Крадин Н. Империя Хунну

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enemies threaten to capture them from the main hero (see, for example, «Jangar», «Geser» or

tales). Twice, Мао-tun was forced to leave the 'loved' wife's and 'loved' runners.

The fourth likeness of a story of Мао-tun rise with the folklore works was in a

descrip€on of main personages. In the epos and tales, all of main characters are posi€ve, they

express, as a rale, the ideas of the ethnic or mass consciousness. Even if a main hero (character)

is forced in the course of events to accomplish the ac€ons which are condemned in real

situa€ons, it is in no way reŸected on his folklore image. In case of Мао-tun, we see an

absolute analogy with aforesaid. By logic of the legend, everybody must ferociously hate him.

He is an usurper, patricial and tyrant. However, in the legend and reality, Мао-tun don't look as

a dictator (here, a certain parallel comes to mind with the literature image of Chinggis Khan and

his real role in the history of the Mongol empire).

Thus, a story of Мао-tun advent to power total by Ssu-ma Ch'ien can not consider as a

reliable account of events occurring in Mongolia at the border of 3–2 centuries ВС. One can

only say conclusively that Мао-tun come to power by a way of usurpa€on and, therea¦er, he

defeated Tung-hu and forced them to pay tribute.

Here, new ques€on arise before us and two of them appear to be most important. The

‰rst ques€on is related to da€ng of all events men€oned in the legend. Alas! The €me in the

folklore works is not consistent with the real €me. It obeys the subject and changes in

accordance with the events (characters). But the second ques€on is even more complicated:

who was a founder of the 'black' legend of Shan-уй Mao-tun? In the main, this ques€on is a key

one an and a clue of the problem as a whole depends on the answer to it.

2. Economic organizalon

In accordance with the wri„en and archaeological sources, the pastoral nomadism was

a basic business of Hsiung-nu. As for the nomads of Mongolia and Transbaikalia in the later

€mes, the Hsiung-nu bred a typical for Eurasia set of animals: sheep, ca„le, horses and, more

rarely, goats and camels. In addi€on, they had also in small propor€on other species of

domes€c animals. The economic system of the Hsiung-nu empire was based not only on the

pastoral nomadism. The Hsiung-nu developed the internal sedentariza€on and promoted the

agrarian policy, and handicra¦. They created the special se„lements at the places fafourable

for agriculture where they se„led the immigrants from China and personers of war from the

se„led states. The best known se„led sites of Hsiung-nu €mes are Ivolginsky fort and Dureny

se„lement in Burya€a.

A di•erent na€onality of the se„led residents in the west Transbaikalia is con‰rmed by

many arguments of the archaeological studies: (1) predominance in the materials of the

Ivolginsky fort excava€ons of the bones of such

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('non-nomadic") animals as dog and pig; (2) ‰shing business; (3) construc€on of warmed stove-

benches in the houses – kangs; (4) typical Chinese agricultural tools; (5) Chinese shapes of

vessels; (6) Chinese hieroglyphes on a po„ery; (7) anthropologic determina€ons of skills from

the Ivolginsky cemetery [Гохман 1960].

3. Hsiung-nu and Great Wall

A problem of contacts between the nomads and farmers is among the permanently

discussed problems. Almost the fundamental ques€on is in an es€ma€on of a role of nomads in

these processes. Some believed that the nomads were ‰rst of all robbers since earliest €mes

and conquerors who brought death and destruc€on to people. While other considered that

nomads were creators of the original mobile culture. The supporters of the la„er standpoint

see, as a rule, the rela€ons between nomads and se„led people within the framework of

di•erent concep€ons of 'symbiosis'. It would be improper to regard the rela€on between

nomadic and se„led people unilaterally, only as enmity since earliest €mes or, on the country,

symbiosis. In a reality, a situa€on was more complicated. Over the course of the Hsiung-nu

empire existence, the rela€ons between nomads and Han have not remained unchanged but

have subjected to a par€cular evolu€on. One can iden€fy four stages of the Hsiung-nu – Han

rela€ons.

