A dual technological tradition and its implications as observed in an iron assemblage from a medieval site in eastern Mongolia

The prevailing view of pastoral nomadic peoples is one in which their lifeway is perceived as a low technology and low investment solution to living in some of the world’s most marginal environments. Given this dominant stereotype, the discovery of a unique and sophisticated iron-making technology indigenous to Inner Asian herding communities would not be expected. Most anthropological and historical research on pastoralists of the steppes argue that such peripheral communities would have been dependent on long-distance imports of iron-finished goods originating from the industrial heartlands of neighboring sedentary societies such as that of ancient China. We test this technological premise by focusing on an assemblage containing eight cast iron and four bloomery iron fragments, all recovered from a medieval settlement site in eastern Mongolia. At one and the same site, our analysis reveals a blade of bloomery origin with clear evidence of well-controlled processes applied for carburization and quenching. In contrast, microstructures indicative of a small-scale steelmaking method, practiced either in the liquid or in the solid state, were observed in the cast iron objects examined. We present a detailed account of this dual technological tradition involving the manipulation of both bloomery and cast iron products along with pertinent radiocarbon data for the medieval site in question. We then place our results within a broader comparative perspective and propose that a diverse and innovative dual technological tradition constituted the primary mode of iron manufacture in Mongolia throughout the first and early second millennia AD.