THE GEOARCHAEOLOGY OF DESERTIFICATION IN SOUTHERN MONGOLIA: HUMAN ADAPTATIONS TO HOLOCENE LANDSCAPE CHANGE ON THE GOBI FRONTIER

The Northgrippian climatic stage of the mid-Holocene epoch in East Asia was marked by a period of pronounced warm/moist climatic conditions. This had a profound impact upon the hydrology and vegetation in the northernmost region of the Gobi Desert located in southern Mongolia. Our geoarchaeological and archaeological fieldwork at the site of Burgasney Enger (Ikh-28/Ikh-9) within the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Dornogovi Province, Mongolia, showed that landscapes of this area were dotted with ponds, wetlands, perennial streams and springs during the mid-Holocene. These water sources attracted highly diverse forms of flora and fauna that provided a rich resource base for the mobile hunter-gatherers who inhabited this region from ca. 8,000 – 4,000 BP. With the onset of general climatic cooling and drying in the late Holocene Meghalayan stage, desertification set in and human groups developed mobile herding economies. Despite these apparent economic differences in land use between the two stages, there was much continuity in the ways people used these desert landscapes. With a deep time perspective over the course of thousands of years, we identify continuity in traditions of land use that are likely rooted in long traditions of ecological knowledge.