Great Wall of China's northern segment was not built for war, but for screening movement of civilians, finds new study

A new study has now found that the northern segment of the Great Wall of China was built not to block invaders, but rather to screen the movement of civilians. The two-year research was conducted by archaeologists from Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

As per a report in New Scientist, while it was earlier thought that the medieval forerunner to the Great Wall of China was built to defend against Mongol armies led by Genghis Khan, the study found that the wall was actually built before his birth.

The report adds that the Great Wall of China is actually a collection of multiple walls. The 8,850 km stretch that tourists love actually dates back from the Min Dynasty and was indeed built to keep away the Mongols. However, it is only a part of the larger wall.

File image of the Great Wall of China. Wikimedia Commons

According to researchers, the wall which was built to the north a few centuries earlier runs roughly west to east through north-east Mongolia. It then enters Russia and then ends in north-east China’s Inner Mongolia region.

According to a report in Phys.org, when researchers mapped the Great Wall's 740-kilometre (460-mile) Northern Line for the first time, their findings shed a whole new light.

Lead author of the study, Gideon Shelach-Lavi, said, "Prior to our research, most people thought the wall's purpose was to stop Genghis Khan's army."

Researchers found that the Northern Line is relatively low in height, close to path and points towards non-military functions.

Shelach-Lavi added that their conclusion is that the Northern Line wall was more about monitoring or blocking the movement of people and livestock and maybe tax them.

The Northern Line, which is also known as the "Genghis Khan's Wall" was actually constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries, the report added.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Professor Shelach-Lavi and his team examined the placement of the wall and the way it was built using computerised spatial analysis and by using drones for satellite imagery to come to the conclusion the wall was built during the time of the Liao dynasty.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Antiquity.