Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:28:36.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mid-Holocene climate change and its effect on prehistoric cultural evolution in eastern Qinghai Province, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Guanghui Dong ,
Xin Jia ,
Chengbang An ,
Fahu Chen ,
Yan Zhao ,
Shichen Tao  and
Minmin Ma
Guanghui Dong*
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Xin Jia
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Chengbang An
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Fahu Chen
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yan Zhao
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Shichen Tao
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Minmin Ma
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: + 86 931 8912330. E-mail address:[email protected] (G. Dong).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We studied the mid-Holocene climate change in eastern Qinghai Province, China and its impact on the evolution of Majiayao (3980–2050 BC) and Qijia (2183–1635 BC) cultures, near the important Neolithic site of Changning. The investigation focused on analyses of grain size, magnetic susceptibility, ratios of elemental contents, and pollen assemblage from a loess-paleosol sequence. The results indicate that the climate was wet during 5830–4900 cal yr BP, which promoted the development of early-mid Majiayao culture in eastern Qinghai Province. However, 4900–4700 cal yr BP were drought years in the region, responsible for the decline and eastward movement of prehistoric culture during the period of transition from early-mid to late Majiayao culture. The climate turned wet again during 4700–3940 cal yr BP, which accelerated the spread of Qijia culture to the middle reaches of the Huangshui River, including the Changning site.

Keywords

Mid-HoloceneClimate changeEastern Qinghai ProvinceMajiayao cultureQijia cultureChangning site
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 23 - 30
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, Z.S., Porter, S.C., Zhou, W.J., Lu, Y.C., Donahue, D.J., Head, M.J., Wu, X.H., Ren, J.Z., Zheng, H.B., (1993). Episode of strengthened summer monsoon climate of Younger Dryas age on the Loess Plateau of central China. Quaternary Research 39, 45–54.Google Scholar
An, Z.S., Porter, S.C., Kutzbach, J.E., Wu, X.H., Wang, S.M., Liu, X.D., Li, X.Q., Zhou, W.J., (2000). Asynchronous Holocene optimum of the east Asia monsoon. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 743–762.Google Scholar
An, C.B., Feng, Z.D., Tang, L.Y., (2004). Environmental change and cultural response between 8000 and 4000 cal yr B.P. in the western Loess Plateau, northwest China. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 529–535.Google Scholar
An, C.B., Tang, L.Y., Barton, L., Chen, F.H., (2005). Climate change and cultural response around 4000 cal yr B.P. in the western part of Chinese Loess Plateau. Quaternary Research 63, 347–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, C.B., Feng, Z.D., Barton, L., (2006). Dry or humid? Mid-Holocene humidity changes in arid and semi-arid China. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 351–361.Google Scholar
Barton, L., Brantingham, P.J., Ji, D.X., (2007). Late Pleistocene climate change and Paleolithic cultural evolution in northern China: implications from the Last Glacial Maximum. Developments in Quaternary Science 9, 105–128.Google Scholar
Barton, L., Newsome, S.D., Chen, F.H., Wang, H., Guilderson, T.P., Bettinger, R.L., (2009). Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 5523–5528.Google Scholar
Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Rosenmeier, M.F., Binford, M.W., Abbott, M.B., (2001). Abrupt climate change and pre-Columbian cultural collapse. Markgraf, V., Interhemispheric Climatic Linkages. Academic Press, San Diego. 87–103.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., (2001). Development of the radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 43, 355–363.Google Scholar
Bureau of National Cultural Relics, . (1996). Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics-Fascicule of Qinghai Province. China Cartograghic Publishing House Press, Beijing.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Bureau of National Cultural Relics, . (2007). Important Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2006. China Cultural Relics Publishing House Press, Beijing.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Cai, Y.J., Tan, L.C., Cheng, H., An, Z.S., Edwards, R.L., Kelly, M.J., Kong, X.G., Wang, X.F., (2010). The variation of summer monsoon precipitation in central China since the last deglaciation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 291, 21–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., Hong, F., (1982). Primary discussion on the remains of the Changshanxiaceng culture in Zhenyuan, east Gansu province. Archaeology 27, 392–397.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Cullen, H.M., deMenocal, P.B., Hemming, S., Hemming, G., Brown, F.H., Guilderson, T., Sirocko, F., (2000). Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian empire: evidence from the deep sea. Geology 28, 379–382.Google Scholar
