The Properties of Agriculture-Related Objects in Arid Regions in Northwest Mongolia and the Tyva Border Areas

Abstract

Long-term studies allowed the author to assign the arid areas of traditional livestock farming in Central Asia to regions of agriculture extensively developed in the past. It is well known that in Central Mongolia there are multiple traces of sedentary agricultural people, for instance, the settlement cities of the Early Medieval Period. The Uvs Nuur Basin area covered by bare shifting sands and the valley of its main stream known as the Tes-Khem River, located in Northwest Mongolia, were not previously regarded as regions recognized for ancient agriculture. Nevertheless, the author’s surveys found the traces of an authentic ancient civilization based on agriculture within the indicated area. A wide range of irrigation systems, traces of ancient settlements and cities, and the specific character of ancient agricultural landscapes would clearly suggest conducting a comprehensive study of the ancient history and the anthropogenic impact on the environments in this region. Certain agriculture-related objects, whose properties are of great interest for understanding the history of human civilization in the Uvs Nuur basin, the Tes-Khem River valley, and Central Asia, are considered in this article. The study is based on the decryption of satellite images (Google.Earth, Infokart, and Syssoft), landscape observations, the geological, geographical, archeological, and historical methods, toponymy, and complex soil surveys. Palegeographic features are shown based on the analyses of carpological remains. The objects of the complex system research are the agricultural settlements and the irrigation systems across the upper Tes-Khem River valley (Mongolia) confined to young tectonic-surface rupture zones and Cenozoic basaltoid evolution areas at the absolute elevation of approximately 1700 m and the settlement in its lower-course landscape, consisting of clay-wall structures unaffected by later aonthropogenic impacts (Mongolia). The survey of land sites in the Lake Shara-Nuur area (the Uvs Nuur Basin, Tyva) confined to the lowland peatlands and the peat soils is quite informative. Wheat caryopses in similar peat soils on the territory of neighboring Mongolia were previously found within a survey. A strong anthropogenic impact on the environment (deforestation and uses of agricultural and irrigated landscapes as pastures were followed by overgrazing) caused soil degradation, a groundwater level decline, landscape desertification, and terminal agricultural decline. The complex system of research into the ancient agriculture developed by the author lays the foundations for landscape archaeology of arid regions in Central Asia.