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THE SITE OF ANCIENT IRON SMELTING IN WESTERN MONGOLIA

Conference Paper · August 2019

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Ishtseren Lochin
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 The Institute of Archaeology
Mongolian Academy of Sciences

XIONGNU SETTLEMENTS AND

HISTORY OF ANCIENT CRAFT PRODUCTION

Хүннүгийн хот суурин ба

үйлдвэрлэлийн түүхийн асуудал

Ulaanbaatar, 2019
 CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

1. G.Eregzen. Xiongnu “Settlements” along western bank of Kherlen river.

2. A.Ochir, Chen Yongzhi, Ch.Saranbileg, Cheng Pengfei, G.Dandar, B.Ankhbayar.

Recent discovery of the Xiongnu ritual facilities.

3. Ts.Turbat, N.Pousaz, D.Ramseyer. The settlement of Boroo as the artisanal

center of Xiongnu.

4. D.A.Miyagashev, B.A.Bazarov. Research of the Mangirtuy settlement in Buryatia.

5. L.Erdenebold, A.L.Ivliev, N.N.Kradin. Research on building materials of

Tereljiin durvuljin.

6. T.Sasada, L.Ishtseren. An archaeometallurgical study of iron smelting at

the Khustyn bulag site.

7. I.Usuki, K.Kiyama, T.Yanagimoto, K.Matsushita. Importance of Khustyn bulag site

(KBS) in the study of Xiongnu history.

8. Ya.Murakami., Ch.Amartuvshin., L.Ishtseren. The site of ancient iron smelting in

western Mongolia.

9. Ts.Egiimaa. A comparative analysis of the construction materials from

the Xiongnu settlements of Tereljiin durvuljin and Gua dov.

10. D.Nakamura, G.Eregzen. Bronze-iron age burials in Khustyn bulag.

11. T.Shoji. 3D digital archives of Khustyn bulag site

12. Kim Kyoung Ho. A study on Korean iron production (Focused on the central
region of South Korea).
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THE SITE OF ANCIENT IRON SMELTING IN WESTERN MONGOLIA

Ya. Murakami1, Ch. Amartuvshin2, L. Ishtseren2

1
(Ehime University)
2
(Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Science)

In recent years, archaeological excavations have discovered and studied new ancient
metal processing sites. As a result of archaeological exploration in the Mongolian Altai
Mountains, archaeological sites belonging to the end of the Iron Age, begining of Xiong-
nu period, and II-IV centuries were excavated and studied. This report briefly introduces
preliminary results of and excavation and survey conducted in Bayan-Ulgii and Uvs prov-
inces.

1. The Gants Mod site

The cist burial site of the Early Bronze Age and the stone statue sites of the Turkic period
are situated around 10 kilometers up a mountain pass on the west side of the border post
of Gants Mod located at the western border of Deluun soum, Bayan-Ulgii province. They
are along the south and north Gants Mod river banks on an even steppe. Kazakh people
call them “Khar Chirkh” (Khar Buuts). The headwaters of the Gants Mod River is in the
Takhilt Mountains, an offshoot of the Khukh Serekh Mountains. It flows into the Khovd Riv-
er and then into the Buyant River. The exploratory survey discovered a place with iron slag
in the northern embankment of the Gants Mod River. In an area with clay soil deposits, a
portion of the side of an iron-ore smelting furnace, a snuff bottle made of clay (Khyas), and
as well as large quantities of iron slag were found (Amartuvshin et al., 2017).
Two iron ore smelting furnaces were discovered during the excavation. The excavation
was carried out on a 5x10 meter area where the iron slag was diffused to a great extent,
and a 60 x 80 centimeter area in the northeaster part where the oval-shaped mark of a
fire and incandescent surface soils were found. Further excavation revealed iron slag
and partial furnace walls. The excavation continued after removing the loose artifacts and
a pile of iron slag was discovered 20 centimeters deep. It had settled and clustered on
the bottom of the furnace and then drifted into a passage or tunnel to the side to a depth
of 70 centimeters. The 50 cm diameter tunnel extending off of the side of the bottom is
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XIONGNU SETTLEMENTS AND

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oval-shaped and connected to another oval-shaped hole of around 100 x 60 centimeters

diameter at a depth of 67 centimeters which was dug on the left side of the furnace. The
tunnel connecting this hole and the furnace is covered with a huge stone. It resembles the
third classification of the Xiongnu iron ore smelting furnace (Ishtseren, Sadsada, 2015:
248-256). The hole dug next to the furnace revealed iron slag, parts of furnace walls and a
large quantity of wood charcoal. The excavation findings show that the hole was filled with
the demolished waste of the furnace after completing the iron ore smelting in the furnace.
A 60 x 50 centimeter oval-shaped burn mark was found around 15 meters to the south-
east of the first iron ore smelting furnace. The excavation commenced once the surface
soil was removed. A 50 x 40 centimeter pile of iron slag which was the bottom of the fur-
nace was then discovered. Sizewise, it is smaller than the previous furnace. At around 50
centimeters deep, the furnace bottom was found when the iron slag was bisected and ex-
cavated. Further excavation revealed that the iron slag had a great deal of wood charcoal
and some incompletely burned wood was on one side of the bottom of the furnace. It is
apparent that this furnace was also built with a tunnel at the bottom of it. Like the previous
furnace, this construction is linked to the third category of iron ore smelting furnaces.
Based on the size and structure of the first furnace and its companion hole, it it has been
dated to the Xiongnu and BCE I century. However, the second furnace can be interpreted
as belonging to an earlier period (BCE III-II centuries) as it has a slightly smaller structure
and a fair amount of incompletely burned wood charcoal at the bottom of the furnace. The
results of the laboratory analysis are currently not complete therefore it is not possible to
determine the exact chronology.