At the `rst stage (200–133 ВС) for extor€on of more higher pro‰ts, the Hsiung-nu have

a„empted to alternate the war and raids with the periods of a peaceful co-habita€on with

China [see Bar‰eld 1981; 1992]. The ‰rst raids have been carried out to obtain a booty for all

member of the imperial confedera€on of nomads regardless of their status. The Shan-уй should

enlist the support of a majority of tribes being members of the confedera€on. A¦er the

devasta€ng raid, the Shan-уй has, as rule, send the ambassadors to China with an o•er to

conclude a new agreement of 'A peace and rela~onship' pr, alterna€vely, the nomads have

con€nued their raids un€l the Chinese have applied with an o•er to conclude a new

agreement. A¦er concluding the agreement and obtaining gi¦s, the raids have ceased for any

€me. However, a¦er a €me when a booty plundered by simple nomads has ‰nished or become

worthless, the ca„le-breeders have against begun to demand from chiefs and Shan-yii a

sa€sfac€on if their interests. By virtue of the fact the border, the Shan-yu has been forced to

'release a steam' and to issue an order to renew to raids.

The second stage (129-58 ВС) of the Hsiung-nu –Han rela€ons is a period of governing

of the Han emperor Wu-di who decided to abolish the strategy of farming from ac€ve

expansion to the North. The war has been waged with a variable success and rendered lifeless

both par€es. None of the par€es has neached the ‰nal victory. As a whole, an experience of a

campaign showed that nomads in the steppe war, in spite of munerical superiority of the

Chinese, have

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the unques€onable advantages as before. As a sole important achievement of the aggressive

an€Hsiung-nu policy of Wi-di, a strengthening of the Han posi€ons in the East Turkestan should

be considered. However a 'cold war' between the Steppe and China con€nued as far as a

commencement of civil war within the Hsiung-nu tribes.

The third stage (56 ВС – 9 AD) of the Hsiung-nu – Chinese rela€ons can be marked o•

since the €me of assump€on by the Shan-yii Hu-han-yeh of vassalage from the Han emperor. A

policy of farming from the nomads by 'gi¦s' was formally replaced by the system of 'tributal'

rela€ons. The Hsiung-nu have undertaken to recognize a suzerainty of Han and to pay a

nominal 'tribute'. For this, the emperor has provided the Shan-уй his protec€on and has given

to him as a vassal the reply gi¦s. In fact, the vassalage of nomads camouŸaged in terms

reŸec€ng the Chinese ideological superiority has been an old policy of extor€on on the side of

nomads with the only di•erence that the reply gi¦s of the Chinese emperor were vastly larger

than before. In addi€on, as may be necessary, the Shan-yii has obtained from China the

agricultural products to support his ci€zens.

The fourth, last stage (9–48 AD) of rela€ons between the Han empire and Hsiung-nu

imperial confedera€on was similar, by its content, to the ‰rst stage. As a pretext for a rupture

of peaceful rela€ons, the territorial claims of the Chinese emperor-pretender Wang Mang, his

interven€on in internal a•airs of nomads and, ‰nally, subs€tu€on of the Shan-уй seal by the

Chinese ambassadors have served. Judging from all this, as opposed to the ‰rst stage of

rela€ons between the Hsiung-nu and China, the nomads have somewhat changed an emphasis

of their foreign-polity strategy towards the s€mula€on of raids to the Han territory. It is

possible this was related to the weakening of the fron€er might of China and instable poli€cal

situa€on within the country. If earlier the northern fron€ers of China were protected using a

powerful network of the signaling-guard du€es and the towns and most crucial sec€ons of the

Great Wall were protected by armed to the teeth garrisons then, at the beginning of the Late

dynasty of Han (since 23 AD), a maintenance of such army was beyond the Chinese

government's means. The raids were found to be more safe and unpunished for inhabitants of

steppe regions, that earlier.

