Where is karakorum city

Two Islamic cemeteries in the surroundings of Karakorum pose a unique characteristic in the eastern Eurasian steppe.

A large area densely set with funerary buildings beyond the northern city wall is considered to be a cemetery for members of this religion based on the small excavation from to Bayar and Voitov The Muslim cemetery extends over an area of around 24 ha.

Considering that 37 graves had already been discovered in the small area of maximum m 2 , about buried persons could be expected north of the city wall. About 8. The social diversity of the inhabitants is vividly described in several sources; the same is true for ethnic neighborhoods.

Many of the artisans were prisoners of war or captives with different origins and statuses, like the famous goldsmith, William Boucher Rubruck and Jackson : ; Guzman , and many of the inhabitants of the city did not come voluntarily Allsen We reckon, thus, that Karakorum maintained a highly varied permanent population, concerning professions see Reichert , religious affiliations, and ethnic backgrounds. Additionally, envoys and traders as well as soldiers enriched the makeup of the population.

If we take the size of the compounds as an indicator of the rank of the owner, there must have been significant differences. Botanical analyses and pollen indicate the existence of agriculture in the vicinity of Karakorum during the empire period Lehmkuhl et al. Finds of plowshares and molding boards within the middle of Karakorum Kiselev ; Reichert at least point to the fact that the inhabitants had the required tools to undertake agricultural works.

Of course, we cannot know who the actual people doing the job were. The Yuan shi reports the establishment of an agricultural colony for the first time in , which had been abandoned and reestablished between this time and on several occasions Farquhar : To sum up, we can surely state that people carried out cultivation of crops nearby Karakorum of however restricted scale and under much climatic duress Boyle : — There is abundant evidence for imported goods and long-distance trade.

We already mentioned merchants who lived in Karakorum according to literary sources. Archaeological work corroborates this picture. Not only were manufactured ceramics imported from China Sklebitz but so were several raw materials for secondary craft processes within the workshops of Karakorum Reichert With a concentration on blacksmith operations in these workshops during the early stages of the settlement activities, Karakorum is a likely provider for military equipment.

It served as station for the imperial guards and later housed the military colony of the province Lingbei Barkmann : 16 f. With mostly bowls of varying sizes and other tableware identified, only a few items such as miniature vessels hint at religious activities within these houses used for living and working Sklebitz : — They could prove that several foreign species must have been brought to Mongolia, with likely origins in Central Asia and China.

Especially the distribution of Chinese porcelain wares in the hinterland of Karakorum, proven by surveys in the Orkhon valley, hints to the pervasiveness of imports beyond city limits. A city stands in a multifaceted network of relationships with its immediate and wider surroundings.

First, the city needs workers from its surroundings, second it needs raw materials that are processed and negotiated in the city, and third, it needs food for the daily needs of the inhabitants.

At the same time, the surrounding countryside is the ideal location for buyers of goods produced and traded in the city. Numerous studies have shown that there is no clear separation between the city and its environs and that in several ancient cultures the city and its environs are not linguistically separated, but are described by one and the same term Marcus and Sabloff a : 22— Furthermore, there is no sharp limitation of the hinterland, its extent also depends on time-specific functions and interactions.

We are dependent on written sources for the information on the origin of the labor force. Numerous other workers, especially artisans, came from Central Asia, the Black Sea region, or Eastern Europe as prisoners of war to Karakorum, where they carried out commissioned work for the court or the elites Allsen , The people entrusted with the administration of the city and the affairs of government, as well as specialists in science and religion, also usually came from the conquered regions, attracted by the new possibilities de Rachewiltz et al.

So far, there is no evidence that pastoral nomads were settled in Karakorum or that the local population was integrated into the economic system of the city beyond the supply of animals. The raw materials required for building and road construction come from the surrounding area of the city. The granite used for the column bases and millstones comes from quarries in the upper Orkhon valley. Slate, which was used to cover the kang systems and as road surface in the form of slabs, is also found in several places in the upper Orkhon valley and also directly south of Karakorum in the mountains.

Due to the low demand, the quarries were certainly used on a seasonal and occasional basis, i. Siberian larch, the locally dominant tree species, also served as a building material and is so far the only proven fuel Pohl et al.

Charcoal piles, the relics of which would have to be present in large numbers in the surrounding area, have not yet been discovered. On the one hand, probably all the grey ware produced by pottery wheel was manufactured locally. A Mantou-type kiln for firing grey pottery located directly north of the Buddhist temple within the city area was excavated as early as without any further details being known Franken : On the other hand, the majority of the glazed goods and porcelain came to the city as finished products, mainly from production centers south of the Gobi Sklebitz This is all the more astonishing as smelting furnaces from the Xiongnu period have been excavated in the Orkhon valley Pohl et al.