2. The Gung site

In 2017, exploratory research in the Turgen River valley of Turgen soum in Uvs province
discovered artifacts related to ancient metal production. The Turgen Mountains are part
of the Altai Mountains and extend over 70 kilometers to the north and northwest of the
Kharkhiraa Mountains. There are a number of rivers that flow from the Turgen Mountains,
whose average elevation is 1600-2000 meters, peaking at the highest point at 3917 me-
ters. The northern side of the Turgen Mountains is wooded with larch.
The Turgen River flows from the Deglii Tsagaan Mountains, which is the peak of the Tur-
gen Mountains, and pours into Uvs Lake. The Turgen River valley has a large archaeolog-
ical site with artifacts from the Bronze and Early Iron Ages that contains a burial with stone
piles, rock paintings, and Turkic period stone statues.
Gung is located on the south side of the Turgen River and is surrounded by numerous
graves and burials. During the exploratory survey, artifacts such as wall particles, iron
slag, porous brass tubes, and fragments of iron smelting furnaces were obtained by sam-
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XIONGNU SETTLEMENTS AND

HISTORY OF ANCIENT CRAFT PRODUCTION

pling. These artifacts were spread over a distance of approximately 30 meters (figure 6).
When we selected a place that had been burned at high temperatures and cleaned the
top soil off, we found the base of a furnace. The base is round with a diameter of 80 cen-
timeters. The remains of a furnace wall were found around the edge and an iron slag pile
was found on the inside. This furnace was marked as the first stove feature of the site.
The furnace is round with a diameter of 90 centimeters and is 40 centimeters thick with
iron slag left at the bottom. The bottom of the furnace was filled with large stones. At the
back of the furnace, a 120 x 70 centimeter oval-shaped hole was dug, and was connected
with a tunnel to the bottom of the furnace. The tunnel is also covered with large stones.
On the upper part of the furnace, there are several residual submerged tube pores left by
the pump in the left-over iron slag. This is evidence of the fact that the size of the furnace
was large and pumped fire from multiple sides to melt the iron ore at a high temperature.
We analyzed a wood charcoal sample collected from here for C14 radio carbon dating
analysis in 2017, and the results showed 32calAD - 255calAD (90.2%), which relates to
the early period of the Xianbei (Table-2) .
In addition to these furnaces, we discovered two iron smelting furnaces, however we did
not complete this excavation. Approximately 20 iron smelting furnaces were found during
the exploratory survey conducted at the Gung site, which is considered to be the largest
iron producing area in the Altai region.

3. Borgochuud site
The site is located on the east side of a ravine that descends around 5 kilometers from
the south to a valley with mountains on both sides that are south of the Gung site. A road
passes through this ravine and the site was exposed when the ravine collapsed.
Along the edge of this ravine, remains of three iron smelting furnaces have been found,
the first and last of which are damaged. We conducted a test excavation on the best pre-
served second furnace. The base of this furnace is 100 centimeters in diameter. The iron
slag left in the bottom is 15 centimeters thick. The furnace base depth was 40 centimeters
after cleaning off the topsoil (Figure-8). A bisected excavation revealed that the base of
the furnace was set deeply into the ground, the total depth reaching around 1 meter (Fig-
ure-9).
In order to build this furnace, first, a hole 100 centimeters deep and 100 centimeters in di-
ameter was dug. Then wood charcoal and iron ore were burnt to reach high temperatures
and the fire was stoked. Clay tubes connected to the pump transmitted wind or air and
were inserted in the furnace and utilized to smelt and stoke the fire. Based on the thin clay
tubes 5-7 centimeters in diameter found surrounding the furnace and the condition of the
left over melted iron slag at the furnace base, it can be presumed that the clay tubes used
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XIONGNU SETTLEMENTS AND

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to transmit wind and air were numerous.

This is the first time that a furnace this large has been found in Mongolia. The size and
shape of the iron ore smelting furnace is different from those in the Xiongnu period, which
suggests that it might be related to a period later than the Xiongnu.
In order to confirm our above assumption, the C14 radio carbon dating analysis was
conducted in Japan on the wood charcoal found from the bottom of the furnace. The re-
sult showed 210calAD - 335calAD (90.3%), which is connected to the end of the Xianbei
and the beginning of the Rouran Khaganate (Table-3). Furthermore, we are planning to
conduct a detailed excavation at the Borgochuud site in the near future.

С 14 Radio carbon dating table

Table 1. Laboratory results of the wood charcoal discovered at the Gung site

Table 2. Laboratory results of the wood charcoal discovered from the Borgochuud site

Figure 1. Furnace of the Khar Chirkh site Figure 2. Furnace of the Khar Chirkh site

Figure 3. Furnace of the Gung site Figure 4. Furnace of the Borgochuud site

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