Several Bronze Age Cauldrons Have Been Found Across The Mongolian Steppe And May Have Been Used To Collect Animal Blood For Sausage Production

Across the Mongolian steppe, archaeologists have encountered several ancient cauldrons. For a while, the purpose of the cauldrons was a puzzle they just couldn’t piece together.
Now, new research suggests that the vessels were once used to collect the blood of animals, possibly for sausage production.
Researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Basel, the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the Mongolian Institute of Archaeology, and the National Museum of Mongolia teamed up to determine the purpose of the cauldrons.
The team removed samples of caked residue from the insides of two cauldrons that Mongolian herders discovered in 2019. The residue revealed that the vessels date back 2,750 years to the Bronze Age.
They also conducted protein analyses on the cauldrons. During their studies, they identified traces of blood from various animals. Most of the blood came from sheep and goats.
It is believed that Bronze Age Mongolians slaughtered the animals, collected their blood, and stored it in the cauldrons to make blood sausages with. The custom is still practiced today in some rural parts of Mongolia.
Furthermore, ancient steppes people formed sausages as a method of preserving food, so the tradition was both for culinary and practical purposes. The researchers also addressed other possible reasons for the blood kept in the cauldrons.
“While it is possible that blood could have been collected for raw consumption or ritual purposes, we believe that it is more likely an aspect of food preparation,” wrote the researchers. “The use of these vessels as containers for collecting and holding blood aligns well with how blood sausages are made in modern food processing.”
Blood was not the only substance the researchers found in the containers. There were also remnants of yak milk.

Brekke – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The discovery may have helped shed some light on the history of yak domestication. Rock carvings from the Bronze Age depict humans domesticating yaks, but it is unclear when exactly the practice began.
The peptides in the yak milk from the cauldrons suggest that yaks were domesticated at least 2,700 years ago, which is sooner than experts previously thought.
The milk may have been preserved in the cauldrons so it could undergo the process of fermentation to form yogurt. Or, it may have been used during sausage production.
Since the vessels were used mainly for blood collection, the researchers noted that the milk could have been accidentally incorporated into the cauldrons during the collection or processing of the blood.
The peptides also revealed that the milk may not have come from just one species. One of the peptides aligned with yaks, but the others could have been from goats, sheep, cows, or even reindeer.
Overall, these new findings have allowed researchers to glimpse into the diet and culinary traditions of Mongolian nomads who lived during the Bronze Age.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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