| Abstract: |
At the northern littoral of the Tian Shan mountains bordering the southern edge of the great Eurasian steppe, recent archaeological investigations at Tuzusai, a Saka/Wusun period settlement site, indicate the development of a multiple-resource economy based on the cultivation of wheat, barley, and millet and the herding of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. We put forth a model for steppe evolution during the Scythian Period along the circumscribed alluvial fans of the Tian Shan Mountains. Environmental data, architectural information, seed, charcoal, phytolith (microscopic opal silicates), and animal bone remains suggest the existence of a year-round or seasonally based agro-pastoral settlement. We hypothesize that the social evolutionary development of Eurasian steppe communities such as Tuzusai was probably dependent upon the ability of the "nomads" to protect the fertile pockets of cultivated land where farming, herding, hunting, and gathering activities were most viable. The nomadic confederacies that could protect this multiple-resource base later became the chief purveyors of goods, military strength, and political clout along the Silk Route.
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