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FKA csen_nomads

@csennomads.bsky.social
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
Kenny Linden @kennylinden.bsky.social · 11/01/2024
Someone needs to read my works about the mass hunting under socialism: " everyone hunted to survive. You would see cartloads of marmot skins, antlers and wolf parts in the market. Anything with four legs was sought out.”" www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Mongolia dragged its wild horses back from extinction – can it save the rest of its wildlife?
Despite the successful reintroduction of Przewalski’s horse, hunting, overgrazing and the climate crisis have pushed many of the country’s other species into crisis
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Thank you for reading my thoughts on the falcon crown from Ar Tsaidam/Aluchaideng! Xiongnu/Khünnü or not, it's one of my favorite artifacts associated with ancient nomads of the eastern Eurasian steppe. 26/26
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
In the article, Dr. Andreeva examines how artisans of the Northern Frontier blended the Eurasian animal style with specific Chinese traditions into a unique regional aesthetic. Her forthcoming book will likely expand on these insights: www.degruyter.com/document/isb... 25/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
On this subject, I highly recommend Petya Andreeva’s "Re-making animal bodies in the arts of early China and North Asia: perspectives from the steppe" (2022: doi:10.1017/eac.2022.7). 24/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
While debate over Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam as a Xiongnu/Khünnü site continues, we can appreciate that its falcon crown and other dazzling artifacts represent a beautiful syncretism of Iron Age steppe nomadic and Chinese aesthetics. 23/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Those skeptical that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was a Xiongnu/Khünnü site due to its more recent dating have argued that a leader of pre-Xiongnu/Khünnü polities in the Ordos regions. They generally point to the Hu or (more specifically) Lin Hu, as the polity whose leader wore the falcon crown. 22/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Scholars previously hypothesized that a Xiongnu/Khünnü chief or even the imperial ruler (shanyu/chanyu/darqa) wore the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown. Today some scholars (and others) still hold this position. 21/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
For example, the archaeologist Bryan Miller posits in a 2015 piece that one of numerous small polities with nomadic practices and/or connections to steppe peoples BEFORE the rise and expansion of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire constructed the burials at Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam. 20/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The new evidence hasn’t convinced everyone, but it motivates many scholars to argue that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam by definition cannot be a Xiongnu/Khünnü site. 19/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Very important is the dating of the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam site. Newer research indicates that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam likely pre-dated the 209 BC foundation of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire recorded in historical documents like the Shi ji and Han shu. 18/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Honeychurch’s main argument is that the Ordos regions were not the Xiongnu/Khünnü homeland. But Honeychurch conveys ambivalence about whether Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was a Xiongnu/Khünnü site or simply a steppe-connected site of the Xiongnu period. 17/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
That critique is exemplified by William Honeychurch, recently awarded the highest Mongolian state award (Altan gadas odon, Order of the Polar Star) for his decades of exemplary archaeological work, in his 2015 ‘Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire’: 16/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Many archaeologists and historians argue(d) that the Ordos was the cradle of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire and remained its imperial heartland. However, archaeologists working in Mongolia and/or Siberia have critiqued this theory over the last 15-odd years. 15/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The Ordos regions was a frontier zone of cultural contact and interchange between steppe peoples from the north and Chinese populations to the south throughout the 1st millennium BCE. [Map from Honeychurch, 2015] 14/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
When Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was first excavated and analyzed, scholars were confident it was a cemetery of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire due to its location (Ordos regions), rough time period (mid- to late 1st millennium BCE), and its artifacts up until the last 10-odd years. 13/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Now comes an important question: who wore the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown? 12/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Although these photos are credited to the Mongolian Natural History Museum and the Mongolian Ministry of Culture, the Ar Tsaidam (Aluchaideng) crown appears to be housed in the Inner Mongolia Museum, China: chinahighlights.com/hohhot/attra... 11/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Where is the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown now? [ twitter.com/BatzayaCh/st... ] 10/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The organic materials (cloth, fur) that held these pieces together disintegrated long before 1972, leaving what the complete headdress looked like to the imagination: depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exh... 9/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
According to the Encyclopaedia Xiongnu, gold wire was threaded from the falcon’s beak “through its head, neck and body and tail…Thus, every time the holder of the gold crown moves to the right and the tail also does accordingly” (2013: 50). [Images: Laursen, 2011] 8/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Atop the skull cap stands an avian sculpture constructed of lapis lazuli and gold. Scholars are divided as to whether the bird is a falcon or an eagle. But static images cannot convey a clever feature of the crown’s design: the falcon moves with the crown’s wearer! 7/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Second is the upper part of the crown: the golden skullcap and falcon perched atop it. The golden skull cap is engraved with four mirrored images: a wolf attacking an ibex (yangir). 6/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The six band ends are decorated with animal profiles: tiger for the upper, sheep (likely argali) for the lower front, and horse for the lower back. 5/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
First is a close-up of the crown’s lower part. It was constructed of three golden bands, two forming the circle and the third forming the semicircle atop it, joined by small golden pillars and engraved with a woven or lattice pattern. 4/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown’s design is intricate and impressive. We can take a closer look thanks to these high-quality photos: updown.mn/196108.html 3/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
In 1972, archaeologists excavated two monumental burials at Aluchaideng (Ar Tsaidam/Ар Цайдам in Mongolian) in Inner Mongolia [Hanggin banner, Ikh Zuu aimag/Ordos prefecture]. There they discovered this crown along with numerous other spectacular finds. 2/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
The Ar Tsaidam/Aluchaideng crown came up on the Cursed App today. So let me share my 2022 thread on this amazing artifact associated with Iron Age nomads and the steppe. A skein/thread: dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/fisher/i... 1/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
Монгол тэмээ, хонгор минь A rightly proud Bactrian camel mother with her twin calves born in Gov'-Altai Province, Mongolia (in 2022), decked out in blue khadag. Image source: twitter.com/csen_nomads/... 2/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
2024: the Year of the Camel(ids)! www.fao.org/newsroom/det... Camelids include camels (Bactrian, dromedary, wild), llamas, alpacas, wild vicuñas, and guanacos. These animals are key to nomadic lifeways around the world. What's your favorite camelid? [Mine is easy to guess ] 1/n
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
Simon Berger @chakarchinggis.eurosky.social · 05/12/2023
🗓️🎁 5/24 La tente ronde, appelée ger et non yourte, est démontable. On superpose les couches de feutre sur un treillis, en laissant au sommet une ouverture à clapet, l'erüke. Les plus grandes ger ne se démontent pas et se transportent posées sur des charriots à boeufs.
