Olon Sume Fortified Settlement and Nestorian Relics

This paper is dedicated to Nestorian antiquities from archaeological sites left by the ancient Ongut tribe. The Onguts settled north and south of the Yinshan mountain range, northeast of the Huanghe River, in what is now Inner Mongolia. In the late Middle Ages and later, the Ongut tribes integrated with the Mongols, Han Chinese and other ethnic groups, gradually forming a unique community consisting mainly of descendants of the Turks. The main component of the Ongut tribe’s ancestry were the Tatars. During the Jin-Yuan period, the Ongut tribe experienced an unprecedented economic boom, which led to rapid population growth. Around the cities founded during the Jin Dynasty, numerous settlements sprang up, traces of which have survived to this day in the form of rural settlements, fortresses, ruins of ancient cities, prefectural and county centres, and road remains. The density of these sites exceeds that of all previous periods in the region. Among these archaeological sites, the Olon Sume fortified undoubtedly occupies a special place, as it is believed to be one of the two capitals of the Ongut tribe. This key cultural heritage site is currently under national protection. The Nestorian relics discovered within and around the Olon Sume site are an important historical and cultural heritage left by the Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties. Their contents reflect the openness and receptivity of Chinese history to other cultures, which is of great significance for understanding the inclusiveness of Chinese civilisation and interpreting the exchange between Chinese and Western cultures

Civilization · Cultural heritage · Ethnic group · Human settlement · Population · Rural settlement · Settlement (finance · Tribe · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Linguistics and Cultural Studies