4. Social pyramid

Shan-уй had numerous rela€ves who belonged to his 'king's' clan of Luan-€: brothers

and nephews, wife's, sons and daughters etc. Besides the rela€ves of Shan-yii other noble

'families' (clans): Hu-yan, Lan Hs€-pu and Quilin have been among the highest Hsiung-nu

aristocracy. The next level in the Hsiung-nu hierarchy has been occupied by the tribal chiefs and

elders. In the annals, they are men€oned, as a rule, as 'subordinate kings', 'chief

commandants', 'house-

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hold administrators', chii-ch'U o§cials [Лидай 1958: 17; see also Groot 1921: 55; Watson

1961a: 163-164; Материалы 1968: 40]. Probably, a part of'chiefs of a thousand' were tribal

chiefs. The 'chiefs of a hundred' and 'chiefs of ten' were, most likely, clan leaders of di•erent

ranks. The economic judicial, cult, ‰scal and military func€ons were considered as the

responsibili€es of chiefs and elders. Slightly lower at the hierarchical ladder, the chiefs of non-

Hsiung-nu tribes being members of the imperial confedera€on have been. The Hsiung-nu had a

par€cular strata of service nobility – advisers – immigrants from China and bodyguards.

Basic popula€on of the Hsiung-nu empire has consisted of ordinary nomads – ca„le-

breeders. Based on some indirect data, one can assume that many most important features of

economy, social organiza€on, way of life were essen€ally li„le di•erent from the features of

the nomads of the Mongolian steppes of more recent €mes [Egami 1956; 1963; Крадин 1999].

In the wri„en sources, there is no informa€on concerning the di•erent categories of

poor persons and persons not processing full right who have been engaged in ca„le-breeding in

the Hsiung-nu society. It is alto, unknown how were spread the slave-owning rela€ons among

the Hsiung-nu although the sources are gay with the data of a stealing by nomads of farmers. A

lack of development of a slavery in the Hsiung-nu society can be explained by the cross-cultural

anthropological studies which clearly demonstrate than in none of the pastoral socie€es, a

slavery has not be widely spread [for details see Нибур 1907: 237-265; Хазанов 1975: 133-148;

Khazanov 1984/1994: 160-161; Крадин 1992: 100–111 etc.]. Those researchers are most likely

right [Гумилев 1960:147; Давыдова 1975: 145; Rudenko 1969; Хазанов 1975: 143-144], who

believe that the overwhelming majority of prisoners of war in the Hsiung-nu socie€es has been

engaged in agricultural and handicra¦ in the specially established se„lements. However, as to

social-economic and legal posi€on, the majority of these persons (many of these people were

free deserters) have been no slavers. Their social status has been most likely unequal: from the

condi€onal 'vassalage' to some similarity of serfdom. The Ivolginskoye fortes se„lement near

the city Ulan-Ude in Buryaita was a classical se„lement of such type [Davydova 1968;

Давыдова 1985; 1995; 1996; Hayashi 1984 etc.].

The archaeological data supplement to a great extent an informa€on of writes annals.

Even before a forma€on of the nomadic empire the social stra€‰ca€on traced on the

archaeological data, has existed in the Hsiung-nu society. At the foot of the society, the

ordinary burial places of ordinary nomads are. Above, there are graves of the representa€ves

of the tribal ruling clique in which a great quan€ty of adornments for chariots, rare arms,

jewelry and plates with highly ar€s€c images of animals of gold, rods, pommes of banners etc.

(burial ground of Aluchzaiden and Hsugoupan in the Inner Mongolia in China [Тянь Гуацзинь,

Го Сусинь 1980; 1980а]).

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During a period of the Hsiung-nu prosperity, a social stra€‰ca€on has further increased.

The higher a status of individual the greater are expenses for erec€on of the funeral structure

and the more splendid are things lowered in a grave. In the picturesque taiga Hentay,

Mongolia, the world-famous Noin-Ula burial places were discovered and in the Ilmovaya pad in

the Southern Burya€a, the monumental 'royal' and 'princely* mound graves of the Hsiung-nu

elite are located for building of which considerable e•orts were required [Unehara 1960;

Rudenko 1969; Коновалов 1976]. The burials of ordinary nomads were much simpler and more

poor in this. These are generally rounded or quadrangular stone burial mounds of 5–10 m in

diameter. A depth of the grave hole was generally 2–3 m. At the bo„om of a hole, a wooden

co§n (more rarely a co§n within a framework) has stood. The burial place has been

accompanied by individual goods of households, arms, harness, implements, adornments and

funeral food [Доржсурэн 1961; Коновалов 1976; Цэвендорж 1985 etc.]. The graves of se„led

people living on the territory of Ivolginsky fort were even simpler and more poor [Davydova

1968; Давыдова 1995; 1996]. It demonstrates the complicated mul€layer social structure of

the Hsiung-nu society [in details see Крадин 1999: 405-67, 471, 476-94].