DeMenocal, P.B., (2001). Cultural responses to climate change during the Late Holocene. Science 292, 667–673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faegri, K., Iverson, J., (1989). Textbook of Pollen Analysis. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Feynman, J., (2007). Has solar variability caused climate change that affected human culture?. Advances in Space Research 40, 1173–1180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallet, S., Jahn, B., Torii, M., (1996). Geochemical characterization of the Luochuan loess-paleosol sequence, China, and paleoclimatic implications. Chemical Geology 133, 67–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavin, D.G., (2001). Estimation of inbuilt age in radiocarbon ages of soil charcoal for fire history studies. Radiocarbon 43, 27–44.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C., (1987). CONISS: a FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geosciences 13, 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haug, G.H., Günther, D., Peterson, L.C., Sigman, D.M., Hughen, K.A., Aeschlimann, B., (2003). Climate and the collapse of Maya civilization. Science 299, 1731–1735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Brenner, M., (1995). Possible role of climate in the collapse of lassic Maya civilization. Nature 375, 391–394.Google Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Guilderson, T., (2001). Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science 292, 1367–1370.Google Scholar
Hou, G.L., Liu, F.G., (2004). Pre-history and climate change of eastern Qinghai. Acta Geographica Sinica 59, 841–846.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Hou, G.L., Liu, F.G., Liu, C.H., Fang, X.Q., (2009). Prehistorical cultural transition forced by environmental change in Mid-Holocene in Gansu"Qinghai region. Acta Geographica Sinica 64, 53–58.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Hou, G.L., Xu, C.J., Fan, Q.S., (2010). Three expansions of prehistoric humans towards northeast margin of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and environmental change. Acta Geographica Sinica 65, 65–72.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Hu, C.Y., Henderson, G.M., Huang, J.H., Xie, S.C., Sun, Y., Johnson, K.R., (2008). Quantification of Holocene Asian monsoon rainfall from spatially separated cave records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 266, 221–232.Google Scholar
Huang, C.C., Su, H.X., (2009). Climate change and Zhou relocations in early Chinese history. Journal of Historical Geography 35, 297–310.Google Scholar
Huang, C.C., Pang, J.L., Li, P.H., (2002). Abruptly increased climatic aridity and its social impact on the Loess Plateau of China at 3100 a B.P. Journal of Arid Environments 52, 87–99.Google Scholar
Ji, D.X., (2007). Environmental Archaeological Pespective Dispersal of Anatomically Modern Human and Origin of Agriculture in Northern China. PhD dissertation Lanzhou university, Lanzhou, China .(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Ji, J.F., Shen, J., Balsam, W., Chen, J., Liu, L.W., Liu, X.Q., (2005). Asian monsoon oscillations in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau since the late glacial as interpreted from visible reflectance of Qinghai Lake sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 233, 61–70.Google Scholar
Jiang, Z.X., (2003). Sedimentology. Petroleum Industry Press, Beijing. 2–5.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Jin, G.Y., Liu, T.S., (2002). Mid-Holocene climate change in North China, and the effect on cultural development. Chinese Science Bulletin 47, 408–413.Google Scholar
Jing, Wei River Team of the Institute of Archaeology, CASS.(1981). A preliminary excavation of the Changshan Site in Zhenyuan County, eastern Gansu Province. Archaeology 26, 201–210.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Liu, K.B., Yao, Z.J., Thompson, L.G., (1998). A pollen record of Holocene climatic changes from the Dunde ice cap, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Geology 26, 135–138.Google Scholar
Liu, X.Q., Shen, J., Wang, S.M., Yang, X.D., Tong, G.B., Zhang, E.L., (2002). A 16000-year pollen record of Qinghai Lake and its paleo-climate and paleoenvironment. Chinese Science Bulletin 47, 1931–1936.Google Scholar
Liu, F.G., Hou, G.L., Zhang, Y.L., Zhang, Z.X., Xu, C.J., Zhou, Q., Zhang, H.F., (2005). The impact of abrupt climate change in Mid-Holocene on the prehistoric culture in northeast Qinghai. Acta Geographica Sinica 60, 733–741.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Lu, H.Y., Han, J.M., Wu, N.Q., Guo, Z.T., (1994). Magnetic susceptibility of the modern soils in China and paleoclimatic significance. Science in China. Series B 24, 1290–1297.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Madella, M., Fuller, D.Q., (2006). Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: a reconsideration. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 1283–1301.Google Scholar
Maher, L.J. Jr.. (1981). Statistics for microfossil concentration measurements employing samples spiked with marker grains. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 32, 153–191.Google Scholar
