The collapse of the North Song dynasty and the AD 1048–1128 Yellow River floods: Geoarchaeological evidence from northern Henan Province, China

Abstract

From AD 1048 to 1128, Yellow River flooding killed over a million people, left many more homeless and destitute, and turned parts of the once fertile North China Plain into a silted-up agricultural wasteland. Brought on in part by climate change and the Northern Song dynasty's (AD 960-1127) mismanagement of the environment, the Yellow River floods likely hastened the collapse of the Northern Song dynasty. Despite the magnitude of this flood event, no sedimentary deposits have yet been linked to these historically recorded floods. In this research paper, we provide archaeological, sedimentary, and radiocarbon evidence of the AD 1048-1128 Yellow River floods at the Dazhanglongcun, Xidacheng, and Daguxiancun sites in Neihuang County, Henan Province. Based on our data, we argue that the AD 1048-1128 Yellow River floods deposited over 5 m of alluvium on villages in the North China Plain, radically changing both the physical and political landscape of Northern Song dynasty China.

A 2000-year documentary record of levee breaches on the lower Yellow River and their relationship with climate changes and human activities

“…This period is marked by the development of a braided river system (Figure 4b, Table S2). A breach occurred at the village of Shanghusao in AD 1048 (Storozum et al, 2018). The outburst flood not only impacted on a million people, but also turned parts of the once fertile floodplain into a silted-up agricultural wasteland, thereby leading to the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty.…”

Human–environment interactions at Yangguanzhai, a Middle Neolithic site in the Wei River Valley, northern China: A comprehensive soil‐stratigraphic analysis

“…Our protocol involved a series of weighing and oven‐drying steps: (1) each sample was weighed out to 20 g and oven‐dried at 105°C for 24 h, (2) each sample was cooled and reweighed, and finally, (3) each sample was then burned in a muffle furnace at 550°C for 3 h and reweighed to determine the percentage of weight loss (Dean, 1974; Heiri et al, 2001; Rosen, 2008). Although loss‐on‐ignition can be imprecise for samples with low organic matter, we chose this method to provide better comparability with other studies across the Chinese Loess region where loss‐on‐ignition is common (Holliday & Stein, 1989; Huang, Zhao, et al, 2011; Kidder et al, 2012; Rosen, 2008; Storozum et al, 2017; Storozum, Qin, Liu, et al, 2018; Storozum, Qin, Ren, et al, 2018).…”

“…Although environmental conditions certainly shaped human behavior and adaptation through the Holocene, there is also extensive evidence of human impact on the environment across the Yellow River Valley (Kidder et al, 2012; Rosen, 2008; Storozum et al, 2017; Storozum, Qin, Liu, et al, 2018; Storozum, Qin, Ren, et al, 2018; Zhuang et al, 2016). Early Neolithic populations practiced small‐scale agriculture and mixed subsistence, so their impact on the landscape was more minor than that of later groups.…”

Geoarchaeological evidence of the AD 1642 Yellow River flood that destroyed Kaifeng, a former capital of dynastic China

“…According to historical sources, the Yellow River has flooded over 1000 times in the past 2000 years, claiming millions of lives [9][10][11] . Recent archaeological and geological field work has found the physical evidence of several of these historically recorded flood events, but none of these studies have yet examined the influence catastrophic Yellow River flood events have had on shaping the resilience of large cities in the Yellow River's floodplain [12][13][14] .…”