HORSEPOWER
Interactions between China, Mongolia and the steppe 2000-0 BCE
The arrival of the horse in China;
Signs of the early transformation of China’s economy and the growth of new geopolitical relations.
Introduction by David Shukman:
In this article, based on two recent papers, Jessica Rawson, renowned authority on Chinese history, sets out the critical role of the climate governing the destiny of all early civilisations. In particular, she highlights the significance of the ancient city of Shimao, an exceptional archaeological discovery. Recent work there has revealed not only the arrival of herded animals in northern China around 2000BC but also the rise of the region’s power and influence on the later famous dynasties. This enabled and encouraged exchange between the steppe and the central plains of China, a process that ultimately led to the development of the Silk Roads along with essential exchanges of technology.
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Fig. 1. A view of the central tier of stone-faced loess platforms at the strongly fortified and protected ancient city of Shimao, c.2000-1800 BC. Northern Loess Plateau, Shaanxi Province.
Both the lives and the spread of horses were determined by large climate contrasts across Eurasia, shown in the map.
Map 1.Eurasia with its three major climate divisions.
Much attention has been given to the settled life that followed the domestication of grains, wheat and barley to the west of the Tibetan plateau and millet and rice to the east. Only with domestication of herded animals, cattle, sheep and goats in Western Asia and Iran 10,000-8,000 BC could people move into northern or arid lands, difficult for cropping. Horses were domesticated in the mid-third millennium BC in the Volga region (Librado et al. 2021), joining people now exploiting the central region of vast grasslands with only patchy cropping.
People herding animals reached the north-western edges of today’s China around 2000 BC, and can be followed across the north (map 2) in the Hexi corridor (Huan et al. 2026), the Loess Plateau, with the largest site at Shimao (Sun 2026), and in the east north at Beijing, with people described as belonging to the Lower Xiajiadian culture (Tang et al. 2022). Horses and also metallurgy reached the Hexi Corridor and then moved along the north from about 1800 BC.
Map 2. China with the northern border areas, The ARC, marked in pale blue and the three main regions where the herded animals arrived.
At four square kilometres, Shimao, the largest known city of its day, is an impressive even dramatic sign that, not only had herded animals arrived in northern China, but that their very presence enabled an expansion of population into the north (Rawson 2026, Zhang 2026). Large stone walls, fortified with bastions and gates with barbicans, suggest a combative environment. At the centre, a massive series of stone-faced platforms of loess are signs of economic and ritual power (fig. 2). Surprisingly at a similar time, the great urban centres in the south and east at Liangzhu and Shijiahe on the Yangtze and those of the Longshan culture in the east and the centre declined and were replaced by much smaller concentrations of people. Although the south with its very nutritious crops of rice had supported important economic developments, now, however, the power shifted to the north.
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Fig 2. The tier of platforms, 70 m in height, at the centre of the ancient city of Shimao, c. 2000-1800 BC, in the Northern Loess Plateau.
With full development of herding and horses across the steppe (fig. 3), routes from the west opened to the large band of high land, north of China’s great agricultural plain, known as the Arc. Here many different communities developed, mixing herding and some agriculture. This region was also later exploited to ranch horses. As it lay on the boundary of the summer monsoon, the Arc remained relatively arid and attractive for pasture, though probably short of nutrients. Meanwhile, over the centuries, as the populations increased once more in the east and the south, the famers resisted turning their valuable agricultural land to pasture. And much of this land was too wet and too humid for herded animals with horses to flourish. A strong division remained along the boundary of the monsoon. Inevitably, a somewhat warmer climate than the steppe, with more agriculture along the Arc, continually attracted pastoralists and their animals and horses from today’s Mongolia, South Siberia and Kazakhstan.
Fig. 3 A view of the Silk Road on the route to Aksu, below the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang Province, with both an oasis and desert lands.
Two completely separate events had shifted China’s centre of power to the north: the decline of a major southern agricultural economy reliant on grain and the arrival of the domesticated herded animals, followed by horses. A dual economy was now possible in the more arid northern regions, with an expanded population and large urban centres on the Central Plains. Faced by constant challenges over time from the horse riders, China’s capitals, hereafter, remained primarily in the north also.
Over China’s long and rich history, we see further important evidence of this significant pivotal moment: constant interactions with the people of the steppe, with the building of the Great Wall; in due course, exchanges of silk and horses (fig.4) along Silk Roads (Rawson 2025) and new diplomatic engagements with Central Asia and Iran; important ceremonial buildings were elevated on the tiered platforms, such as those seen at Shimao, and the south developed once more as the great source of China’s wealth.
Fig. 4 Horses on the Mongolian steppe
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References
Huan, L., Du, L., Liu, R., Yang, Y. Intra- and interregional interactions contributed to the emergence of herding in the late prehistoric Upper Yellow River region (2500–1500 BCE). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (forthcoming). http://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-026-02456-y
Librado, P., Khan, N., Fages, A. et al. The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes. Nature 598, 634–640 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9
Rawson, J, From Mountains to Horses: The Landscape of the Silk Road. Journal of Silk Riad Heritage 1-2 (2025), 4-22. Jsrh-article-p4-22(1)pdf; https://brill.com/view/journals/jsrh/1/1-2/jsrh.1.issue-1-2.xml; https://brill.com/view/journals/jsrh/1/1-2/article-p4_2.xml
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Rawson J. Shimao and Erlitou: new perspectives on the origins of the bronze industry in central China. Antiquity. 2017;91(355):e5. doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.234
Sun Zhouyong 孙周勇 (ed.). Dianfeng: kaogu xuejia shuo Shimao 巅峰: 考古学家说石峁 [The pinnacle: archaeologists on Shimao]. Shanghai: Sanlian Shudian 三联书店. 2026.
Tang, X., Shen, S., Su, X. From rammed earth to stone wall: chronological insight into the settlement change of the Lower Xiajiadian culture. PLoS ONE 17(8): e0273161 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273161
Zhang, C. Shimao helai 石峁何来 [Where did Shimao come from? ]. In: Sun Zhouyong 孙周勇 (ed.). Dianfeng: kaogu xuejia shuo Shimao 巅峰: 考古学家说石峁. Shanghai: Sanlian Shudian 三联书店. 2026, 53–82.