5. Structure of power

The Shan-уй has been at the head of the Hsiung-nu society. In the o§cial documents of

the prosperity period of the Hsiung-nu empire, the Shan-yii has been named as "born by the

heaven and earth, raised by the sun and moon, great Shan-yii of Hsiung-nu [Лидай 1958: 30].

His power of the rulers of other steppe empires of Eurasia has been based on external rather

than internal sources. Shan-yii has used the raids to obtain poli€cal support on the side of

tribes – members on the 'imperial confedera€on'. Furthermore, using the threats of raids, he

has extorted from the Han empire the 'gi¦s' (for distribu€on among rela€ves, chiefs of tribes,

and armed force) and the right for trade with the Chinese in the legions adjacent to a border

(for all ci€zens). As to internal a•airs Shan-yii had much lesser authori€es. The majority of

poli€cal decisions at a local level have been made by the tribal chiefs.

The American anthropologist Thomas Bar‰eld assumes that it is possibly the Han

poli€cians have relied on a simple human avidity and hoped that Shan-yii will make dizzy from

the quan€ty and diversity of rare wonders and will store Up them in his depository for envy of

subjects or squander them for extravagant behavior. However, the Chinese intellectuals –

scribes did not understand the principles of the power of the steppe ruler. A psychology of a

nomad is dis€nguished from that of a farmer and town-dwellers. The status of the ruler Of

nomadic empire depended on the one hand, on the opportunity to provide his subjects with

gi¦s and material wealth and on military might of the power,

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on the other hand, to make raids and extort 'gi¦s'. Therefore, a necessity to support a stability

of the military-poli€cal structure rather than a personal avidity (as the Chinese believed

erroneously) was a reason of permanent demands of the Shan-уй to increase presents. The

largest insult which could be deserved by the steppe ruler was accusa€on of s€nginess. Thus,

spoils of war, gi¦s of the Han emperors and interna€onal trade were main sources of the

poli€cal power in the steppe. Consequently, the 'gi¦s' Ÿowing through their hands not only did

not weaken and, on the contrary, strengthened the power and inŸuence of the ruler in the

'imperial confedera€on' [Bar‰eld 1992: 36–60].

In the eyes of Chinese historians, the Hsiung-nu empire has presented the

expansionis€c state with the autocra€c power. However, in fact, the Hsiung-nu society has

been a quite fragile mechanism. Even during periods of the highest prosperity of the Hsiung-nu

polity (under Мао-tun and his nearest successor), the military-hierarchical system has only co-

existed and supplement the complicated genealogical hierarchy of tribes but never changed it

‰nally. In theory, Shan-уй could demand from subjects implicit obedience and issue any orders

but, in fact, his poli€cal might was limited. First, the supertribal power has remained in the

Hsiung-nu empire because of that (a) membership in the confedera€on provided for tribes

poli€cal independence from neighbours and a number of other signi‰cant advantages, (b)

Shan-уй and his encirclement guaranteed for tribes a par€cular inner autonomy within the

empire. Secondly, an actual power of the tribal chiefs and elders was autonomous from the

policy of the centre. Before the tribes dissa€s‰ed by the policy of the 'metropolis' of empire,

the undesirable for the centre alterna€ve of the decampment to the west or Ÿight to the south

under the patronage of Chine has always occurred.

