Archaeology: What was the purpose of the 1600

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Little studied so far: The 1660-kilometre-long earth wall on the border of Mongolia

Photo: tandfonline

A study attempts to shed light on an earthen embankment on the border between Mongolia and China that has long received little attention in research. The huge rampart was probably built between the 11th and 13th centuries. But for what purpose?

An international team of researchers published their findings in the Journal of Field Archaeology at the end of December – and immediately raised new questions. Because many things remain mysterious.

According to the archaeologists, it seems to be relatively certain that the earth wall was probably built in a hurry during the Jin Dynasty, as a protection against invading Mongols. According to this, it is part of a large system of several long walls: The almost forgotten earth wall stretches a total of about 1660 kilometers from northern China over eastern Mongolia along the border to Inner Mongolia, an autonomous province in China.

No second Great Wall of China

The research team led by Gideon Shelach-Lavi from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem examined an approximately 405-kilometre-long section in sparsely populated eastern Mongolia. It was called the "Mongolian Arc" because of its shape. Despite its size, the Mongolian arc has been largely overlooked in academic discourse," the study says.

However, the Mongolian arch cannot be compared with the famous Great Wall in China, which consists of several sections and attracts millions of tourists every year at the restored parts – if only because it is often hardly noticeable. "We have found that the walls are preserved up to a maximum height of 1 to 1.5 meters. However, they are usually much more eroded and therefore hardly visible at ground level." Therefore, the researchers used drones to better detect the structures from the air.

It was noticeable that there were large gaps in the section of the earth wall that had been examined. Some have a distance of 300 meters, the largest has 17.9 kilometers; on average, the gaps are 2.7 kilometers in size. In some cases, it is evident that the wall was never rebuilt at these points. According to the researchers, this supports the thesis that the wall was built hastily.

Military usefulness doubtful

Even more puzzles were posed by 34 rectangular earth formations in the immediate vicinity of the wall, which were surrounded by ditches and earth walls. "Remnants of stone structures were found in the corners and walls, but we were unable to identify any specific structures inside or outside the formations," the researchers write. "We plan to further investigate the structures through targeted excavations."

This is because the purpose of these earth formations is unclear. From a military point of view, they were unfavorably located in flat areas. Therefore, the experts suspect that the buildings did not serve as defensive fortifications. Humans may have once used them to collect customs duties or monitor nomads. If the formations were nevertheless built for defense, this may have had something to do with the fact that it was easier to find usable soil to build in these places, the researchers believe.

So far, only a few studies have dealt with the earth wall investigated. For the time being, the scientists therefore see their results only as assumptions that will have to be tested in the future. Further on-site research is already being planned.

cgu/dpa