Environmental and cultural changes during the terminal Neolithic: Qingpu, Yangtze delta, eastern China

Abstract

The lower Yangtze, eastern China, was colonized by several Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures giving rise to possibly the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in the world. Early Neolithic cultures in the delta region cultivated rice ( Oryza sativa) and agricultural developments appear to have occurred throughout the Neolithic with abrupt socio-economic changes possibly associated with the terminal Neolithic. Given the extensive history of environmental exploitation and well-preserved archaeological sites, the Yangtze delta is an ideal setting to explore the complex interactions between humans and their environment. Multiproxies of environmental changes, namely pollen, charcoal and phytoliths, in a 14C AMS-dated sequence of sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu, Yangtze delta, were investigated. 14C AMS dating indicates that the age range of the sedimentary sequence analysed is from c. 1800 to 6000 BP, and therefore encompasses the terminal Neolithic and subsequent Bronze Age in the region. This paper reviews this sediment-based evidence in the light of current understanding of human—environment interactions during a critical phase of the development of the Yangtze delta and associated human cultures.

New insights into the origin of perylene in geological samples

“…The studied samples date from the Holocene (6000-1800 cal. BP, Atahan et al, 2007;Itzstein-Davey et al, 2007). In addition, a Devonian sample from the Canning Basin (Western Australia) and a Cretaceous sample from the Lower Indus Basin (Pakistan) have been investigated to establish a product-precursor relationship between perylene and perylene quinone pigments.…”

“…BP (Zong et al, 2007;Innes et al, in press) and increased progressively as Yangtze silt extended the delta region eastward. While the main impacts were initially associated with expanding rice agriculture, other human impacts followed, and the timing and nature of these varied between sites (Atahan et al, 2008;Itzstein-Davey et al, 2007). Initially warm temperate to subtropical forest marked warm and mild climates in the Holocene and these were replaced by cooler conditions in which conifers became more abundant from about 9000 to 7600 cal.…”

“…Preparation of Qingpu trench samples for AMS 14 C dating and microfossil analysis has previously been described by Atahan et al (2007) and Itzstein-Davey et al (2007). Age dating (8 samples by 14 C AMS) was conducted on pollen residues that were prepared with sieving (200 and 5 lm meshes) to remove material unlikely to be pollen and treatment with NaOH (10% aq.)…”

Environmental history, palaeoecology and human activity at the early Neolithic forager/cultivator site at Kuahuqiao, Hangzhou, eastern China

“…A few recent studies have added palynology to phytolith 5 analysis, to reconstruct the local vegetation in which cultivation took place (Huang and Zhang, 2000;Yasuda et al, 2004;Itzstein-Davey et al, 2007b), adding an environmental context to human activity. In this paper we take this further, supplementing pollen and phytolith data with several other biological proxies, including fungal spores, algae, microcharcoal, diatoms and foraminifera, to reconstruct detailed wetland successions, define the precise natural palaeoecological context in which rice cultivation began and clarify the environmental changes the human activity caused.…”

Holocene-aged sedimentary records of environmental changes and early agriculture in the lower Yangtze, China

“…Phytolith morphotypes were identified according to Bozarth (1992), Rosen (1992), Wang and Lu (1993), Runge (1999), Lu et al (2006) and Piperno (2006), and following the nomenclature of ICPN Working Group et al (2005). A list of phytolith types identified in this research, and their botanical affinities, is provided in Itzstein-Davey et al (2007a). Rice phytoliths in the form of four single-cell morphotypes (cuneiform (fan-shaped) bulliforms; bilobate (dumbbell) short cells, bumpy long cells and double-peaked glumes) and one multi-cell morphotype (Jiang, 1995;Lu et al, 1997;Itzstein-Davey et al, 2007a, b) were studied in detail.…”