Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China

Abstract

Archaeologists and palaeoclimatologists have focused on the impact of climate on the prehistoric civilizations around the world; however, social resilience in the face of the climate change remains unclear, especially during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Central Plains of China (CPC). In this paper, we present palynological results from the Dahecun Core, Henan Province, China. Our pollen data indicate a warm and wet climate condition from 9200 to 4000 cal BP, which then switches to a cool and dry climatic condition during the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition (∼4000–3600 cal BP). We analyze 14C dates from archaeological sites to demonstrate four episodes of population increase and present vegetation dynamics, determined from available pollen data, to provide evidence for the synchronous shifts in vegetation and human population during the Neolithic. Our results indicate that the aridification in the early Bronze Age did not cause population collapse, highlighting the importance of social resilience to climate change. The pollen, radiocarbon dates and archaeobotanical records from the CPC provides new evidence that supports the claim that the development of agriculture and complex societies, under the stress of a dry climate, set the stage for the dramatic increase of human population around 3800–3400 cal BP.

Spatial Expansion of Human Settlement during the Longshan Period (~4.5–~3.9 ka BP) and Its Hydroclimatic Contexts in the Lower Yellow River Floodplain, Eastern China

“…In addition, the lower Yellow River floodplain was dotted with a large number of lakes and marshes throughout most of the Holocene [58,80]. Many Holocene limnetic facies were widely distributed across the lower Yellow River floodplain and the surrounding areas [29,[56][57][58][59][60]63,77,80]. However, under the influences of climatic fluctuation, river flooding, and intensive agricultural activities, the locations and sizes of these lakes and marshes changed dramatically during the late Holocene [46,58,60,80,81].…”

“…For example, the collapses of many agriculture-based cultures across the Northern Hemisphere at~4000 a BP, such as the Mesopotamian [21,22], ancient Egyptian [23,24] and ancient Indian [25,26] cultures, have been attributed to abrupt climatic event occurring at~4000 a BP. As one of the four major centers of ancient civilization, China's archaeological history has also experienced the vicissitudes of prehistoric societies [6,[27][28][29]. Abrupt climatic changes and Land 2021, 10, 712 2 of 16 subsequent dramatic environmental changes have also been regarded as important external influencing factors [19,20,[27][28][29][30].…”

“…As one of the four major centers of ancient civilization, China's archaeological history has also experienced the vicissitudes of prehistoric societies [6,[27][28][29]. Abrupt climatic changes and Land 2021, 10, 712 2 of 16 subsequent dramatic environmental changes have also been regarded as important external influencing factors [19,20,[27][28][29][30]. It is apparent that many late Neolithic or Chalcolithic cultures across China also collapsed at~4000 a BP, and the almost contemporaneous abrupt climatic event and associated hydrological changes could be responsible [19,20,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”

“…Nonetheless, their inference bases were either from low-resolution proxy sequences with poor chronologic constraints [45] or from unconfirmed historical documents [46]. Furthermore, when these environmental changes occurred, different prehistoric societies were likely to have adopted different coping strategies as responses, which subsequently influenced social development [1][2][3][4][5][6]29]. Consequently, it is necessary to further discuss this issue to understand the patterns and mechanisms of human-environment interactions during this time interval in the lower Yellow River floodplain.…”

“…Consequently, it is necessary to further discuss this issue to understand the patterns and mechanisms of human-environment interactions during this time interval in the lower Yellow River floodplain. Additionally, considerable advances in research on the spatial-temporal patterns of Holocene paleoenvironmental changes (especially high-resolution proxy sequences of paleoclimate) [29,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63] and past human activities (i.e., human subsistence strategies and demographic fluctuations) [29,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] in the lower Yellow River floodplain and the surrounding areas have been made over the past two decades. This provides a good opportunity for exploring the specific background for the abovementioned remarkable change in the spatial distribution of human settlement in the lower Yellow River floodplain during the Longshan period.…”