The Mongolian Highlands from the Late 9th to the 12th Century

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  • 9世紀後半から12世紀のモンゴル高原
  • 9セイキ コウハン カラ 12セイキ ノ モンゴル コウゲン

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Abstract

It is often asserted that Mongolian history from the late 9th to the 12th century was “the blank age” for lack of historical documents. In this paper the author attempts to elucidate the situation in the central part of the Mongolian highlands during that time by examining archaeological materials.Under the Uighur Empire (mid-8th to mid-9th century) a Turkic style material culture had spread throughout the central Mongolian highlands. After the Uighur period, the cultural characteristics of the Pri-Baikal’e (Rim-Bikal lake) region began to appear in central Mongolia. In the 11th century the material culture of this region was strongly influenced by the Pri-Baikal’e culture, while the Turkic style material culture disappeared. Such a cultural change occurred as the tribes of the Pri-Baikal’e region advanced southward after the fall of the Uighur Empire.Existing research in historiography from the 10th to the early 12th century in this region has found that there was a tribe called Zu-bu 阻ト (Jiu-zu Da-da 九族達靼) that had ventured south from the lower basin of the Selenge River. At that time, the lower Selenge basin was included in the Pri-Baikal’e cultural zone. The result of the archaeological research outlined in this paper coincides with the research in historiography. It is possible to understand that sites from the 10th to the 11th century in this region are related to the Zu-bu (Jiu-zu Da-da).In the 12th century, regional differences in cultural characteristics appeared in every main river basin of the central Mongolian highlands, indicating that new tribes were enjoying self-sustained growth. For example, the archaeological sites in the Tuul River basin have remains of the Khereyit tribe, while the sites in the lower basin of the Orkhon River are related to the Merkit tribe.The author concludes that the above facts are important for considering and reconstructing the formation process of the Mongo1 Empire in the 13th century.

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