This session explores the long-term dynamics of domestication and mobile pastoralism in Inner Asia during the Quaternary, emphasizing the mutual transformations of human societies, animal populations, and environmental systems. Inner Asia has long been a nexus of human-animal interaction, where mobile pastoralist societies have not only shaped the evolutionary paths of domesticated species but also transformed landscapes, economies, and social systems. This session brings together archaeological research from the early Holocene through historical periods focused on examining the domestication and spread of animals—such as dog, sheep, goats, horses, reindeer, camel and cattle/yak —and the emergence of pastoralist lifeways.

Particular emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary studies that integrate zooarchaeology, paleogenomics, paleoproteomics, stable isotope analysis, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and ethnoarchaeological perspectives. We also encourage case studies that situate Inner Asia within broader Eurasian domestication and exchange networks.