6. Polilcal system

The eminent Chinese historian Ssu-ma Ch'en has given a detailed descrip€on of the

administra€ve system of the Hsiung-nu empire [Лидай 1958: 17; see also de Groot 1921: 55;

Watson 1961a: 163-164; Материалы 1968:40]. The empire under Мао-tun was divided into

three parts: centre, le¦ and right wings. The wings, in turn, were divided into underwings. The

whole supreme power was concentrated in hands of Shan-yii. Concurrently, he was in charge of

the centre – tribes of the 'metropolis' of the steppe empire. 24 highest o§cials who were in

charge of large tribal associa€ons and had at the same €me military ranks of 'chief of a ten

thousand' were subordinate to Shan-yu. In charge of the le¦ wing, the elder brother –

successor of the throne – was. There nearest rela€ves of the ruler of steppe empire were his

cornier, leader and cornier of the right wing. Only they had the highest €tles of 'kings' (wang in

Chinese). 'Kings' and some more six most moble 'chiefs of a ten thousand' have been

considered to be 'strong' and were in command of not less than ten thousand riders. The rest

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of 'chiefs of a ten thousand' were infact command of less than ten thousand cavalrymen

[Лвдай 1958: 17; Watson 1961a: 163–164 etc.].

At the lowest level of the administra€ve hierarchy, local tribal chiefs and elders have

been. O§cially, they have submi„ed to 24 depu€es from centre. However, intact, a

dependence of tribal leaders was limited. The headquarters was far apart and local chiefs have

enjoyed support of related tribal groups. Thus, an inŸuence of the imperial depu€es on local

authori€es was, to a certain extent, limited and they were forced to take into account the

interests of subordinate to them tribes. Total quan€ty of these tribal groups within the Hsiung-

nu imperial confedera€on is unknown.

The use by the Chinese historian of military ('chiefs of a ten thousand', 'chiefs of a

thousand', 'chiefs of a ten hundred') as well as tradi€onal ('kings'= wang, 'princes' of di•erent

rank, 'chief commandants', 'household administrators', chii-ch 'u o§cials etc.) terms gives

grounds to propose that the systems of military and civil hierarchy have in Parallel existed. Each

of them had di•erent func€ons. The system of non-decimal ranks has been used during wars

when a great quan€ty of warriors from di•erent parts of steppe have joined into one or several

armies [Bar‰eld 1992: 381.

The power of Shan-yii, highest commanders and tribal chiefs at local places has been

supported by strict but simple tradi€onal ways. At a whole, as the Hsiung-nu laws were

es€mated by the Chinese chronicles, the Hsiung-nu's punishment were 'simple and easily

realizable' and were mainly reduced to strokes of the can, exile and death penalty. It provided

an opportunity to quickly resolve the conŸict situa€ons at di•erent levels of the hierarchical

pyramid and to maintain a stability of the poli€cal system as a whole. It is no mere chance that

for the Chinese accustomed from childhood to unwieldy and clumsy bureaucra€c machine, the

management system of the Hsiung-nu confedera€on seemed to be extremely simple:

"management of the whole state is similar to that of one's body' [Лвдай 1958: 17].

A well-balanced system of ranks developed under Мао-tun has not remained later on.

The Chinese historian Fan Yeh has given the same detailed descrip€on of the Hsiung-nu's

poli€cal system in I AD as his eminent predecessor Ssu-ma Ch'ien [Лвдай 1958: 680;

Материалы 1973: 73]. It provides an unique opportunity to observe a dynamics of the poli€cal

ins€tu€ons of the Hsiung-nu throughout 250 years. The most considerable di•erences between

the power of Мао-tun epoch and Hsiung-nu society before collapses are as follows: (1) There

has been a transi€on, from the tribe, military-administra€ve division to dual tribal division into

wings; (2) Ssu-ma Ch'ien wrote about clearly development military-administra€ve structure

with 'chiefs of a ten thousand'. Fan Yeh does not men€on a 'decimal; system and instead of

military rank of 'chiefs of a ten thousand', the civil €tles of 'kings' (wang) are enumerated; (3)

According to Fan Yeh, the whole ‰rst ten of so called 'strong' 'chiefs of a ten thousand' that

shows,

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from the viewpoint of the Chinese chronicles. Their more independent posi€on on the side of

the Shan-уй headquarters; (4) In the Hsiung-nu empire, an order of succession to the throne

has changed. If ordinally the throne of Shan-уй has been passed from the father to the son

(except several extraordinary cases), them other order has become to predominate: from uncle

to nephew; (5) In the Hsiung-nu society, a principle of join government has prevailed according

to which the ruler of the nomadic empire has a cornier controlling a junior by rank 'wing'. A

capacity of junior co-ruler is in herited within his lineage but his successors can not pretend on

this Shan-уй 's throne.

