Earliest hydraulic enterprise in China, 5,100 years ago

Abstract

Here we present one of the world's oldest examples of large-scale and formalized water management, in the case of the Liangzhu culture of the Yangtze Delta, dated at 5,300-4,300 years cal B.P. The Liangzhu culture represented a peak of early cultural and social development predating the historically recorded Chinese dynasties; hence, this study reveals more about the ancient origins of hydraulic engineering as a core element of social, political, and economic developments. Archaeological surveys and excavations can now portray the impressive extent and structure of dams, levees, ditches, and other landscape-transforming features, supporting the ancient city of Liangzhu, with an estimated size of about 300 ha. The results indicate an enormous collective undertaking, with unprecedented evidence for understanding how the city, economy, and society of Liangzhu functioned and developed at such a large scale. Concurrent with the evidence of technological achievements and economic success, a unique relationship between ritual order and social power is seen in the renowned jade objects in Liangzhu elite burials, thus expanding our view beyond the practicalities of water management and rice farming.

Ancient Maya wetland fields revealed under tropical forest canopy from laser scanning and multiproxy evidence

“…Evidence has matured steadily since then for crop, soil, and water management systems (10, 11). Wetland fields and canals make up one such system, and similar systems are widespread across indigenous Mesoamerica and the neotropics (12–19), as well as in ancient China (20), Angkor Wat (21, 22), New Guinea (23), and in modern Africa (24). Wetland systems have been keys for human subsistence, and their sediments and stratigraphy can provide evidence for human responses to droughts, floods, and sea level change (21, 25–27), as well as global scale human-induced environmental change that may amount to an Early Anthropocene (28, 29).…”

Subsistence and persistence: agriculture in the Central Plains of China through the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition

“…During the transition period, many of those regional traditions underwent profound changes. In the lower Yangzi River area, for example, the Liangzhu Culture appears to have ended at around 4000 BP, along with the walled 290ha Mojiaoshan site cluster with its elite cemeteries, jade workshops, platforms and surrounding 34km 2 settlement system (Liu et al 2018). The broadly contemporaneous middle Yangzi Shijiahe Culture (4600-4000 BP) suffered population decline, and the subsequent abandonment of its main centre, the 8km 2 Shijiahe site cluster (Zhang 2013).…”

The emergence of complex society in China: the case of Liangzhu

“…But, while a decade ago the two societies in question—the Cycladic Keros-Syros culture and the Liangzhu culture of the Lower Yangtze River—might have been considered comparable in a number of ways, recent discoveries show that they were very different in scale (Liu et al . 2016, 2017; Marthari et al . 2017).…”

“…One estimate suggests that the amount of earth used for the Tangshan dam alone was in the order of two million cubic metres (Liu et al . 2017).…”