Ordos culture

The Ordos culture was a group of people who lived a long time ago, during the Bronze and Iron Ages, from about 800 BCE to 150 BCE. They lived in a place called the Ordos Loop, which is in modern-day Inner Mongolia in China. This area included places such as Suiyuan and Baotou.

Bronze statuette of a man, Ordos, 3-1st century BCE. British Museum.

We know a lot about the Ordos culture because of the important things that have been found there, like beautiful art that looks like Scythian art. Some people think the Ordos culture might be connected to groups of people called Indo-European Eurasian nomads, such as the Saka. Others think it might be linked to Palaeo-Siberians or Yeniseians.

Later on, during the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, this area became part of ancient Chinese states. The Ordos culture gives us valuable clues about life and travel in that part of the world many years ago.

Background

The Ordos Plateau had lots of grass, bushes, and trees, with many rivers and streams, making it great for animals to graze. It was one of the best places for animals to feed on the Asian Steppe.

Nomads who rode horses came from far away, from the northwest, and they moved into this area. They had lived in places like the Zhukaigou culture and the Shimao culture before. These horse-riding nomads were later pushed away by the Xiongnu. Some think these nomads arrived around the same time as Alexander the Great was conquering places in Central Asia. They came through the Gansu corridor and finally settled in the Ordos region. Along the way, they might have met the Yuezhi.

This time was also when horse riding and fighting on horses became important in the Chinese state of Zhao, during a time called the Warring States period. The Chinese called these horse-riding groups Hu (胡, "Nomads") or Donghu (東胡 "Eastern Nomads") and Linhu (林胡 "Forest Nomads"). They were good at shooting arrows while riding horses, which caught the attention of the king of Zhao. Sometimes the Chinese wrote about the Hu and the Xiongnu, who built a big empire in the east by the end of the 3rd century BC, but other times they just called the Xiongnu part of the Hu people, a general name for nomadic people.

Early characteristics

Belt plaque, with a tiger subduing an ibex, Ordos, 6-5th century BCE

The Ordos culture was known for its bronze items, weapons, tent decorations, and horse gear, often decorated in a special animal style that shared similarities with distant Scythian art and Chinese art. Some researchers think the Ordos people were the farthest east among Iranian-speaking nomads, close to the Yuezhi people. Others connect them to Palaeo-Siberians or Yeniseians. The weapons found in Ordos tombs are very similar to those of the Scythians and Saka.

Ordos artifacts from the 6th to 5th century BC show a culture based on chariots rather than riding horses. These include chariot decorations found in tombs, made of bronze. Later, around the 4th century BC, grave goods changed significantly. Chariots were replaced by horses, and new designs from Altaic or Northern Asian motifs appeared, first seen in southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu. Gold and silver began to replace bronze. New techniques like granulation were introduced from the west and later adopted by China.

Contact with neighbouring peoples

The Ordos people were located at the doorstep of Qin China, and were just east of the Yuezhi in the 3rd century BCE.

The people of the Ordos culture may have spoken a language related to faraway groups, even though we do not know exactly where they came from. Their artwork shows similarities to the Donghu, a Mongolic-speaking nomadic tribe living to the east, suggesting close connections between the two.

The Ordos people also had frequent interactions, sometimes involving conflict, with nearby Chinese groups before and during the Han dynasty. Their lands lay in areas north of what later became the Great Wall of China and along the northern bend of the Yellow River.

To their west lived another group of Indo-European people called the Yuezhi, but we know little about how they interacted with the Ordos culture.

Arrival of the Xiongnu (circa 160 BC)

The Xiongnu were a large group of people who lived in the area around the Ordos Loop in modern-day Inner Mongolia, China. They first appeared near the Wild Goose Gate and Dai areas before 265 BCE. They were mentioned in old Chinese books as living on the Ordos plateau before the Qin and Zhao states took control of the land.

Around 160 BCE, under their leader Modun, the Xiongnu moved south into areas where the Yuezhi lived. This brought them into direct contact with Chinese lands, and they carried out many raids into China from 167 to 129 BCE. Later, during the Han dynasty, the Chinese fought back and took control of the Ordos area in 127 BCE, turning it into a region called Shuofang.

Xiongnu period artifacts

Artists in North China made beautiful belt decorations for the Xiongnu between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. These belts had designs inspired by art from faraway places, showing animals and scenes from stories. Some belts showed horses, while others had pictures of animals fighting or people wrestling.