Therefore, these changes demonstrate a gradual weakening of the autocra€c rela€ons

in the empire and their subs€tu€on for federa€ve rela€ons as demonstrated par€ally by a

transi€on from triple administra€ve-territorial division to dual one. The military-hierarchical

rela€ons have been pressed back and the genealogical hierarchy between 'seniors' and 'junior'

by rank tribes have been pushed into the foreground.

Conclusion

Could the Hsiung-nu create their own statehood? How should the Hsiung-nu society be

classi‰ed in the anthropological theories of poli€cal evolu€on? Can they be considered as

states or pre-state forma€ons? These ques€on are up to present discussed by the researchers

of di•erent countries and, especially, by Marxist anthropologists [in details review see in

Крадин 1992]. At present there are two most popular groups of the theories explaining a

process of origin and essence of early state. The con˜ict ox control theories show the origin of

statehood and its internal nature in the context of the rela€ons between exploita€on, class

struggle, war and interethnic predominance. The integra~ve theories were largely oriented to

explain a phenomenon of the state as a higher stage of economic and public integra€on [Fried

1967; Service 1975; Claessen and Skalnik 1978; 1981; Cohen and Service 1978; Haas 1982;

1995; Gailey and Pa„erson 1988; Павленко 1989; Kradin and Lynsha 1995 etc.].

However, from the viewpoint of neither conŸict nor integra€ng approaches, the Hsiung-

nu nomadic empires can not be unambiguously interpreted as a chiefdom or state. A similarity

of the Hsiung-nu empire to the state clearly manifests itself the rela€ons with the outer world

only (military-hierarchical structure of the nomadic society to con‰scate pres€gious product

from neighbours as well as to surpress the external pressure; interna€onal sovereignty, speci‰c

ceremonial in the foreign-policy rela€ons).

At the same €me, as to internal rela€ons, the 'state-like' empires of nomads (except

some quite explainable cases) were based on non-forcible (consensual and gi¦-exchange)

rela€ons and they existed at the expense of the external sources without establishment of the

ca„le-breeders taxa€on. Finally, in the

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Hsiung-nu empire the main sign of statehood was absent. According to many present theories

of the state, the main dissimilarity of the statehood from pre-state forms lies in the fact that

the chiefdom's ruler has only consensual power i.e., in essence authority whereas, in the state,

the government can apply sanc€ons with the use of legi€mated force [Service 1975: 16, 296–

307; Claessen and Skalnik 1978: 21–22, 630, 639–640 etc.]. The power character of the rulers of

the steppe empires is more consensual and prevented from monopoly of legal organs. Shan-yii,

is primarily redistributor and its power is provided by personal abili€es and know-how to get

from the outside of he society pres€gious goods and to redistribute them between subjects.

For such socie€es which are more numerous and structurally developed that complex

chiefdoms and which are at the same €me no states (even 'inchoate' early state), a term

supercomplex chiefdom has been proposed [Крадин 1992: 152; Kradin 2000a]. This term has

been accepted by the colleagues-nomadologists [Трепавлов 1995: 202; Скрынникова 1997:

49] although, at that €me, clear logical criteria allowing to dis€nguish between supercomplex

and complex chiefdoms have not be de‰ned.

The cri€cal structural di•erence between complex and supercomplex chiefdoms was

stated by professor Robert Carneiro in the special paper [ 1992; 2000]. True Carneiro prefers to

call they 'compound' and 'consolidated' chiefdoms respec€vely. In his opinion, a di•erence of

simple chiefdoms from compound ones is a pure quan€ta€ve by a nature. The compound

chiefdoms consist of several simple ones and over the subchiefs of districts (i.e. simple

chiefdoms), the supreme chief, ruler of the whole polity, is. However, Robert Carneiro pointed

out that the compound chiefdoms when they unite in the greater poli€es prove rarely to be

capable to overcome a separa€sm of subchiefs and such structures disintegrate quickly. A

mechanism of the struggle against the structural division was traced by him by the example of

one of the great Indian chiefdoms inhabited in XVII century on the territory of present-day

American state of Virginia. The supreme chief of this polity by Powhatan name, in order to cope

with centrifugal aspira€ons of the segments chiefs, began to replace them with his supporters

who were usually his near rela€ons. This imparted the important structural impulse to the

following poli€cal integra€on.

