Understanding animal domestication and exchange in eastern Inner Asia: new insights from Khoid Senkher Cave

While animal domestication played a central role in early human adaptation to the Mongolian plateau, few archaeological assemblages document the role of animals in early pastoral lifeways in Mongolia, particularly during the 2nd millennium BCE. Here, we present interdisciplinary archaeological and biomolecular investigation of cultural and biological materials from new investigations at Khoid Senkher Cave in western Mongolia, where unique dry preservation conditions have preserved organic remains from two Bronze Age occupation levels. Results demonstrate a key role for both domestic and wild animals, including hare and deer, in the lifeways of the region’s early pastoralists. Extraordinarily well-preserved artifacts from the site, including a fire-starter kit, handheld whip, astragalus charm, textile and fiber fragments, fletched arrows, and animal dung (including horse and dog) reveal the complex daily life and material toolkit of Mongolia’s earliest herding societies. Other finds from the cave show importance of horses and other animals in ceremony and belief from the earliest human occupants of the region through the Mongol Empire and beyond.