Unusual information has been revealed about a section of the Chinese wall: it was built in haste

It has long been known that many sections of the Great Wall of China were built for defensive purposes, evoking thoughts of epic battles and armies of warlike neighbors. But recent research into the majestic structure’s “Mongolian arc” both confirms and complicates this notion. It also allows us to obtain some potentially important information about the socio-political environment of the medieval world of the Middle Kingdom.

The Mongol Arc is a crescent-shaped wall built between the 11th and 13th centuries. It crosses the remote Mongolian provinces of Dornod and Sukhbaatar, running parallel to the border between China and Mongolia, and is the least explored section of the Great Wall.

New excavations at the Arc may reveal hasty attempts by ancient China to stop rapidly advancing armies, or it may reveal that the wall was needed to herd livestock.

Technically, experts note that the Great Wall of China is not a single structure, but an extensive network of long walls, trenches and supporting fences built over many millennia.

The most visited section of the Great Wall of China was built during the Ming Dynasty from 1348-1644. The “Mongolian Arc” is located north of this area and was built approximately 500 years earlier. It is not as eye-catching as its more stately counterpart. This is explained by the fact that, due to its isolated location and visually unremarkable appearance, the boundaries of the arc have not been studied until now. An international team of researchers combined remote sensing technology and satellite imagery, historical Chinese atlases and Soviet maps, and field work to trace the entire arc wall line for the first time.

The border between China and Mongolia has been highly disputed for centuries, with forts and walls erected along it. The Mongol Arc was built during the early Jin Dynasty.

“This is an area and period very important to Genghis Khan’s rise to power,” said project lead scientist Gideon Shelah-Lavi. “Our research reveals the process by which the Jin created the wall as a border zone.”

Chinese historian Wang Guowei first presented the “hasty construction of a wall” hypothesis at these sites in 1921. The latest research has finally uncovered the first archaeological evidence to support it.

The line of the Mongolian Arc wall is interrupted by numerous breaks—some caused by natural processes such as sand erosion—but many deliberately end in places where no wall ever existed.

Researchers view these unfinished areas as vulnerable areas that could undermine the integrity of the wall system. They believe these gaps are likely the result of accelerated construction in anticipation of a swift invasion by the Mongol armies.

“In a hurry, these walls were built not only to defend against any impending invasion of the heartland of China,” says Brian Miller, curator of Asian archeology at the University of Michigan, “but also, more importantly, to fend off the looming threat of capture by another group.” in our case, the Mongols, these border lands.”

So far, 34 additional fences have been mapped near the Mongol Arc wall line. They were clearly not used for military purposes. Their proximity to the wall indicates that they were important to the functioning of the wall system. Structures tend to be located at lower elevations in the landscape, and most are not within sight of another building. It is likely that the fences played a “bureaucratic role” in moving people and livestock through the walled area and across streams.

“Field work like this,” Brian Miller explains of the challenges scientists face, “is more demanding, requiring days of off-road driving and planning for food and supplies to manage the camp.”

But the project’s researchers are determined to continue testing the “quickie wall” idea. Excavations continue in 2024. Scientists hope to narrow down the time period of the wall’s construction to better determine what key events took place in these remote corners of historical Mongolia.