Introduction
One of the largest areas of the world where pastoral nomadism and irrigating agriculture had been predominant throughout the history is Central Asia. There existed a set of aspects of geography and ecology of Central Asia that influenced the emergence of pastoral nomadism and irrigation agriculture in that territory. In this paper we will attempt to explore some of the causes and effects of pastoral nomadism and irrigating agriculture in Central Asia, taking into consideration its ecological and historic settings.
Ecological reasons
First of all, let’s speak about some of ecological reasons of the appearance of pastoral nomadism and irrigating agriculture in Central Asia. The steppes, deserts and the taiga forests of Central Asia which lie along the middle and upper latitudes are characterized by strictly determined yearly precipitation. Ponomareva stated that the region is faced with the boundaries between different biomes that are not only explained by the accessibility of moisture. It is important to pay attention to the weathering impact of ground water on mineral nutrients in the soils of the region of Central Asia as well. According to Ponomareva, the boundary between the steppe and the taiga was considered to be totally sustainable one that was mainly defined by such factors as the presence of mineral nutrients and topography. From Gilyarov’s perspective, the boundaries of the desert regions of Central Asia had stayed generally fixed since Miocene times.
Special impact on the appearance of pastoral nomadism had definitely the aridity of terrestrial environment. People were obliged to get accustomed to harsh winters and introduced agriculture through the use of irrigation. They had a tendency to keep sheep and goats because they believed that foraging abilities of those animals were superior to that of other species of livestock. The adaptation of these species to the weather conditions of the region, the highly advanced property differentiation, as well as the possession of vehicles and mounts considerably affected the emergence of pastoral nomadism in Central Asia.
In order to explore the causes and effects of pastoral nomadism and irrigating agriculture it would be helpful to look at trade along the Silk Roads, taking into account a number of ecological factors including the presence of desert steppes and mountains. The mountains that cover the biggest territory of Central Asia are extremely high. No matter if it is summer or winter, the mountains in that region are always covered with snow. Their role in the mentioned territory is quite significant. The moisture necessary to the feeding of the rivers is kept in ice-flows and snow. Due to this moisture, the agriculture becomes available in the hollows. Except from the extremely mountainous parts of the region and those flat ones, almost entire territory includes very sandy gravels that are absolutely deprived of trees. The Gobi, vast gravel desert of northern Central Asia is a good example of such deserts which occupy large parts of the continent. Central Asia’s lands could be fertile, as well as they were able to bear fruit only under conditions that they were constantly irrigated by the running water.
Irrigation Systems
Speaking about the development of productive irrigation systems, it is characterized by an extensive human history. Complicated irrigation systems that were able to support substantial agriculture appeared in Central Asia and Iran before the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. Some of long distance territories of Asia nowadays use sophisticated karez system of subterranean tunnels. Thank to this system, the snowbroth is brought from the mountains and is covering large distances with the purpose of reaching faraway sandy deserts. One of such fine meshes of tunnels is, for instance, still working in the area of Hami that could be found in Silk Road.
Central Asia along with previously mentioned aridity is also condemned to enormous seasonal fluctuations in temperature. In spite of the presence of the frozen seas on the northern coasts, the climate is neither moderate, nor it is characterized by sufficient quantity of rainfalls. The fact that Central Asia is situated on the northern latitudes makes its climate colder and less sunlight. In addition, it also means less photosynthesis and much shorter growing seasons. What is more, Central Asia is rich on flat territories and is lacking the broken topography. All in all, the general continentality of the climate of Central Asia may be explained by its size, flatness and deficiency.
The natural productivity of large territory of Central Asia is reduced because of the enormous continentality, high latitudes, as well as aridity. No matter if we speak about the arid belt of steppe along with desert on the southern part or the forest and tundra on the northern that will remain the truth anyway. The aridity in the south leads to the land covered with deserts and grasslands. The average precipitation there differs from twenty-five to fifty centimeters. As for the soils, they are usually very abundant, especially in the central and western parts of the steppes. There they are produced from the composing of various grasses over the period of thousands of years. Finally, the farming in Central Asia became difficult due to the erratic and limited rainfalls.
