Multispecies pastoralism around Delgerkhaan Uul — local practices under large scale sociocultural and political shifts between 1800 BC and 200 AD

Domestic livestock and the concept of pastoralism was introduced into the eastern Mongolian Gobi desert steppe around 3500 to 4000 years ago. During the succeeding millennia several sociocultural and political transformations took place which built upon mobile multispecies pastoralism as the core of subsistence and cultural identity. The emergence of distinct novel monumental burial architectures mark different phases in a prehistory shared by people and livestock in an increasingly arid but dynamic ecosystem, eventually leading to the formation of the pastoral nomadic Xiongnu state spanning across large swathes of Inner Asia (c. 200 BC to 200 AD). Based on stable isotopic carbon and nitrogen analyses on bone collagen from faunal remains deposited in burial monuments from the case study areas of Delgerkhaan Uul and Chandmani Khar Uul we investigated changes and continuities in herding activities as well as the integration of livestock into sociocultural practices. The results show specific depositional practices during the Early Iron Age (c. 1000 to 300 BC) reflecting the participation of supraregional factions as well as indications for a continuity of local herding practices and identities despite large-scale political transformations and the participation of local communities in widespread interregional contacts.