Archaeologists have discovered a possible reason why the Great Wall of China has huge cracks, calling into question its effectiveness as a defensive structure. A team of scientists studying a little-known section of the wall on the border with Mongolia published their findings in the Journal of Field Archaeology.
Although most people think of the Great Wall of China as a long and continuous structure stretching for thousands of kilometers, it is actually a whole series of defensive fortifications built in different eras, and sometimes they duplicate each other or even intersect.
The earliest sections of the wall were built in the 7th century BC, but it wasn’t until the 3rd century BC that Qin Shi Huang – the first emperor of unified China – combined several existing walls into a single system to defend against invasions. Construction continued until the 16th century, and it is from this period that the largest and best-preserved parts of the wall date.
The area that the authors of this study focused on – they call it the “Mongolian Arc” – has so far received very little attention and is one of the most mysterious.
This section of the wall stretches for about 400 km in a circle that runs more or less parallel to the modern China-Mongolia border. It is part of a larger wall system, believed to have been built between the 11th and 13th centuries, consisting of earthen walls and associated structures including trenches, fortifications and watch towers.
As the authors of the study note, this system is one of the most mysterious parts of the Great Wall of China.
“Despite its scale and complexity, it is unclear exactly when it was built, who built it, and for what purpose. It is not even clear whether the entire mass of walls was built at the same time or, as we now assume, is an accumulation of different projects that over a long period of time,” the study said.
The aim of the latest study was to comprehensively document and provide a preliminary analysis of a section of the Mongolian Arc that is located in remote areas and is also less visually impressive.
By collecting scattered information about the Mongolian arc, such as old Soviet maps, satellite images, Chinese atlases, as well as surveying the object directly on the spot, the team of scientists created a significantly better map of the object. One of the team’s key findings was the discovery of large gaps in some sections.
Field studies have shown that these gaps are not the result of natural processes, however, researchers do not believe that the gaps were left intentionally to allow people to move on different sides of the wall, as this reduces the effectiveness of the structure as a whole.
Although the cause of these ruptures has not yet been confirmed, researchers offer one possible explanation: the Mongol Circle was hastily constructed in the final years of the Jin Dynasty to defend against impending Mongol invaders. As a result, some parts may have been incomplete.
Historians have made this argument before, but recent research may provide the first archaeological evidence to support this “hasty wall construction” hypothesis.
However, the researchers also found some evidence that the main purpose of the Mongol circle – or at least part of it – may not have been defense against invaders, but control of the movement of people and their herds. The authors say they plan future studies to test several hypotheses.
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2024-01-07 14:01:35
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