Human-environment interactions in the development of early Chinese civilization

Abstract

Beginning with the earliest organized habitation sites the options provided by the regional environment have largely or partially governed the location and relocation of human settlements. The settlement system in second millennium BCE Henan Province, China, evolved during a period of significant climatic change and shifting river courses but relative soil stability. Human-environment interactions across the landscape have left ample remains for investigation by scholars of social and cultural change and by natural scientists. The social effects of climate and geomorphological change during this period are complex and only partially understood. It is well documented that long-term soil stability before and during the second millennium BCE gave rise to the development of good agricultural soils, without which population expansion probably could not have taken place. This paper summarizes some of the recent research in climate change and, from two of our own projects, in geomorphology and ecology that underlie environmental impacts on the evolving state-level societies, especially related to settlement location and relocation. For example, the Shang possibly relocated one or more capital sites in response to disastrous floods.

Socio-economic Impacts on Flooding: A 4000-Year History of the Yellow River, China

“…Shang moved its capitals five times in the lower Yellow River region. Post-Shang records state that at least one capital was moved following destruction by a catastrophic flood (Rapp and Jing 2011).…”

Early evidence of irrigation technology in the North China Plain: Geoarchaeological investigations at the Anshang Site, Neihuang County, Henan Province, China

“…The oracle bones and other early historical texts reveal that the unpredictability of the natural world greatly concerned Shang and Zhou dynastic kings (Keightly, ; Needham, Wang, & Lu, ). Shang kings frequently consulted the oracle bones to divine potentially dangerous floods that could significantly damage Shang dynasty urban centers and, more importantly, endanger the year's harvest (Rapp & Jing, ; Keightly, , ). “Beautiful land was ordered land” to the Shang kings because it represented the stability of an agricultural lifeway and the kings’ rule (Keightly, :119).…”

“…Shang kings frequently consulted the oracle bones to divine potentially dangerous floods that could significantly damage Shang dynasty urban centers and, more importantly, endanger the year's harvest (Rapp & Jing, 2011;Keightly, 2000Keightly, , 2013. "Beautiful land was ordered land" to the Shang kings because it represented the stability of an agricultural lifeway and the kings' rule (Keightly, 2000:119).…”

“…The majority of the population lived in rural areas and presumably would have required water management technology to support agricultural production and protect against potentially devastating floods. Some of the only published evidence of nonurban water management technology include the “water‐ditches” found outside of Xiaodun, Anyang, but an inadequate amount of work has been done to reveal their function (Rapp & Jing, :127).…”

“…Archaeologists have tried to overcome the limitations of such deeply buried archaeological deposits through national archaeological surveys (see Wagner et al., ), but many of the archaeological sites identified through these surveys are close to the modern land surface. Recent geoarchaeological investigations have revealed that at least 10 m of Yellow River alluvium has buried a series of ancient land surfaces dating to the early, middle, and late Holocene (Kidder, Liu, Xu, & Li ; Jing, Rapp, & Gao, , ; Rapp & Jing, ). These discoveries make the integration of alluvial geoarchaeology into traditional archaeological research design essential (Brown, ).…”