Karabalgasun and Karakorum

Nomad Cities as Means of Communnication between Nomad Elites and the Multicultural Subjects

Bibliographic Data

ID9341291
AuthorsHendrik Rohland (0000-0003-2135-8602, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Rom, corresponding author), Christina Franken (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Rom), Ulambayar Erdenebat (0000-0003-0867-3691, National University of Mongolia), Tumurochir Batbayar (0000-0001-5051-9749, Mongolian Academy of Sciences)
Year2023
Volume21
Issue541
Pages11-50
Publication date2023-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Mongolica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2074-1014 • E-ISSN: 2959-5630
PublisherNational University of Mongolia (PUBLISHER • MN)
DOI10.22353/am.202301.02
OpenAlexW4391368379
LanguageEN
References cited11

This paper introduces the phenomenon of urbanism in the context of the medieval empires of the steppe from a historical archaeological perspective. Several of the Inner Asian empires that emerged from predominantly nomadic societies developed some degree of urbanization. However, it seems inappropriate to regard this as a transition from nomadic to sedentary societies. On the contrary, we argue that the cities of these polities represent a specific type of urbanism that could only exist in this form in a nomad environment and served to facilitate interactions between the nomad elites and their often-sedentary subjects, allies and enemies. In this paper we present some of the archaeological evidence from two of these sites: Karabalgasun, the Uyghur capital from around 745 until 840 and Karakorum, which was allegedly founded 1220 by Genghis Khan and came to be known as capital of the Mongol Empire. In the comparison of the archaeological remains and the representation of these sites in the written sources of different cultures lie the hints that provide an insight into the purposes these cities served for their builders

Economic geography · Geography · Multiculturalism · Political science · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Law · Linguistics and language evolution

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