Xiongnu Ironworking

The Xiongnu made iron in their own land. The excavated complex of Ivolga held a workshop with a smelting furnace, and the open camps of the Khanui valley hold iron slag at six occupation areas.^[1] The Chinese histories name the Xiongnu’s iron arms and say nothing of where they were made.^[2]

The weapons in the Chinese histories

The Shiji and the Han Shu describe the arms of the Xiongnu in one sentence. Their long weapons were the bow and arrows, and their short weapons were the knife and the dan.^[2] A commentary explains the dan as a lance that looks like a spear and has an iron shaft.^[3] The texts say that the men who could draw a bow all became armoured horsemen.^[2] They do not say where the armour or the blades were made.^[2]

The furnace at Ivolga

The Ivolga complex in Buryatia is a fortified settlement of about seven hectares. It held a workshop with a well preserved smelting furnace inside the wall.^[4] It also yielded the charcoal and slag that go with smelting.^[5] The find shows that the Xiongnu produced iron within their own territory and did not only import it from Han China.^[5] Ivolga is one of only two workshops with smelting furnaces known for the Xiongnu period.^[4]

The seasonal camps of the Khanui valley

The Khanui valley lies in north-central Mongolia. There the survey found iron slag at six of the occupation areas that were tested by excavation.^[5] Most of the slag lay along the foothills.^[5] The excavators read this as small-scale iron-making that was widely practised, probably in season.^[5] It shows for the first time that iron was made at open seasonal camps and not only in workshops of fortified settlements.^[5] They conclude that the iron-making of the Xiongnu period was decentralised.^[5]

The same study states the limits of the evidence. No bloomery furnace has been found in the Khanui valley, although the bloomery process seems the likeliest way of making iron in Mongolia at that time.^[6] Other excavated Xiongnu habitation sites show no sign of metal production.^[5] Slag and crucibles have been reported on or near Xiongnu burials in the northern Gobi.^[5] The scarcity may only reflect how few settlements have been investigated.^[5]

Iron in the graves

Many iron objects have come out of Xiongnu graves across Mongolia.^[5] The belt ornaments show a change of material. In the second and first centuries BC the elite wore belt plaques of stone or of open-work bronze. Later the bronze plaques gave way to belt ornaments of gilded iron.^[7] Two of the later examples come from grave 27 at Burkhan Tolgoi and grave 15 at Shombuuzyn Belchir.^[8]

A Xiongnu or Wuhuan burial site has yielded caches of iron weapons and implements made in Han China.^[9] The bans on the export of iron tell what the Chinese courts tried to prevent.

Limits of the sources

The Chinese histories name no Xiongnu smith, no mine and no forge.^[2] The archaeological finds do not date the smelting to a reign or a chanyu.^[5] The article on Göktürk ironworking tells a later case in which the sources do name smiths.

References

^ Houle 2011, p. 138, 150
^ a b c d e Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94
^ Shiji, juan 110
^ a b Houle 2011, p. 138
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houle 2011, p. 150
^ Houle 2011, p. 151
^ Miller 2014, p. 26, 29
^ Miller 2014, p. 26
^ Jagchid 1989, p. 183

Sources

Shiji, juan 110
Han Shu, juan 94 (after Shiji)

Literature

Jean-Luc Houle; Lee G. Broderick, Settlement Patterns and Domestic Economy of the Xiongnu in Khanui Valley, Mongolia (2011)
Bryan K. Miller, Xiongnu “Kings” and the Political Order of the Steppe Empire (2014)
Sechin Jagchid; Van Jay Symons, Peace, War, and Trade Along the Great Wall. Nomadic-Chinese Interaction through Two Millennia (1989)