The interest in urban structures within the environment of nomadic empires is one of the main research topics of the Russian archeological expedition headed by Prof. Dr. N. Kradin excavating cities of Khitan empires (Liao dynasty: 907-1125) in Mongolia and cities of the Mongolian Empire (1206-1368) in the Transbaikalia region northeast of Mongolia in last 12 years. During many years Russian archaeologists studied cities of the Jurchen Empire of the 12th-13th centuries in the Far East. One of the many results of Russia expedition is that they found traces of a foreign and agricultural population within the nomadic empire cities. Why did the Khitans and Mongols resettle the captives in cities and towns while they remained nomadic? How did they effectively govern large populations of settlers and mobilize resources and human labor to maintain an empire while maintaining mobility? Many researchers wrote about the Chinese and Mongols influence on civilizations of Middle East and Europe. But the influence of Jurchens and Kitans to Western Eurasia still is not studied. The general object of this project - to see what technological ideas and cultural impulses came from the Far East (Khitans and Jurchens-Mongols) on the West - Golden Horde, Europe and so on.
Nikolay Kradin (PhD 1990, Vladivostok, D.Sci 1999, Sankt-Petersburg) is Professor of the Institute of History, archaeology, and ehtnology of the Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Professor of Far-Eastern Federal University at Vladivostok. His research focused in the archaeology, history and anthropology of Inner Asian nomads, political anthropology, and world-system analysis. Kradin is organizer and participant of a lot archaeological and ethnological expedition in Mongolia, Siberia, and Russian Far East. He is author of over 400 scholarly publications, including books Nomadic Societies (1992), Xiongnu Empire (1996), Political Anthropology (2001), Chinggis Khan Empire (2006 – in co-authorship), Nomads of Inner Asia in Transition (2014) etc.