The permafrost in the mountains of eastern Eurasia is slowly thawing (not good news, but let's not talk about that), bringing to light the buried bodies of the Mongol Empire... and their insatiable thirst for yak milk.
Recent research examined the remains of a cemetery at the Khorig site, located in the high Khovsgol Mountains of Mongolia. Dating suggests that the cemetery was in use in the 1206th century, around the time the Mongol Empire unified in XNUMX. That year, the feared Genghis Khan he was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols. Thanks to his army of valiant knights, he launched a series of bloody military campaigns in Asia, laying the foundations for the largest land empire in history, which stretched from the Pacific coast to Eastern Europe. The world was never the same again.
The ice age of the Mongol Empire comes back "to the surface"
In 2018 and 2019, the skeletons of 11 individuals were found at an elite burial site. Despite being over 800 years old, the bodies were still in good condition, thanks to the subzero temperatures that preserved the remains. At least until today.
What did the analysis of those bodies reveal to us? Buried with valuable funerary objects and dressed in fine materials, members of the Mongol Empire's elite "thawed" by the permafrost brought a small sea of information to researchers, who detailed their analysis in the journal Communications Biology (I link it to you here).
In the study, the researchers analyzed the remains to understand the lifestyle and diet of the aristocrats of the Mongol Empire. By examining the proteins present in their teeth, for example, they discovered that they consumed horse, sheep, goat, cow and, above all, yak milk. The discovery of yaks is particularly interesting, since these animals play an enormously important role in the culture of the populations of eastern Eurasia: they are extremely useful in these hostile environments, providing high-calorie food, thick hair for warm fabrics and fat to produce useful items such as candles.
A legacy in danger
While thawing permafrost has helped scientists find the bodies of members of the Mongol Empire's elite, it is putting historical remains at risk from looting. If temperatures continue to rise and permafrost degrades further, there are fears that some frozen archaeological remains may be destroyed before they can be properly studied and appreciated.
