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The ancient Greeks first entered the Black Sea before 500 BC, perhaps at first searching for precious metals. Trade flourished as Greek colonies sprang up along the coasts and the Greeks interacted with native barbarian populations. Those relations were shaken by the rise of Rome, when the sea became a place of exile. Even then, however, there was considerable exchange with the populations of the interior, including the Scythians and their successors on the northern steppe.

This chapter offers a general set of steps for writing models to assist the researcher in formulating their own approach to the Bayesian model. The crucial skill of specifying models is often neglected in statistical texts in general and texts on Bayesian modeling in particular. The central importance of model specification also motivates this chapter. The overarching challenge in building models is to specify the components of the posterior distribution and the joint distribution and to factor the joint distribution into sensible parts. This chapter first lays out a framework for doing just that, albeit in somewhat abstract terms, before moving on to a more concrete example—the effects of grazing by livestock and wild ungulates on structure and function of a sagebrush steppe ecosystem.

Historic and photographic evidence shows that sagebrush (sagebrush-steppe is 53% of the northern range) were moderate to abundant from 1872-1920, significantly reduced from 1920-1960, and recovered to moderate levels after 1960 in higher-elevation winter areas, but not in lower. Periodic sagebrush measurements inside and outside exclosures show low cover in 1957 and 1962 (when exclosures were established) following around seventy-three years of elk abundance, increases inside exclosures up through 1990, lesser increase outside at higher elevations at higher wintering elevations, but none at lower. An extensive inside-outside sagebrush study in 1994 showed inside sagebrush density at higher elevations to be 1.61x that on the outside, and inside production per unit area 3.03x that on the outside. Abundance of herbaceous vegetation was low inside and outside exclosures in 1957 and 1962, increased following herd reductions to 1980 or 1985, then decreased again by 1990. Sagebrush and perennial grass abundances are hypothesized to be a function of the intensity and the length of elk browsing/grazing, while grass is additionally affected by sagebrush competition. Invasive, exotic annuals are conspicuous in grazed vegetation, but not in ungrazed.

This chapter examines the role of the nomads in shaping the history of Central Asia during the period from the early Iron Age to the rule of the Kushan Empire. This study is based on the archaeological and chronological framework provided for the middle Zerafshan Valley by the site of Koktepe. The findings suggest that the nomads are a constant factor in the history of the steppe belt and of all the adjacent southern lands, and that they may have played an important role in the renewal of cultures and in the development of international trade.

In the mid-16th century, the two most powerful states of Eastern Europe, the Tsardom of Muscovy and the Kingdom of Poland, set out almost simultaneously for the east. In the brief period between 1552 and 1556, the Muscovite forces managed not only to defeat and subjugate the two largest Tatar khanates on the Volga, those of Kazan and Astrakhan, but also to subordinate the Siberian khanate and the Circassian and Kabardian princes. The steppe expanses of southern Ukraine were not fully controlled by any of the states bordering on them. From the time of the Mongol invasion, the steppe became an area of nomadic wandering and foraging, subject to no official regulation, by bands of fishermen, hunters, and freebooters who began to be called Cossacks. Cossackdom would later be recognised as a distinct corporate order with privileges, liberties, and prerogatives of its own. Religion, especially Orthodoxy, played a key role in the history of the Cossack movement.

This lecture discusses some preliminary observations on the early cultural relationship between China and Central Asia in the light of the most recent archaeological discoveries from Northwest China. It considers three main issues: the role of outside influences in the beginnings and early development of bronze metallurgy in China, the shift to the ‘Steppe Road’, and the two-way traffic of cultural influence along the prehistoric ‘Silk Road’. The lecture also tries to show that early cultural interaction between China and Central Asia was the crucial drive for the growth of civilisations in both regions.

Through a reading of nineteenth-century Persian natural histories and travel narratives about the Eurasian steppe from eastern Iran to western China, this chapter diverges from prevailing empire-centered analyses of conquest to examine frontier exchanges and interconnections between the pastoral and the imperial. In the late sixteenth century, the Oxus River changed course, leading to the expansion of the sandy steppes of the Qara Qum or “Black Sands” Desert—the arid desert between the Caspian Sea and the Oxus River. As the river changed course, no longer reaching the Caspian, Turkmen pastoralists found new possibilities in the expanding arid steppes of the Qara Qum, forging a powerful and wide-reaching equestrian network in the Eurasian steppe. In the desert, Turkmen pastoralists domesticated wild horses and the swift Akhal Tekke breed, and gained control of the oases. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Turkmen thus carved out a loose trading and raiding confederation built on the power and speed of horses capable of making seemingly impossible journeys through the steppes. This pastoral power and equestrianism of the Turkmen frontier determined the boundaries of early modern Eurasian empires.