Cast iron products may all originate from China; Mongolia has so far lacked any evidence of the use of the necessary technology. Gold was already washed from the Mongolian rivers at the time of the first steppe empire of the Xiongnu Polosmak et al. This tradition is likely to have continued into the Mongol period, even though scientific analyses are still pending as final proof.

Other raw materials necessary for specialized crafts may have come to Karakorum from distant regions, such as mercury or gemstones see Reichert ; also Allsen : At the same time, local raw materials such as birch bark, bones, leather, furs, and wool were used. Just as for raw materials, a local frame of reference is emerging for the supply of food and livestock on the one hand, as well as an astonishingly wide one on the other.

Animals were offered for sale at the city gates, as were cereals. For the animals, however, we do not yet know from which area they were delivered, and isotope analyses should provide a remedy in the coming years. The cereals, however, seem to have been in short supply and had to be imported on a large scale, despite repeated local cultivation attempts.

After no more supply routes reached Karakorum, the latter had to clear Karakorum and abandon it. It is unclear when the transports were resumed.

Did this happen only after the disappearance of the anti-Yuan-Steppe coalition or already in the time of its decline? This was due not only to the fact that alcohol was distilled from grain, which was mentioned several times in the Yuan shi and which was made a punishable offence, but also to the difficult growing conditions and the natural conditions.

An inscription from mentions the cultivation of grain being threatened by severe drought Muraoka : In an emergency, the grain reserves kept in storehouses were also used to supply the population: An inscription from proves that grain from the military stores was sold to the starving and freezing population Ushine Karakorum is not alone in its dependency on food imports, and at this point we shall only remind you of grain supplies from North Africa to feed Rome or the transport of grain to the newly founded Roman city of Xanten on the Lower Rhine.

These two examples are intended to indicate that there is no typical nomadic deficit here, but that this is a problem of high population numbers or a difficulty with a poorly developed or economically self-sufficient settlement environment that is unable to produce the required surplus. Aware of this deficit, the Mongols founded Chinqai early on as an agricultural colony and production site and military farmers were settled in various locations Buell ; Shiraishi et al.

Most scholars locate Chinqai close to the Mongolian Altai, but convincing archaeological evidence is still missing. Several towns south of the Gobi had granaries Fig. Karakorum; 2. Yingchang; 3. Shangdu; 4. Jingzhou; 5. Etzina; 6. Fengzhou; 7. Jining; 8. Xinghe; 9. Pingdi; Yunnei; Dongsheng; Datong; Ningxia graphic by Tobias Pfaff, location of sites by Bryan K. Miller, Michigan. In what kind of network is such an artificially built city like Karakorum integrated, which did not grow organically out of the region and is also located in a previously city-less economic region, where there was no need for a city?

As with the supply with food, Karakorum again was placed within differently scaled communication networks. Karakorum was connected to the major overland routes via the yam communication system and thus connected to and beyond the borders of the empire.

This network of way-stations was not only used for the transmission of news but was also used by embassies and merchants. The costs of transport were at least up to a certain degree overrode by heavy political inducements.

Khans are reported to have paid over-market prices and actively supported merchant bonds financially to attract trade to Karakorum see Favereau By , tax and booty had reached the treasure houses of Karakorum along these supply arteries and contributed significantly to the prosperity of the city and its attractiveness for merchants.

Karakorum then became an outpost, an island far away in the steppes and was fed and highly subsidized by the imperial center in northern China to keep the steppe region under control and because of its high symbolic value.

It was a tribute to the birthplace of the dynasty Cleaves : One would expect that post, elites, merchants, and artisans moved to the new capital, Dadu, and that with that transformation the financial power and economic resources of Karakorum crumbled away. However, no significant decline in quality goods and handicraft activities can yet be demonstrated by the small-scale excavations in the city center Reichert The statement that the emperor had Karakorum enlarged in Yuan shi : 20, also does not fit into the picture of a city in decline.

The first Mongol rulers only stayed temporarily in Karakorum and then travelled on to the next residence. The various residences were mainly located by Boyle and the statements were refined from an archaeological point of view by Shiraishi Boyle a ; Shiraishi Through the evaluation of aerial photographs and detailed surveys, further contemporary sites with permanent architecture have been added in recent years that can be dated back to the Mongol Empire period on the basis of surface finds.

However, their function is largely unclear Fig. It is striking that so far all facilities have a different layout, and so it is not possible to deduce specific functions. At best, their significance can be inferred from the find material, such as glazed roof tiles covering the more important buildings.

As it appears so far, none of the other known permanently populated places — Khar Khul Khaany, Avraga, Bars Khot, Khirkhira, Kondui — is integrated into such a network of seasonally-used residences. Locations of residences and settlements with fixed buildings of the Mongol empire period in the Orkhon valley: 1. MOR; 2. Doityn Balgas; 3. Bayan gol, 4.

