Abstract
Lavishly decorated wagons excavated from royal Xiongnu burials are generally regarded as tribute items from China offered to Xiongnu elites, symbolizing important political and economic interactions between the Xiongnu state (209 BC–155 AD) and the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). This theory views such vehicles as having no relation to indigenous Xiongnu craftsmanship. Furthermore, specialized products delivered to the northern nomadic peoples from the Han state are often cited in support of the notion of Xiongnu dependency on foreign states for technological and political development. Expecting to find evidence of China’s traditional iron and bronze technology, we examined a number of key metallic components of these wagons excavated from the royal Xiongnu burial at Golmod 2 in central Mongolia, radiocarbon dated to 109 BC–AD 75. Surprisingly, the iron metallurgy in question was based primarily on the bloomery process while low tin bronze and arsenical copper alloys dominated the pertinent bronze production. These respective technological traditions are typical of Xiongnu manufacture but significantly different from traditional Han metallurgy. We interpret this evidence as suggesting the need for a more balanced evaluation of foreign influence on the rise and development of the Xiongnu state.
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Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the kind support from the people of Ulaanbaatar University who showed unusual hospitality to one of the authors (JSP) when he visited Ulaanbaatar with his wife to acquire samples for examination. Dr. William Honeychurch is gratefully acknowledged for his invaluable advice on the theoretical parts of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (NRF-2013R1A1A2059128).
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Park, JS., Erdenebaatar, D. & Eregzen, G. The implication of the metallurgical traditions associated with Chinese style wagons from the royal Xiongnu tomb at Golmod 2 in Mongolia. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 1535–1546 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0476-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0476-7