The similar structural principles have been by Thomas Bar‰eld in the Hsiung-nu history

[1981:49; 1992: 38–39]. The Hsiung-nu power has consisted of mul€-ethnic conglomera€on of

chiefdoms and tribes including in the 'imperial confedera€on'. The tribal chiefs and elders have

been incorporated in the all-imperial decimal hierarchy. However, their power was to certain

degree independent from the centre policy and based on the support on the side of fellow-

tribesmen. In the rela€ons with the tribes being members of the imperial confedera€on. The

Hsiung-nu Shan-yii has relied up on support of his nearest rela€ons and companions-in-arms

bearing €tles of 'ten thousand commander'.

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They were put at the head of the special supertribal subdivisions integra€ng the

subordinate or allied tribes into 'rumens' numbering approximately 5–10 thousand of warriors.

These persons should be a support for the metropolis' policy in the provinces.

Other nomadic empires in Eurasia were similarly organized. The system of uluses which

are o¦en named by Cel€c term of tanis’y [Fletcher 1986], has existed in all the mul€-poli€es of

nomads of the Eurasian steppes: Wu-sun [Бичурин 1950b: 191], European Huns [Хазанов

1975: 190, 197], Turkish [Бичурин 1950a: 270] and Uighur [Bariield 1992: 155] Khaganates,

Mongolian Empire [Владимирцов 1934: 98–110].

Further more, in many nomadic empires, there were special func€oners of lower rank

engaging in the support of the central power in the tribes. In the Hsiung-nu empire, such

persons were named 'marquises' Ku-tu [Pritsak 1954: 196–199]. In the Turkish Khaganate,

there were func€oners designed to control the tribal chiefs [Бичурин 1950а: 283]. The Turk

have also sent their governor-general (tutuks) to control the dependent people [Бичурин

1950b: 77; Материалы 1984: 136, 156]. Chinggis Khan, a¦er reform of 1206, has appointed

special noyons to control his rela€ons [Козин 1941: § 243].

The nomadic empires as supercomplex chiefdoms are already real model prototype of

an early state. If popula€on of complex chiefdoms are as a rule es€mated in tens of thousand

people [see, for example: Johnson and Earle 1987: 314] and they, as a rule, are homogenous in

the ethnic respect then popula€on of mul€-na€onal supercomplex chiefdom make up many

hundreds of thousand and even more people (nomadic empires of the Inner Asia have

amounted to 1–1,5 million pastoral nomads) their territory (nomads, needed for a great are as

of land for pastures!) was several orders greater than areas needed for simple and complex

chiefdoms.

From the viewpoint of neighbouring agricultural civiliza€ons (developed pre-industrial

states), such nomadic socie€es have been perceived as the independent subjects of

interna€onal poli€cal rela€ons and, quite o¦en, as equal in status poli€es (Chinese called them

go). These chiefdoms had a complex system of €tles of chiefs and func€oners, held diploma€c

correspondence with neighbouring countries, contracted dynas€c marriages with agricultural

states, neighbouring nomadic empires and 'quasi-imperial' poli€es of nomads.

The sources of the urbanis€c construc€on (already the Hsiung-nu began to erect the

fortes se„lement whereas the 'headquarters' of the empires of Uighur and Mongols were true

towns), construc€on of splendid burial-vaults and funeral temples for the representa€ves of

the steppe elite (Pazyryksky burial mounds al Altai, Scythian burial mounds in Northern Black

Sea Area, burial placed in Mongolian Noin-Ula, burial mounds of Saks €me in Kazakhstan,

statues of Turkish and Uighur Khagans in Mongolia etc.) are characteris€c if them. In several

supercomplex chiefdoms, the elite a„empted to introduce the sources if

[310]