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Neolithic agriculture, freshwater resources and rapid environmental changes on the lower Yangtze, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jungan Qin ,
David Taylor ,
Pia Atahan ,
Xinrong Zhang ,
Guoxuan Wu ,
John Dodson ,
Hongbo Zheng  and
Freea Itzstein-Davey
Jungan Qin*
Affiliation:
School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland School of Ocean and Earth Science, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
David Taylor
Affiliation:
School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Pia Atahan
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Sciences and Technology Organization, Sydney, Australia
Xinrong Zhang
Affiliation:
College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
Guoxuan Wu
Affiliation:
School of Ocean and Earth Science, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
John Dodson
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Sciences and Technology Organization, Sydney, Australia
Hongbo Zheng
Affiliation:
School of Earth Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Freea Itzstein-Davey
Affiliation:
School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: + 353 1 671 3397. E-mail address:
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Abstract

Analyses of sedimentary evidence in the form of spores, pollen, freshwater algae, dinoflagellate cysts, phytoliths and charcoal from AMS 14C-dated, Holocene-aged sequences provide an excellent opportunity to examine the responses of Neolithic agriculturalists in the lower Yangtze to changing environments. Evidence from two sites close to the southern margin of the Yangtze delta and separated by what is now Hangzhou Bay attests the critical importance to early attempts at food production of access to freshwater resources. More readily, if episodically, available freshwater resources during the early to mid-Holocene on the Hangjiahu plain may have encouraged an early reliance on rice-based agriculture, which in turn facilitated the accumulation of agricultural surpluses and cultural diversification. Cultural change was relatively attenuated and human population pressures possibly lower on the Ningshao plain, seemingly because of much more profound environmental impacts of variations in local hydrological conditions, and because predominantly saline conditions, associated with rising relative sea level, hampered the early development of irrigated agriculture. The evidence, although largely dating to the early and middle parts of the Holocene, provides a timely warning of the complexity of vulnerability to climate change-induced processes of agriculture, and indeed human activities more generally, on megadeltas in Asia.

Keywords

HoloceneEnvironmental changeFood securityPhytolithPollenRiceSea level
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 55 - 65
Copyright
University of Washington

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