Ancient princesses 2,000 years ago helped build a great warrior empire. This led China to build the Great Wall to stop them.
Elite women, perhaps princesses, played a key role in maintaining the Xiongnu. Xiongnu is the first nomadic empire of the eastern Eurasian steppe.
Ancient princesses helped build a vast warrior empire from Kazakhstan to Mongolia. This led China to build the Great Wall.
The mysterious nomadic Xiongnu empire ruled the Eurasian steppes between 200 BC. n. e. and 100 AD. e. It was dominated by women warriors on horses from present-day Mongolia.
The economy of these nomads was based on livestock and dairy farming. The Xiongnu were famous nomads, building their empire on horseback. Their skill in mounted warfare made them swift and formidable foes. Their legendary conflicts with Imperial China eventually led to the construction of the Great Wall.
The Xiongnu built a multi-ethnic empire on the Mongolian steppe that was linked by trade with Rome, Egypt, and Imperial China.
Unlike their neighbors, they never developed a writing system. Because of this, the historical records of the Xiongnu were almost entirely written and transmitted by their rivals and enemies. Such accounts, mostly recorded by Han dynasty chroniclers, provide little useful information about the origins of the Xiongnu, their political rise, or their social organization. Little more is known about them now. It is also being questioned more, based on archegoniates or ancient DNA from skeletal remains.
Analysis of ancient DNA has shown that women were buried in the two Xiongnu necropolises, in the largest tombs. These are women who were closely related to the leaders of the empire. They were buried with rich grave goods. They were buried with decorative gold discs, parts of bronze chariots, and horse equipment.
Further analysis of ancient DNA from smaller tombs showed much greater genetic diversity. It was about male servants. They often came from distant regions of the empire, from the Black Sea to eastern Mongolia, to cement the alliance.
Research has shown that the elite families that controlled the Xiongnu Empire likely sent their wives to the frontiers. Thus, they would strengthen political alliances with local elites.
The most prominent burials were reserved only for elite women. They seem to have been involved in politics.
Women maintained their high status throughout their lives. This was reflected in their special funerals. They had a certain role in politics. They were not just a tool for their male relatives in political games. They were active participants and implemented their policy.
“Our results confirm the long-standing nomadic tradition of elite princesses playing a key role in the political and economic life of empires. They played a special role in peripheral regions. A tradition that began with the Xiongnu and continued more than a thousand years later under the Mongol Empire,” said Dr. Yamsranjaw Baiarsaikhan, leader of the Mongolian archaeological project.
“While history has sometimes dismissed nomadic empires as fragile and short-lived, their powerful traditions have never been broken.”