At the same time, Central Asia was characterized by the visible degree of labor division between pastoralists and farmers. Eurasian steppes preferred horse breeding which also encouraged the further elaboration of old grasslands. Nomads were aware of all effective skills of horses and used them diversely, as food, vehicle and even as military force. Furthermore, horses made it much easier to win other cattle from different enemy’s tribes and their hooves could break snow cover without a sweat that was necessary in order to facilitate access to grasslands. The earliest elements of cultural and economic life that emerged at the neolith epoch thank to the archeological excavations at the eneolithic settlement of Botay, proved to be the fossils of more than seventy thousands species of horses. What is more, from all bones that were found at that time, almost one hundred percent appeared to be the bones of animals.
In 111-11 thousand BC there existed a special form of housekeeping which consisted of farming, horse breeding and metallurgy. Most people though, used to follow mobile lifestyle. As a consequence, pastoral nomadism in 1 BC turned into the prevailing form of housekeeping. Speaking about the epochs of Sakis and Huns, there even existed a few subtypes of nomadism. The first subtype was closely connected with semi-desert areas which were completely impossible for agriculture. As for the second subtype, it was often referred to as seminomadic housekeeping and it usually involved the possession of constant overwintering. Lately, the third subtype which was called resident cattle-breeding could be found in those territories where farming was extremely important component of everyday life.
The dominant form of housekeeping in Central Asia became pastoral nomadism, despite the fact that there also existed two other subtypes that were resident cattle-raising and semi nomadic housekeeping. The prevailing nomadism in those lands was considerably influenced by several factors such as the climate, the type of cattle, as well as the mobility of the population that participated in intermittent scattering.
The barrows of Manchuria that was considered to be one of most prominent nomadic empires were known for palatial pasturage, as well as permanent supplies of melted ice. Different types of vegetation that could be found there were believed to be more nourishing than any of the domesticated livestock feed. In view of this, it became quite understandable why Han China when started to import horses from mountainous areas, preferred to import the plants they were fed as well. Though it may appear that such lands do not have any boundaries, it is necessary to understand that their facility to provide heavy beasts is not unrestricted. Unable to stay in the same place over a protracted period, the majority of nomads together with their horses used to periodic movements. In such a way, they kept an eye on the satisfactory grasslands to feed their herds.
The popular idea, according to which, most nomads possessed no stable settlements as well as no agriculture, it totally inaccurate. On the contrary, recent archeological researches may adequately demonstrate that pure nomadism is, in reality, of limited occurrence. More popular and widespread tend to be assorted economies. There usually existed designed schemes of circulations which the majority of nomadic pastoralists used to follow on a regular basis. Sometimes they even seeded particular grains that later when they returned in had to be reaped.
Speaking about different movements in premodern periods, they could be organized only in such territories where it was possible to find water and where natural geography did not present any difficulties for travelling. Comparing these ideas to the ones common to modern times, they seem quite threatening. Travelling nowadays is possible almost anywhere, thank to technology. It is extremely difficult for a person raised in urban environment to fancy human beings who were obliged to walk or ride large distances in search of some habitable area. In several cases, they had to survive at the borders of large deserts, extremely high mountain passes with the cherished dream to finally meet another human being.
In order to comprehend the complicated history of the Silk Road it is really important to take into consideration the geographic and ecologic factors of the territory. The prominent German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen, who coined the phrase ‘the silk roads’ in the nineteenth century, once pointed out that physical and human geography are almost indivisible concepts. The geographer himself started his magnificent study of China with an exploration of the physical landscape and different natural processes which figured it. The man though always realized that only when the human history of exchange and the relationship between man and his environment would be examined the same way as the physical geography, the mystery of the Silk Road could be read as an open book.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are several aspects of the geography and ecology of Central Asia that had definitely led to the rise of pastoral nomadism and irrigation agriculture which we attempted to describe in our essay. We paid special attention to such geographic factors as availability of water, the presence of mountains, deserts and steppe ecology, as well as diversity of animal population. All of these factors proved to be extremely relevant to the history of Silk Road and might even be one of the reasons of the appearance of trade. Though the major emphasis in our essay was placed on physical geography, we believe that human history is of the same importance as well.
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