Mongolian “Neolithic” and Early Bronze Age ground stone tools from the northern edge of the Gobi Desert
Keywords:
ground stone tools, Mongolia, Neolithic, milling stones, Bronze Age, ancient plant residues
Abstract
The transition from the Mongolian Neolithic to the Bronze Age is not well understood. Within Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, over a period of five years, we identified a number of sites with dense surface artefact scatters and features that seem to represent this transition period. Evident in those concentrations are characteristic microblade cores, microblades, “thumbnail" flake scrapers, projectile points, ground stone tools, and stone features of unknown function. Between 2012 and 2014 we collected ground stone artefacts from four sites and sediment samples from three sites. With permission of Mongolian authorities, the artefacts from one site and sediment samples from three sites were sent for botanical analyses to the University of Texas, Austin, Environmental Archaeology Laboratory. Preliminary results indicate that plant remains are present on the ground stone artefacts: dendritic long-cells from a deep pore of one artefact and starch grains from the pores of six of the seven artefacts. These data present the first opportunity to understand what resources “Neolithic” people were processing with ground stone tools in this area and further our opportunity to better understand the little-known “Neolithic”-Early Bronze Age transition period in Central Asia. This paper describes the ground stone artefacts and further explores the results of data retrieved from some of these artefacts.
References
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Costin, C. L. 1991, Craft specialization: issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. Archaeological Method and Theory, 3: 1-56. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20170212
Frachetti, M.D. 2008, Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia. University of California Press, Berkeley, 213 p.
Günchinsüren, B. 2009, Introduction into Stone Age of Mongolia. In: Current Archaeological Research in Mongolia. Papers from the First International Conference on Archaeological Research in Mongolia, held in Ulaanbaatar August 19-23rd, 2007 (Parzinger, H., Pohl, E., & Tseveendorzh, D., Eds.), Contributions to Asian Archaeology Vol. 8, Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Bonn: p. 21-26.
Günchinsüren, B., & Bazagür, D. 2009, An outline of Neolithic studies in Mongolia. In: Current Archaeological Research in Mongolia. Papers from the First International Conference on Archaeological Research in Mongolia, held in Ulaanbaatar August 19-23rd, 2007 (Parzinger, H., Pohl, E., & Tseveendorzh, D., Eds.), Contributions to Asian Archaeology Vol. 8, Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Bonn: p. 47- 52.
Henry, A.G., Hudson, H.F., & Piperno, D.R. 2009, Changes in starch grain morphologies from cooking. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(3): 915-922. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.11.008
Janz, L. 2012, Chronology of Post-Glacial Settlement in the Gobi Desert and the Neolithization of Arid Mongolia and China. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona, 524 p. URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/223342
Janz, L., Elston, R., & Barr, J. 2009, Radiocarbon evidence for the Holocene survival of the East Asian Ostrich and implications for dating surface assemblages in the Gobi Desert. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(9): 1982-1989. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.05.012
Lees, S.H., & Bates, D.G. 1974, The origins of specialized nomadic pastoralism: a systematic model. American Antiquity, 39(2): 187-193. doi:10.2307/279581
Majigsuren, Y., &Treworgy, J.D. 2011, Geology. In: Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Nature Guide 4, ECO nature edition, (Reading, R., Kenny, D., & Steinbauer-Burkart, D., Eds.), Steinbauer-Burkart OHG, Oberaula: p. 6-7.
Reading, R., Kenny, D., &Steinbauer-Burkart, D., (Eds.) 2011, Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, 2nd Edition. Nature-Guide No. 4, Mongolia. ECO Nature Edition Steinhauer-Burkart OHG, Oberaula, p. 64.
Schneider, J.S. 2002, Stone textures and function: a relationship between milling tools and subsistence as derived from western American quarries data. In: Asmosia 5, Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the fifth international conference of the Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, June 1998, (Herrmann, J., Herz, N., & Newman, R., Eds.), Archetype Publications, London: p. 381-393.
Schneider, J.S. & Tserendagva, Y. (2013). A First View of a Mongolian Archaeological Landscape in the East Gobi Desert: Preliminary Results from an In-Progress-Random-Sample Inventory within Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve. presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 3-7 April 2013, Honolulu.
Tserendagva, Y., Dalantai, S., & Schneider, J. 2015, Brief results of the joint Mongolian-American expedition for archaeological study at Ikh Nart Nature Reserve. In: МОНГОɅЬІН АРХЕОɅОГИ2014 (Mongolian Archaeology 2014), Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar: p. 41-45.
Tserendagva, Y., & Schneider J.S. 2014, Brief results of the joint Mongolian-American expedition for archaeological study at Ikh Nart Nature Reserve. In: МОНГОɅЬІН АРХЕОɅОГИ2013, (Mongolian Archaeology 2013), Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar: p. 23-27.
Wright, J. 2006, The Adoption of Pastoralism in Northeast Asia, Monumental Transformation in the EgiinGol Valley, Mongolia. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, 382 p.
Wright, J., &Janz, L. 2012, The Younger Dryas in Arid Northeast Asia. In: Hunter-Gatherer Behavior: Human Response during the Younger Dryas, (Eren, M., Ed.), Left Coast Press, Walnut Grove: p. 231-247.
Published
31-Oct-2016
How to Cite
Schneider, J., Yadmaa, T., Hart, T., Rosen, A., & Spiro, A. (2016). Mongolian “Neolithic” and Early Bronze Age ground stone tools from the northern edge of the Gobi Desert. Journal of Lithic Studies, 3(3), 479-497. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v3i3.1641
Issue
Section
Presented at the 1st Meeting of the Association for Ground Stone Tools Research
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