Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 85
These Bronze Age petroglyphs in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, some
of which are 2,000 years old, provide a glimpse of a time when wild animals roamed the Cen-
tral Asian steppes in uncounted numbers.
Some of the Bronze Age petroglyphs that we found in the canyon dated
to about 2,000 years ago, 1,200 years before the days of Genghis Khan. They
illustrated a great profusion of grazing animals, giving us a glimpse of a time
when animals must have been even more abundant than when the Great
Khan brought the nomadic tribes together under one leader.
Wild herds began to decline in numbers as a result of human hunting
long before the time of Genghis Khan. The shortage of wild animals pro-
vided an impetus to domestication. This behavioral transition from hunting
to herding was one of the most important in human history, a change from
