"The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."
-- GENGHIS KHAN
Boy, talk about a man who knew what he wanted out of life. He also knew how to get it: after the tribal leader known as Temujen was crowned in A.D. 1206 as the Mongols' Genghis Khan -- "emperor of all emperors" -- he waged nearly continuous wars of conquest against his neighbors. By his death in 1227, Genghis Khan ruled most of the lands between the Sea of Japan and the Caspian Sea, an empire that encompassed two-thirds of the known world and far eclipsed the celebrated realms of Alexander the Great. To those who were overrun by the Khan's mounted hordes -- and to the victims' modern descendants -- the Mongols were a barbaric people who swept out of the unknown reaches of the Asian steppe, a warmongering race whose only talents were for rape, murder and pillage.
The Mongols were indeed good at all that. But thanks in part to recent archaeological finds in the arid lands of Inner Mongolia, now part of China, historians have begun to realize this perception of the medieval Mongols is woefully one-dimensional. Genghis Khan, their most celebrated leader, was not merely a bloodthirsty killer but also a supreme military strategist and talented politician, as adept at forging alliances and gathering intelligence as he was at wreaking terror and havoc. And the Mongol civilization he ruled had a rich cultural and artistic heritage that went back at least 6,000 years.
Now the public has an unprecedented chance to peer over the shoulders of archaeologists and historians and get a firsthand look at the legacy of the Mongols and their Asian predecessors. A traveling exhibition called "Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan" opened last week at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City after a hugely successful five-month run at California's Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The show features more than 200 artifacts dating from roughly 2000 B.C. through the dynasty founded by Genghis Khan's grandson, Kubilai Khan, in the 13th century A.D. Most of the objectshave never before been permitted to leave China. Says the show's curator, archaeologist Adam Kessler of the Los Angeles museum: "Inner Mongolia is one of the great frontiers of archaeology left in the world today."
Before that frontier opened up, scholars had to rely mostly on Chinese and Persian manuscripts for their information. The newly discovered treasures have helped place those manuscripts in context as well as providing valuable clues to the cultural development of Eurasia. Everyday items such as bronze vessels, weapons, clothing and funerary offerings provide a picture of daily life. And the discovery of both Chinese- and Indian-inspired imagery on porcelain and sculpture confirm Mongolia's role in the cultural exchange between China and Eurasia.