Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire
Archaeology, Mobility, and Culture Contact
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19929337 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William Honeychurch (Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Springer New York (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-1-4939-1815-7 |
| OpenAlex | W2505637443 |
| Open Library | OL28007386M |
| ISBN | 9781493918157 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 93 |
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 the eastern Eurasian steppe 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
Ancient history · Empire · Geography · Political science · Politics · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · Chinese history and philosophy · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Law · Anthropology · Archaeology · asia · politics and government · Regional and Cultural Studies · Regional planning · Social conditions · Social sciences
Differentiated provisioning in a mobile royal camp
Ovoo-cairns and ancient funerary mounds in the Mongolian landscape. Piling up a monumental tradition?
Reconstructing the Diet of Kůlna 1 from the Moravian Karst (Czech Republic)
Inner Asian polities and their built environment
Bridging the Divide
Archaeology of the Silk Road
N-Alkanes and their carbon isotopes (δ13C) reveal seasonal foddering and long-term corralling of pastoralist livestock in eastern Mongolia
Wetlands and grasslands
Translocal identity construction among Neolithic and Bronze Age communities in northwestern China
Dental microwear texture analysis of Homo sapiens sapiens
Collapse of a Eurasian Hybrid
The Stateless Nomads of Central Eurasia
The Languages of Christianity on the Silk Roads and the Transmission of Mediterranean Culture into Central Asia
Sasanian Iran and Its Northeastern Frontier
Sasanian Iran and the Projection of Power in Late Antique Eurasia
Central Asia in the Late Roman Mental Map, Second to Sixth Centuries
Trade and Exchanges along the Silk and Steppe Routes in Late Antique Eurasia
Followers and Leaders in Northeastern Eurasia, ca. Seventh to Tenth Centuries
Patterns of Roman Diplomacy with Iran and the Steppe Peoples
The Relations between China and the Steppe
“Charismatic” Goods
Ethnicity and Empire in the Western Eurasian Steppes
Aspects of Elite Representation among the Sixth- and Seventh-Century Türks
The Circulation of Astrological Lore and Its Political Use Between the Roman East, Sasanian Iran, Central Asia, India, and the Türks
Byzantium’s Eurasian Policy in the Age of the Türk Empire
Sogdian Merchants and Sogdian Culture on the Silk Road
How the Steppes Became Byzantine
Infrastructures of Legitimacy in Inner Asia
Epilogue
Archaeologies of Colonialism
The Overlooked Tradition of "Personal Music" and Its Place in the Evolution of Music
How, where and when authentic traditions of Jaw Harp music of Siberia and the Far East have been forming. Part 2
How, where and when authentic traditions of Jaw Harp music of Siberia and the Far East have been forming. Part 3
Before Skunḫa
Does extra-large equal extra-ordinary? The ‘Wall of Chinggis Khan’ from a multidimensional perspective
Pastoralist Mobility in Bronze Age Landscapes of Northern Kazakhstan
In search of a nomadic pastoralism for the 21st century. A transdisciplinary development of future scenarios to foster a social-ecological transformation in Mongolia
The Archaeological Study of an Inner Asian Empire
Dynamic Trajectories, Adaptive Cycles, and Complexity in Culture Change
Mongolian Deer Stones, European Menhirs, and Canadian Arctic Inuksuit
Prehistoric Mongolian Archaeology in the Early 21st Century
Alternative Complexities
Erlitou
Complexity Without Monumentality in Biblical Times
Population and Social Structure of Tasmola Culture
The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
High altitude horse use and early horse transport in eastern Eurasia
Deconstructing the Concept of the ‘Nomad’ in Central Eurasia
The Hun and Avar Empires
Heterarchy and Hierarchy in Eurasian Steppes
Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
Fringe Landscapes
Transitions in Palaeoecology and Technology
Seeking Horses
Intra- and interregional interactions contributed to the emergence of herding in the late prehistoric Upper Yellow River region (2500–1500 BCE)
A 2500-year historical ecology of agricultural production under empire in Dhiban, Jordan
The Rise and Fall of the Nomad‐Dominated Empires of Eurasia
Silent partners
The nomadic other
Mobile Domiciles of the Eurasian Steppe
Kurgan Tunnug 1—New Data on the Earliest Horizon of Scythian Material Culture
Novel Micro‐Scale Steel‐Making from Molten Cast Iron Practised in Medieval Nomadic Communities of East Mongolia
Application of Kernel Density Estimates to Lead Isotope Compositions of Bronzes from Ningxia, North‐West China
The implication of the technology and chronology reflected in the metal assemblage from the middle‐class Xiongnu burials at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, Mongolia
The Role of Tin and Arsenic in XIONGNU Bronze Technology and Their Sociopolitical Implications over Time
Pastoralism and Emergent Complex Settlement in the Middle Bronze Age, Azerbaijan
Against the Mane
Technologies and complexities as reflected in small cast iron fragments recovered from medieval sites in eastern Mongolia
Understanding early horse transport in eastern Eurasia through analysis of equine dentition
Legitimation Strategies in International Hierarchies
Exotica, Fashion and Immortality
The first excavations of bronze and iron age monuments in the middle Orkhon Valley, Central Mongolia
Micro-Scale Iron Smelting in Early Iron Age to Mongol Period Steppe Communities of North-Central Mongolia and its Implications
Discerning social interaction and cultural influence in Early Iron Age Mongolia through archaeometallurgical investigation
Carnelian beads in Mongolia
Pastoralist strategies and human mobility
The technological and social implication of the discriminated use of tin and arsenic noted in EIA copper-based objects of Central Kazakhstan
A dual technological tradition and its implications as observed in an iron assemblage from a medieval site in eastern Mongolia
Iron technology and medieval nomadic communities of East Mongolia
Multispecies pastoralism around Delgerkhaan Uul - local practices under large scale sociocultural and political shifts between 1800 BC and 200 AD
Nomadic innovation in small-scale iron acquisition inspired by and dedicated to marginal steppe environments of Mongolia
Neolithic pathways in East Asia
Margins of the centre or critical peripheries
The earliest Bronze Age culture of the south-eastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Stone lines and burnt bones
Equine cranial morphology and the identification of riding and chariotry in late Bronze Age Mongolia
Exotica as prestige technology
China and the steppe
Mixing metaphors
The honest labour of stone mounds
The Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadism
| Unique citing works | 93 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7,75 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 83 |