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Radiocarbon dating reveals Mongolia's earliest pottery predates previous estimates by 2,000 years

Following a recent study, Dr. Przemysław Bobrowski and his colleagues published new radiocarbon dates on Holocene (11,700 years ago to the present) sites located in the Tsakhiurtyn Hundi (Flint Valley) region of Mongolia. The work has been in the journal Radiocarbon.

Tsakhiurtyn Hundi is located about 700 km south of Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, and is within the Arts Bogdyn Nuruu massif.

According to Dr. Bobrowski, "[The] prehistoric sites associated with the Early, Middle, and Late Paleolithic in Tsakhiurtyn Hundi … were discovered at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries by a Mongolian-Russian-American expedition. The site owes its name to the presence of numerous flint outcrops and an incalculable number of flint artifacts. It is one of the most extensive prehistoric sites in Central Asia.

"Despite the numerous remains of Stone Age settlements, only limited archaeological research has been carried out there so far. The aim of our project (funded by the National Science Centre, Poland - NCN2019/33/B/HS3/01113), carried out in recent years, is to analyze the nature of long-term prehistoric settlement around Tsakhiurtyn Hundi. Environmental reconstructions, settlements' chronological determinations, and raw materials economy are the main goals to obtain the picture of several hundred thousand years of human activity in this area.

"Our excavations were, of course, preceded by an intensive survey around the Flint Valley. Surface prospection revealed the existence of a network of paleolakes located several kilometers south of Arts Bogdyn Nuruu massif, which resulted in the discovery of numerous sites associated with communities inhabiting this area in the Pleistocene, as well as younger evidence of the presence of hunter-gatherer groups near the lakes in the early Holocene."

While the surveyed flint workshops from Tsakhiurtyn Hundi are mainly dated to the Pleistocene, some settlements from the paleolake shores provide evidence of a post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and early Holocene occupation.

Of the paleolakes surveyed, Baruun Khuree (Lake V) was at the center of this study. Three sites contained various artifacts, including lithics, ostrich eggshell artifacts, pottery, and hearths.

Dr. Bobrowski elaborates on some of the finds at these sites: "Apart from the assemblages of lithic artifacts, fragments of ostrich eggshells, ostrich eggshell beads, including ostrich eggshell pendants, were discovered at the excavated sites. Struthio anderssoni, also known as the East Asian ostrich, is an extinct species of ostrich that lived in the Pleistocene and Holocene in China and Mongolia."

Eleven radiocarbon dates were obtained from the Baruun Khuree sites. The dates indicated that there had been two chronological groups of occupation.

The first was the younger horizon, dated to around 10,620–10,535 cal BP. The dates came from the sites FV 133 and FV 134A. The older horizon, dated to 11,251–11,196 cal BP, came from site FV 139.

The Baruun Khuree sites are therefore associated with one of the earliest securely dated episodes of the Holocene hunter-gatherers' activities in the Gobi desert.

Additionally, the dates provide new insights into the precise timing of the arrival of the pottery into Mongolia.

From previous research, it was believed that the earliest pottery reached Mongolia around 9,600 cal BP. However, the Baruun Khuree pottery, which was found in the immediate context of the hearths, is almost 2,000 years older than previously thought.

Mongolia's general source base of pottery is very scarce, making it difficult to compare data, but it seems that the Baruun Khuree sites may represent the earliest introduction of pottery into Mongolia.

The Baruun Khuree pottery is different from known ceramics in Mongolia, generally having a gray to dark gray or reddish appearance and a thickness not exceeding 7–8mm.

"The dates we have obtained show that the knowledge of making pottery vessels reached the Gobi Altai region almost 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. Chronologically, they correspond, for example, to early dates for pottery from northern China," explains Dr. Bobrowski.

"We are currently carrying out several specialist analyses of both categories of artifacts, and another publication focusing on the pottery and Ostrich eggshell adornments we discovered is in preparation."