McFadgen, B.G., (1982). Dating New Zealand archaeology by radiocarbon. New Zealand Journal of Science 25, 379–392.Google Scholar
Morrill, C., Overpeck, J.T., Cole, J.E., (2003). A synthesis of abrupt changes in the Asian summer monsoon since the last deglaciation. The Holocene 13, 465–476.Google Scholar
Moss, M.L., Peteet, D.M., Whitlock, C., (2007). Mid-Holocene culture and climate on the Northwest Coast of North America. Anderson, D.G., Maasch, K.A., Sandweiss, D.H., Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions. Academic Press, San Diego. 491–529.Google Scholar
Nesbitt, H.W., Young, G.M., (1982). Early Proterozoic climates and plate motions inferred from major element chemistry of lutites. Nature 299, 715–717.Google Scholar
Pessenda, L.C.R., Aravena, R., Melfi, A.J., Telles, E.C.C., Boulet, R., Valencia, E.P.E., Tomazello, M., (1996). The use of carbon isotopes (13C, 14C) in soil to evaluate vegetation changes during the Holocene in Central Brazil. Radiocarbon 38, 191–201.Google Scholar
Porter, S.C., Zhou, W.J., (2006). Synchronism of Holocene East Asian monsoon variations and North Atlantic drift-ice tracers. Quaternary Research 65, 443–449.Google Scholar
Qinghai Province Cultural Relic Archeological Team(1986). Machang, qijia and xindian graves at Zongzhai in Huzhu national minority Autonomous County, Qinghai. Archaeology 32, 306–317.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Bertrand, C.J.H., Blackwell, P.G., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Cutler, K.B., Damon, P.E., Edwards, R.L., Fairbanks, R.G., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T.P., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S., Bronk Ramsey, C., Reimer, R.W., Remmele, S., Southon, J.R., Stuiver, M., Talamo, S., Taylor, F.W., Van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., (2004). IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46, 1029–1058.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., Zhang, H.Y., Madsen, D.B., Gao, X., Brantingham, P.J., Ma, H.Z., Olsen, J.W., (2007). Epipaleolithic/early Neolithic settlements at Qinghai Lake, western China. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 600–612.Google Scholar
Shang, M.J., (1987). An overview of original agricultural archaeology in Qinghai province. Agricultural Archaeology 1, 62–70.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Voorhies, B., Metcalf, S.M., (2007). Culture and climate in Mesoamerica during the Middle Holocene. Anderson, D.G., Maasch, K.A., Sandweiss, D.H., Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions. Academic Press, San Diego. 157–187.Google Scholar
Wang, S.M., (2000). Lake records of the Holocene climatic changes in China. Shi, Y.F., Glaciers and Environments in China. Science Press, Beijing. 146–152.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., Amundson, R., Trumbore, S., (1996). Radiocarbon dating of soil organic matter. Quaternary Research 45, 282–288.Google Scholar
Wang, H.B., Liu, L.Y., Feng, Z.D., (2008). Spatiotemporal variations of Zr/Rb ratio in three last interglacial paleosol profiles across the Chinese Loess Plateau and its implications for climatic interpretation. Chinese Science Bulletin 53, 1413–1422.Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Bradley, R.S., (2001). What drives social collapse?. Science 291, 609–610.Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Courty, M.A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, F., Senior, L., Meadow, R., Curnow, A., (1993). The genesis and collapse of third millennium north Mesopotamian civilization. Science 261, 995–1004.Google Scholar
Wu, W.X., Liu, T.S., (2004). Possible role of the “Holocene event 3” on the collapse of Neolithic Cultures around the Central Plain of China. Quaternary International 117, 153–166.Google Scholar
Wu, W.X., Zhou, , Hu, Y., (2009). Holocene climate change and the rise and fall of Neolithic Cultures in the Ganqing areas. Cultural Relics of Central China 4, 31–37.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Xian, F., Zhou, W.J., Yu, X.F., Lu, X.F., Jull, A.J.T., Franzen, L.G., (2006). Evidence for abrupt changes of the Asian monsoon during the Holocene: from the peat records of Tibetan Pleateau. Marine Geology and Quaternary Geology 26, 41–45.(in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Xiao, J.L., Porter, S.C., An, Z.S., Kumai, H., Yoshikawa, S., (1995). Grain size of quartz as an indicator of winter monsoon strength on the Loess Plateau of central China during the last 130,000 yr. Quaternary Research 43, 22–29.Google Scholar
Xie, D.J., (2002). Prehistoric Archaeology of Gansu Province and Qinghai Province. Cultural Relics Press, Bejing.(in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhao, Y., Yu, Z.C., Chen, F.H., (2009). Spatial and temporal patterns of Holocene vegetation and climate changes in arid and semi-arid China. Quaternary International 194, 6–18.Google Scholar
Zhou, A.F., Sun, H.L., Chen, F.H., Zhao, Y., An, C.B., Dong, G.H., Wang, Z.L., Chen, J.H., (2010). High-resolution climate change in mid-late Holocene on Tianchi Lake, Liupan Mountain in the Loess Plateau in central China and its significance. Chinese Science Bulletin 55, 2118–2121.Google Scholar