Zachyn Bulag? In order to give greater context to Karakorum, we ask how typical are the construction, planning, and use of the city as compared to other documented examples of urban places on the Mongolian Plateau. An almost universal characteristic is the establishment of cities on an open verdant site separate from previous settlements.

As far as can be assessed from other investigations, this applies to all large cities, residences, and permanent settlements of the Mongols and apparently also to cities of the Uyghur. However, the Khitan came from northeast China as invaders to the Mongolian steppe and therefore pursued a different strategy for establishing permanent centers.

This means that when steppe regimes founded a city, they purposefully broke away from the specific spots of cities belonging to previous empires, even if the city was founded within the same greater valley of previous establishments. This was done in order to herald the establishment of a completely new empire.

Another characteristic, which has already been implicitly stated but which is worth underlining, is that all these urban places or fixed settlements quickly declined after the overarching political system vanished. They did not survive independently. Urbanism was not sustainably carried on by the remaining inhabitants or new arrivals. Karakorum fits into this picture of city foundations without urbanization, in the meaning that the population moves from the steppes to the urban area.

These observations lead us to our initial questions of whether we can discern different trajectories in urbanization within pastoral and sedentary societies, or if there even is urbanization as such. Regarding the latter question, we argue that there is no transformation of a society from a steppe to an urban one. This transient nature of urban sites is not even particular to pastoralist societies. Larger settlements of the Iron Age in Western Europe, attributed urban status by some scholars, show similar developments within sedentary, agrarian-based societies.

As to whether we can discern different trajectories in urbanization, we must change the question, since we can no longer compare urbanization but only urbanism. Concerning Karakorum, a discussion employing the list of attributes compiled by Smith would not allow for a strict differentiation in structural traits between the city in the steppe and other urban sites within sedentary societies.

This observation is not particularly surprising since the discussion also showed that skilled specialists from urbanized, sedentary areas were specifically brought to Karakorum to erect the city and the appeal for the rulers to establish a city was informed by existing locales. What, then, makes Karakorum special? In addition to having structures that are particular only to this capital city, the built environments of Karakorum combine architectural elements from different cultural traditions, elevate them to a far greater size than equivalent structures elsewhere, and exhibit a far greater thickness of settlement layers and refuse material — all of which make Karakorum stand out among permanent settlements of the same time such that even without written documents one would assume the capital of the Mongols to be here.

The analysis of the environs shows impressively that the usual criteria and dimensions for a city—hinterland relationship have been set aside. The city of Karakorum lived beyond its means. A hinterland that can encompass the entire empire for individual needs and the integration of the city into extensive networks are characteristics of an imperial city.

These cities concentrate vast amounts of wealth from conquered regions and are — in terms of size, number, and quality — arenas of ambitious construction programs, and see enormous investments and efforts to achieve monumentality and excellence in every respect for instance the famous drinking fountain of the palace area.

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A new topographic map as a absolute and b relative altitude representation, with c section through the most elevated areas S. In the 18th century, a Dutch artist created this rendering of what the "silver tree" in Karakorum's central palace, as described by Flemish monk Willam of Rubruck, may have looked like. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons William of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan monk, toured Karakorum in and penned an account of his travels.

A preliminary reconstruction of the road system within and leading to Karakorum J. Bemmann and S. Post a Comment. The capital city of Mongol Empire and Religious center of Erdene Zuu were resided throughout the history after another. It was appropriate for a good nomadic camp which was an open steppe with water supply.

Also it cools wind shooing all mosquitoes and flies away. The name Karakorum derived from the way he built the palace where a sturdy wall was enclosed.

At first, Karakorum was a warehouse or workshop for most Mongols and Ogodei Khan. They continued to live in their Gers around Karakorum for most of the time. But they kept their goods and tribute collection in the Karakorum and craftsmen usually resided there doing their work.

Apart from the palaces which were dedicated to Ogodei Khan himself and his wives, he ordered to build several worshiping houses for his Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, and Christian followers. Since the Karakorum barely produced anything and its living resource was merchants, Ogodei put great effort to secure trade routes.

He put his soldiers on guard and organized permanent stations guarded by his soldiers. Mongols planted trees or stone pillars alongside the road which made it quite convenience for merchants who traveled long road.

Karakorum was still the modest capital city during Ogodei Khan although he laid the foundation of the great Imperial city of XIV century. When it came to develop Karakorum, Monke wanted to make it Imperial Capital city. He used his Christian craftsmen who were captured in his European campaign. They impressed him with their technical abilities of metalwork. One of them was Guillaume Boucher, a Parisian goldsmith.