Long before the Great Wall of China was built, other monumental walls were built through the Eurasian steppes, but were not designed to defend themselves from the Mongries. Recent excavations reveal that they were erected to control the movement of people’s movement or demonstrate power, as well as today’s border walls.
The Great Wall of China covers many thousands of kilometers, the longest section with about 8850 kilometers. This part dates from the Ming dynasty (AD 1368 to 1644) and served as a physical barrier to defend against the Mongolas raids.
Unlike the Great Wall, which is, as the name implies, composed of large walls, the previous system is a network of trenches, walls and enclosures that extend approximately 4000 kilometers in regions further north of China, Mongolia and Russia.
It was built between the 10th and 12th centuries by several dynasties, Chieffly The Jin Dynsty (DC 1115 to 1234), which was founded by Jurchen de Siberia and the Northeast of China, which were mainly pastor.
Gideon Shelach-Lavi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues had already surveyed and mapped the walls using satellite images and donuts, but now they have studied a section that is executed for 405 kilometers until the passage and squeeze.
The structures were formed by a disthe of approximately 1 meter deep and 3 meters wide, with the ground stacked on the one hand, creating a wall of compressed earth that may have been one meter or two high. Then, every few kilometers along the wall, there was a thick and thick stone, approximately 30 meters wide.
For what the walls were built, it has not been clear. There is very little historical documentation on them and they remain at the natural geographical borders, says Shelach-Lavi.
Many historians thought they were built to detain the armies of Genghis Khan, who ruled the Mongol Empire from 1206 to 1227, says Shelach-Lavi.
However, the structures would have a particularly effective bone to the defensive. “This was not bad to stop invading armies,” says Shelach-Lavi.
Instead, he suggests that it was more a sample of power: to demonstrate that the area was under the control of the Jin dynasty. The wall would also have channeled people through the doors in the enclosures, so the flow of people, goods and animals could be handled. I could also have the leg used to avoid small incursions, even if it does not stop armies, he says.
“The idea, I think, is to channel people where you have those enclosures, so you can control them, you can tax them,” he says. “It’s about controlling who moves, this respect is not very different from what we see today.”
The findings in the enclosure also shed light on people there they may have lived. “This is a pastoralist area,” says Shelach-Lavi. “We find a lot of evidence in the region of people who live from grazing and hunting and fishing.”
And yet, in the enclosure, the researchers found coins of the Chinese song dynasty, which was at war with the Jin dynasty, as well as ceramics, a plow head and a platform or stone bench that could be heated and used or bed.
This implies that significant resources were invested in the construction and maintenance of garrison, says Shelach-Lavi, and also that people lived here throughout the year and practiced agriculture. “That is surprising because just today, they don’t make agriculture in this place,” he says.