common
view of the Eurasian steppe as a dependent periphery of Old World
centers, this work views Inner Asia as a locus of enormous
influence on neighboring civilizations, primarily through the
development and transmission of diverse organizational models,
technologies, and socio-political traditions. This work explores
the spatial management of political relationships within the
pastoral nomadic setting during the first millennium BCE and argues
that a culture of mobility, horse-based transport, and
long-distance networking promoted a unique variant of statehood.
Although states of the eastern steppe were geographically large and
hierarchical, these polities also relied on techniques of
distributed authority, multiple centers, flexible structures, and
ceremonialism to accommodate a largely mobile and dispersed
populace. This expertise in "spatial politics" set the stage early
on for the expansionistic success of later Asian empires under the
Mongols and Manchus. Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire
brings a distinctly anthropological treatment to the prehistory of
Mongolia and is the first major work to explore key issues in the
archaeology of eastern Eurasia using a comparative framework. The
monograph adds significantly to anthropological theory on
interaction between states and outlying regions, the emergence of
secondary complexity, and the growth of imperial traditions. Based
on this approach, the window of Inner Asian prehistory offers a
novel opportunity to investigate the varied ways that complex
societies grow and the processes articulating adjacent societies in
networks of mutual transformation.
The first published archaeological survey of the Egiin Gol valley
of Mongolia, spanning the last 30,000 years and centering on the
integration of local sites and landscape  This is the first
complete intensive regional archaeological survey report for
Mongolia to be published. It presents the experiences and results
of groundbreaking fieldwork that detected ephemeral steppe
settlement sites, extensive monumental constructions, and changing
land use that span the last 30,000 years, from the late Upper
Paleolithic to the nineteenth century. Extensive illustrations of
monuments and ceramics provide comparative data and local detail in
an integrated landscape- and settlement-based approach to the
prehistory and history of eastern Eurasia. Â The authors
examine the place of Egiin Gol in the Xiongnu and Early Turkic
polities and reveal the historical landscape of Buddhist
monasteries and farms, highlighting this region of northern
Mongolia as a historical breadbasket. Throughout, the focus is on
the local and immediate archaeology of the Egiin Gol valley, the
impetus for change and continuity, and how sites and features
worked together to create past cultural landscapes. Â This
volume is aimed at Eurasian and Mongolian specialists,
archaeologists in general, landscape archaeologists, historians of
East Asia and Eurasia, environmental historians, and agrarian
studies scholars interested in the history and study of
pastoralism, including development and rangeland management.
 Distributed for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
|
|