The sagebrush steppe is generally comprised of treeless, shrub-dominated communities along the eastern and northeastern boundary of California. This chapter discusses the characteristics, climate, and topography of the sagebrush steppe, focusing on the potential plant communities that comprise the natural vegetation of the Artemisia steppe of California. These communities are identified by dominant shrub and herbaceous species. The chapter also provides examples of several plant communities that currently characterize much of the Artemisia steppe of California.

This chapter examines the state of tsarist knowledge by the mid-1860s and compares it with administrative reform as actually practiced on the Kazak steppe. To this end, the chapter analyzes the intellectual world in which the Steppe Commission operated. The Steppe Commission was formed to collect as much information about the Kazak steppe as possible, to be used in the formulation of a new governing statute. The chapter also considers the role played by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (IRGO) in the Russian Empire's apparatus of knowledge production; the question of whether the Kazak steppe should permanently remain a borderland apart or could ultimately progress to grazhdanstvennost', or “civil order”; the knowledge potential reformers had with respect to Islam in the region; and the Provisional Statute of 1868.

This chapter presents a bioarchaeological study of the widespread practice of skull deformation among the peoples of the Iron Age Sargat culture living in the forest-steppe region of the Trans-Urals and western Siberia. Archaeological investigation of the Sargat culture has yielded burial mounds (kurgans) containing the remains of males, females and juveniles, only few of whom display evidence of intentional cranial deformation. Skeletal and contextual analysis of the burials of this small group of individuals, dating to 100 bc to 300 ad, indicates that skull deformation among the Iron Age Sargat culture served as a marker of social status, signaling membership in a semi-nomadic privileged group that likely held greater social and/or political power than the majority of the population.

The socio-political organization and political culture of the Scythian kingdoms from the second half of the 7th century until the mid-3rd century BCE demonstrate principle similarity with those of many later nomadic states in the Eurasian steppes. Those states were based on subordination of and tribute extraction from sedentary countries and populations. The only peculiar characteristic of Scythian statehood was the centuries-old contacts with the Greek world and its classical civilization. These multifarious contacts were instrumental in the growing social stratification and cultural fragmentation of Scythian society. The late history of Scythia, in the last centuries BCE—the first centuries CE, was characterized by intensified processes of sedentarization, urbanization, and syncretic culture, that borrowed a great deal not only from Greeks culture, but from the Sarmatians as well. Only a few cultural traits retained the old Scythian traditions. In the third century CE, the last Scythian kingdom was destroyed and the Scythians departed forever from the historical arena.

The Stories of the Roman Empire and the Mayans are well known and have fascinated generations of scholars, artists, storytellers, and his­tory enthusiasts. Less familiar are the ways in which the changing climate contributed to the rise and fall of these civilizations, and of the Anasazi, among others in North America. This chapter examines the fates of differ­ent societies in three climatic periods: the warm Classical Optimum (300 B.C.E. to 350 C.E.), cooler conditions in the Dark Ages (500 C.E. to 800 C.E.), and drought in the Americas (950 C.E. to 1250 C.E.). Recent gains in the reach and resolution of paleoclimatology have enabled more detailed reconstruction of climate and health relationships. Beginning around 300 B.C.E., Europe and the Mediterranean experienced a prolonged period of warm and stable climate—often termed the Roman Warm. Historian John L. Brooke has labeled the ensuing “remarkable” 600 to 800 years of benevolent climate conditions the Classical Optimum, and he suggests that the effects were global. A positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) pushed warm winds west towards Scandinavia, glaciers retreated, and the Mediterranean settled into its characteristic pattern of dry summers and winter rainfall. In the wake of the spread of farming and rising fertil­ity rates, the estimated global population was approaching 200 million. Cities were becoming larger and grander, trade routes were extending, and armies and their iron weaponry were ranging further afield. So too were various infectious agents, many of them beneficiaries of the new and intensifying transcontinental contacts among China, Rome, South Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa. During this period, the Mediterranean sustained “the deepest land­scape transformation in antiquity.” Scattered populations increased and coalesced into forts and cities, supported by thousands of new farms. By around 300 C.E., however, the Classical Optimum began to wane. Ice- melt events cooled northern Europe, and by 500 C.E. the strong NAO reversed, bringing a deep cold. The shifting climatic con­ditions placed enormous pressure on the civilizations that had trans­formed their socio- ecological systems during conditions more favourable to agricultural productivity and human health.

