Loess and early land use: Geoarchaeological investigation at the early Neolithic site of Guobei, Southern Chinese Loess Plateau

Abstract

Prehistoric land use at the Guobei site and its relationship with the local 15 environment are examined by applying OSL dating, micromorphological 16 examination and geo-physical analysis. The majority of the OSL dates are of early 17 to middle Holocene ages and are thus comparable to many OSL dates derived 18 from other studies in the same region. According to the particle size analysis, silt-19 sized particles (2-60μm) were predominant throughout the profiles examined. 20 However, there are spatial and temporal variations of different size groups of 21 particles throughout the profiles, which provide complementary information for 22 the micromorphological interpretation. The total organic component of the 23 samples examined through LOI is relatively high (all > 2%), with those of the 24 overlying Holocene deposits higher than those of the underlying Malan loess by 25 about 0.2%. Moreover, in all three profiles, the highest organic contents appear 26 in the palaeosols, confirming that there was greater organic accumulation during 27 soil formation periods. The groundmass of most slides collected from the early to 28 middle Holocene horizons displays a very homogeneous pattern, while the 29 abundance and distribution of different kinds of pedo-features, mainly including 30 clay textural, calcitic, iron/Mn and crustal features, vary greatly temporally and 31 spatially. These different lines of information demonstrate diversified 32 pedo/sedimentary processes due to variations in micro-environmental 33 conditions and cultural activities. We discuss the importance of a palaeo-34 ecological perspective, allowed by the geoarchaeological study, to an improved 35 understanding of the relationship between loess, changing hydrology, 36 prehistoric farming practice and land use, and long-term landscape change in the 37 Chinese Loess area. This will thus contribute to a comparison on the dynamic 38 relationship between loess and prehistoric farming in other regions of the world 39 such as Europe and North America. 40 2 41

Anthropogenic origins of a late Holocene, basin-wide unconformity in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Luoyang Basin, Henan Province, China

“…Micromorphological analysis was done at the Geoarchaeology Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. Goldberg and Aldeias (2016) advocate for the more common usage of micromorphology in geoarchaeological work to link data derived from quantitative bulk analyses to their microstratigraphic contexts by providing a visual reference for stratigraphic features (e.g., Zhuang et al, 2016). We provide scans of thin sections from each of the contexts discussed in the results to visually match sedimentary features with bulk analyses and chronometric data.…”

State and irrigation: archeological and textual evidence of water management in late Bronze Age China

“…Containing rich nutrients for plant growth, such as potassium and phosphate, 71 loess has been the breadbasket for the society since the Neolithic times. But there are ecological constraints associated with loess, especially when the society faces long-term sustainability and population pressure issues.…”