Lever du camp et démontage de la tente. Illustration du Jāmi‘ at-tavārīkh de Rashīd ad-Dīn faite à Hérat au début du XVe s. BNF, ms. Supplément persan 1113, fol. 174r.
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 04/12/2023
Follow @chakarchinggis.bsky.social for a seasonal treat - an Advent calendar of Mongols depicted in Persian miniatures!
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
Susanna Forrest @susannaforrest.bsky.social · 29/11/2023
One good story. www.theguardian.com/world/2023/n...
theguardian.com
‘Part of our history’: Ukraine hails return of Scythian gold treasures
Items lent to Netherlands from Crimea in 2013 before Russia’s annexation had been subject of decade-long struggle
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
ᠮᠥᠩᠬᠡ ᠨᠠᠷᠠᠨ / Münkhnaran Bayarlkhagva @morientalist.bsky.social · 29/11/2023
İlkhan Oljeitu's edict (jarlig) about taxation on the wall of Baku's friday mosque inside Içerişehir. Early 14th C.
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
Egas Moniz Bandeira ᠡᡤᠠᠰ ᠮᠣᠨᠢᠰ ᠪᠠᠨᡩ᠋ᠠᠶᠢᠷᠠ @egasmb.bsky.social · 29/11/2023
TIL: The Chinese word for (indigo) blue, laam4 藍, might be related to Malay/Indonesian tarum (indigo) and Thai kraam คราม (indigo). According to Schuessler, it's an areal word from SEA that now exists in Sino-Tibetan, Kra-Dai, and Austronesian languages.
Excerpt from Schuessler's ABC dictionary of Old Chinese, p. 343
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Reposted by FKA csen_nomads
Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 29/11/2023
Link here for anyone who wants to attend book talk 2 online: 會議鏈結:https://asmeet.webex.com/asmeet/j.php?MTID=m88e940b4e3e807812b0b90a66173c50d 會議號:2514 324 0979 密 碼:pKMR8UKDY46
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
"The last of their kind: The unique life of Pakistan's Wakhi shepherdesses" www.bbc.com/news/world-a...
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
Many thanks to Sue Byrne and Khulan Chimed for devoting their time and scholarly talents to such an important topic in the recent history of Mongolia! All info and pics credited to: facebook.com/groups/mongo... 4/4
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
It appears that the current edition of all three books is written in Mongolian. For those who can't read Mongolian, let us hope that someone will translate this vital work of Mongolian historiography into other languages 3/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
As Byrne writes in the OP on FB, the elders "talk about the monasteries as they knew them up to the late 1930s. Most of these [monasteries] have now disappeared with barely a trace so these memories of monasteries are very precious". 2/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
Scholars Sue Byrne and Khulan Chimed recently published a three-book series focused on interviews with elderly Mongolian men who had been monks prior to the 1937-1939 purges: facebook.com/groups/mongo... 1/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
All information in this thread found in Dr. Iderkhangai's interview (in Mongolian) here: isee.mn/n/57644 All images credited to the same source. 19/19
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
Congratulations to Dr. Iderkhangai, his team, and everyone whose work contributed to the discovery of these petroglyphs in the Baysakh and Goyot districts of Gurvantes County, Ömnögov’ Province, Mongolia! 18/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
If you’re in Ulaanbaatar, see an exhibit on the Ömnögov’ Province rock art discoveries at Norphei Art Gallery, November 25-30. Dr. Iderkhangai and his team are collaborating with the governments of Gurvantes County and Ömnögov’ Province on this exhibition: www.facebook.com/ChuluunShast... 17/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
Further research is needed to help archaeologists date and interpret this veritable haul of Mongolian rock art from the south Gobi. Look forward to more news about the Ömnögov’ Province petroglyphs as it’s released! 16/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
Dr. Iderkhangai and his team recorded over 20,000 more petroglyphs in their survey of Gurvantes County, Ömnögov’ Province, than the four highlights presented above. 15/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
The 4th and final highlight of the recent Ömnögov’ Province rock art survey is an incongruous image for the desert: a boat with two leaping fish! 14/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
What’s truly remarkable about these Bronze Age petroglyphs is that they are only visible to the naked eye between 11am and noon. These rock art images demonstrate the skill and creativity of ancient peoples living in the south Gobi. 13/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
The 3rd highlight is an unusual cluster of petroglyphs dating between 4,000 and 3,000 years ago, to the Mongolian Bronze Age. Dr. Iderkhangai describes these as individual human figures each inside an unknown object. [The 1st pic outlines the rock art in chalk] 12/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
According to Dr. Iderkhangai, this is the first known depiction of the Big Dipper with Polaris in the record of Mongolian rock art. 11/n
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FKA csen_nomads @csennomads.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
The 2nd highlight of the recent Ömnögov’ Province rock art survey is a constellation: the Big Dipper (the Plough, Долоон бурхан од/Doloon burkhan od) and Polaris (the North Star, Алтангадас/Altangadas). 10/n
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