Working groups and government agencies are planning and conducting land actions in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats to benefit Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations. Managers have adopted an umbrella concept, creating habitat characteristics specific to sage-grouse requirements, in the belief that other wildlife species dependent on sagebrush will benefit. The efficacy of this approach was tested by first identifying the primary environmental gradients underlying sagebrush steppe bird communities, including Greater Sage-Grouse. Field sampling for birds and vegetation was integrated with geographic information system data to characterize 305 sites sampled throughout the current range of Greater Sage-Grouse in the Intermountain West, United States. The relative overlap of sagegrouse with thirteen species of passerine birds was observed along the multiscale gradients. Passerine birds associated with sagebrush steppe habitats had high levels of overlap with Greater Sage-Grouse along the multiscale environmental gradients. However, the overlap of the umbrella species was primarily a function of the broad range of sagebrush habitats used by sage-grouse.

This study examined the relationship between the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands and Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Washington state including an assessment of population change, nest-site selection, and general habitat use. Nest-site selection of eighty-nine female sage-grouse was monitored between 1992 and 1997 with the aid of radiotelemetry. The proportion of nests in CRP lands significantly increased from 31% in 1992–1994 to 50% in 1995–1997, although more nests were detected in shrub steppe (59% vs. 41% of 202 nests). The increase appeared to be associated with maturation of CRP fields, which were characterized by increased cover of perennial grass and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). Nest success was similar for nests placed in the two cover types. Analysis of male lek attendance prior to implementation of CRP (1970–1988) illustrated similar rates of population declines in two separate groups of sage-grouse in north-central and south-central Washington. Data from 1992 to 2007 following establishment of the CRP revealed a reversal of the population decline in north-central Washington while the south-central population continued a long-term decline.

Hodgson’s predilection for thinking in abstract, conceptually grounded ways about historical subjects make him profoundly different form other historians. Examples abound in his considerations of many aspects of Islamic and world history, both great and small. Crossley has found Hodgson’s “military patronage state” to be of particular interest. All steppe empires (another Hodgsonian concept) from East Asia to the Ottoman empire were shaped by their common of the ruler as the proprietor of the state. From this it followed that the state was ruler’s personal monopoly and the centralized bureaucracy was an emanation of his household. For Muslims this was the figure of the padishah. The greatest of them was the Mongol ruler, the Great Khan. Steppe empires, Crossley explains, like early Islamic empires, were accretions of larger and larger patronage systems with the important difference that they were centered upon the primacy of military power. But the Mongols and other East Asian pastoral nomadic steppe empires were also imbued with the heritage of the Chinese imperial system. Crossley concludes that Hodgson’s concepts of the steppe empire and the military/patronage state as practiced by Mongol-style regimes continue to has relevance to the history of a range of empires across Asia.

The East Slavs, the ancestors of the Russians, first settled Europe's wooded northeastern periphery sometime in the latter half of the first millennium. Their notion of self and other would ultimately be defined by forest and steppe, and some of them eventually came to pay tribute to the Khazars that controlled the region around the lower Volga River from the seventh through the ninth centuries. The Khazars profited from commerce with various trading partners, which influenced the nomads. During most of its existence, the steppe posed the primary external threat for much of the Rus, and the steppe nomad was Russia's Oriental other.

This chapter reviews the affairs of frontier people from the first direct but sporadic encounters between Russians and Chinese. Relations between the Russian and Chinese empires on their shared steppe frontier can be divided into three phases. The first phase lasted through the late seventeenth century. During this time, Cossacks entered Transbaikalia and came in contact with Mongol nobles while the Qing established rule over Hulunbeir. The second phase, from roughly 1728 to 1851, was characterized by a balance of power between Beijing and Saint Petersburg, the establishment of permanent yet deficient border surveillance by both polities, and intensifying contacts on the border, in particular routed through Kiakhta, the year-round location for border trade. The third and final phase lasted from 1851 to the end of the nineteenth century. This period was marked by a shift of power in favor of Russia.

As the pearl crisis raged, a rush for wild steppe mushroom moved to the center of the imperial agenda in Mongolia. Unheralded and forgotten, steppe mushrooms were big business in the Qing; by the 1820s, thousands of undocumented workers crossed the internal boundary from China to Mongolia each year in search of mushrooms. The chapter opens with the case of a passport forger whose arrest triggered a court edict against mushroom picking in 1829; we have little else of the affair in Chinese. The archives in Ulaanbaatar, however, contain hundreds of documents that detail the long, violent conflict that culminated in his arrest. By analyzing the confessions of mushroom pickers and the depositions of local officials, the chapter reconstructs the history of the mushroom rush and explores how a recreating a “pure” and pristine environment in Mongolia became the top concern of the court.