Wetlands and grasslands: Habitat choice of hunters and herders across the transition to mobile pastoralism in Mongolia’s desert-steppe

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study that investigates the settlement history of Mongolia’s desert-steppe to understand the role of foragers in the evolution of pastoralism. The study examines land use, mobility, technological organization, and environmental context prior to, during, and after the transition to food production (Neolithic-Kitan Periods, ca. 6050 BCE-1150 CE) to detect differences in how, when, and why people moved, illuminating how people make decisions about existing environments. Employing frameworks of habitat suitability and behavioral optimization, this study documents important shifts in land use and mobility across the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition (ca. 2550 BCE) as people began to take up herding. Settlement and population patterns indicate a pronounced change in habitat choice across this transition, suggesting that preferences of committed herding societies (Iron Age and beyond) were firmly established during the Bronze Age as people began to prioritize upland grasslands and productive wintertime vegetation. This shift coincided with the onset of dry, cool conditions, a reversal of wetter, cool environments where prior foragers targeted a broad range of habitats, including wetlands. These patterns set the stage for adaptations that came to define mobile pastoralism across Eurasia including high residential mobility, long distance connections, social differentiation, and broadly adopted mortuary traditions.