HORSEPOWER
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Interactions between China, Mongolia and the steppe 2000-0 BCE
Thoughts on the first eighteen months of Horsepower
We are eighteen months into Horsepower (which is six years long in all) and it’s worth taking stock of how everything is going. What follows is some of our highlights and there are many more detailed areas being pursued, some of which will come out in other blogs. We have a team of 20 people drawn from 10 nationalities, spanning many areas of Europe and Asia (see the People section of the Horsepower website). As we investigate international links in the past, we are creating a whole series of new ones in the present.
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Our main aim is to understand the political and cultural effects of links between the steppe and China between 2000 and 0BCE through the movements of horses going south and metals travelling north from the central plains of China into the steppe at a time when the first states were being formed. In doing so we are also establishing some fundamental understandings of the ancient past in important areas, principally the vast spaces of central and western Mongolia.
We have had two big trips so far. The first was in September 2023 when we drove 4000 km across western Mongolia looking at archaeological sites to be excavated by the project, guided by Turbat Tsagaan (Mongolia’s premier archaeologist) and our own Ursula Brosseder (Europe’s premier archaeologist of Mongolia).
In the summer of 2024 a range of sites was excavated, including a human burial from the so-called Afanasievo culture (dating to the early Bronze Age some 4000 years ago) – this is one of the oldest human burials from Mongolia and probably pre-dates the introduction of the horse. Analysis of the spine and legs might tell us whether, unexpectedly, there were signs of wear on the skeleton, indicating horse riding.
A major effort was the excavation of 90 horse heads and hooves from a late Bronze Age monument, known as khirgisuur, which can join those excavated in 2023 and which can be radiocarbon dated by Richard Staff with the ancient DNA analysed by Ludovic Orlando and his team. We know already that the preservation of the horse DNA is outstanding and analyses will give us a detailed picture of the relatedness of the horses, perhaps also distinguishing different herds and maybe locating where each herd was pastured, if things really work well.
​As well as the archaeology, David Shukman did very evocative pieces to camera on the archaeology in Mongolia, one of the most beautiful locations on earth. David and Rory Carnegie made films of horse husbandry today, as well as Rory providing a photographic record of people and animals in the broader landscape. Miranda Creswell became a new sight of the steppe standing at her easel, drawing and painting archaeological sites and landscapes, as well as horses and the myriad herds of yaks, sheep and goats constantly on the move across the late summer grasslands.
We then travelled to Xi’an in China for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the terracotta warriors, where we were joined by many other members of the Horsepower team, including Xuizhen Li who had been senior archaeologist at the First Emperor’s Mausoleum site, knowing the people and the archaeology there extremely well. The celebrations were in typically gigantic Chinese style, with a great range of talks, theatrical performances, mass photographs and a chance to get a privileged view of the new museum on the site with some of the great finds from the mausoleum complex. Miranda met with enthusiastic and excited children from a local school in Xi’an, introducing the kids to archaeology, as well as teaching them to draw horses. Chris, David and Rory carried out a series of filmed interviews, including one with the Director, Li Gang, next to the pit with the massed ranks of warriors.
On their way to becoming the first imperial power of a newly-unified China, the Qin (pronounced Chin), travelled to Xi’an down through northwest China, building capitals and massive burial monuments along the way. The Horsepower team recreated this trip visiting many important Qin sites and meeting Chinese colleagues with whom we hope to work over the next few years. Everywhere we were received with great hospitality, as people went out of their way to show us their excavations and invite us to spectacular dinners. We are now discussing with Chinese colleagues how we might work together on ancient DNA, the analysis of metals, scientific dating and joint publications in English. We are extremely grateful to everyone we met and especially to Director Li Gang and his team at the First Emperor’s Mausoleum for making all this possible.
Laboratory work also continues apace. Ludovic and Gaetan Tressieres in Toulouse are busy with the analysis of Mongolian horse DNA, and detailed results should be available in early 2025. In very exciting news, Ludovic has been given permission to export horse samples from a newly excavated tomb in the First Emperor’s Mausoleum complex to carry out detailed analysis in his lab Toulouse. This is the next step in a deepening collaboration with Chinese colleagues which will also involve much work in Chinese DNA laboratories.
Across the Channel in the British Museum, Ruiliang Liu, Aude Mongiatti and Akari Goda-Maurezzutt are working in earnest on bronze horse gear, knives and belt ornaments from both Mongolia and China in the collections of the British Museum. Different metal-making traditions grew up in China, which produced bronze at an industrial scale even 3500 years ago, and on the steppe where metalworkers, who were mobile, smelted and cast at a smaller scale using different recipes for bronze, which included a percentage of arsenic. Analysis of the composition of the metal is just starting, as is the high-resolution scanning of finished artefacts using the amazing facilities of the British Museum laboratories which will analyse microscopic traces of tool marks and wear to show us how bronzes were made and then used. Sultanat Arimova will join the ancient metallurgists in early 2025 adding a whole new impetus to analysing large data sets of metalwork.
We have been very glad to welcome Yuri Esin, a senior archaeologist in the Tuvan Republic in Siberia, who had to leave his job and locate to the west. Yuri is a world-renowned expert on steppe cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, who has also worked in Mongolia. We are extremely lucky Yuri is adding his expertise to Horsepower given the important ancient connections between the steppe, Mongolia and China with the interchange of customs and artefacts. Yuri joins the team in Mainz, where Bayarkhuu is surveying Mongolian Iron Age sites and metals, as well as taking an active role in the excavations. Limin and Ursula have carried out an excellent analysis of the cemetery at Yuhuangmiao in the mixing zone between China and the steppe, showing that the form of the graves was identical to western Mongolia, but with artefacts from the Tuva region and also central China. People mixed and matched elements from both north and south, building complex identities for themselves.
In Oxford Xuizhen Li and Chris are preparing papers on the cosmological beliefs of the Qin as expressed through the First Emperor’s Mausoleum complex as well as other sites and tombs. They have been joined by Cecilia dal Zovo who is investigating Mongolian sacred landscapes through examining the images in rock art and starting to think about alignments in the landscape related to the sun, moon and stars. Jessica Rawson has advised on many aspects of the Qin and earlier archaeology of China, as well as carrying out visits of her own to China. Akari’s PhD is based in Oxford, with all her serious analyses undertaken in the British Museum. Elizabeth has kept the project running smoothly through excellent and good-humoured administration.
David and Rory have been preparing images, films and words for the website, while Miranda works up her paintings and drawings, as well as engaging with British school kids on the ancient world in Mongolia and China.
In all, we have had an extremely productive year and a half. The team are all in place and our trips have helped cement an understanding between people that is vital to productive working together. Our relations with Mongolian and Chinese colleagues are deepening as we explore the possibilities of working together. We are all excited about what future research together will bring.