Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 438, Part B, 18 May 2017, Pages 189-197
Quaternary International

Environmental changes and human activities at a fortified site of the Liangzhu culture in eastern China: Evidence from pollen and charcoal records

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.05.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Liangzhu culture represents the culmination of the Neolithic culture in the Yangtze Delta. Two archaeological trenches (LZ-N and LZ-W) from a fortified archaeological site in close proximity to Hangzhou, eastern China, were excavated and studied. The sediments were analyzed to provide vegetation and fire records for the reconstruction of environmental change and human impact during the past 5000 years. Pollen data reveal that mixed evergreen-deciduous subtropical broadleaved forests may have developed around lakes or swamps in this area. Abundant charcoal detritus and Gramineae pollen with a size >38 μm indicate that rice agriculture flourished during 5000–4500 cal yr BP. Low concentrations of charcoal detritus and Gramineae pollen with a size >38 μm suggest that the site was abandoned after 4500 cal yr BP. Pollen and charcoal data from the LZ-N section suggest that this area has experienced a weakened human activity during the late period of the Liangzhu culture (between 4500 and 4300 cal yr BP), implying that the demise of the Liangzhu culture was a prolonged process rather than a short-lived event.

Introduction

As one of the cradles of the Chinese culture, the Neolithic culture in the lower Yangtze River area has experienced a long and complex evolutional process during the Holocene. Beginning with the Shangshan culture (11.4–8.4 kyr BP), the Neolithic culture in this area has experienced several periods such as the Majiabang culture (7.0–5.9 kyr BP), Songze culture (5.9–5.3 kyr BP), and Liangzhu culture (5.3–4.3 kyr BP). Of these cultural periods, the Liangzhu culture is the last stage of the prehistoric culture, which represents the culmination of the Neolithic culture in the lower Yangtze River area. This culture is well known for its flourished rice-based agriculture, making of diverse and sophisticated jade articles, advanced pottery technology with diversified types and decoration, the highly complex social structure reflected by large-scale architectural engineering (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, 2008, Zheng et al., 2009, Fuller et al., 2009, Qin et al., 2011). However, the Liangzhu culture terminated mysteriously and the regional culture was replaced by a less developed culture known as the Guangfulin/Maqiao culture (Chen et al., 1997, Zhu et al., 2003, Chen, 2005; Zong et al., 2011a). Therefore, scrutinizing the reasons behind the termination of the Liangzhu culture is of great importance for better understanding the rise and fall of regional Neolithic culture and the emergence of early Chinese civilization.

The termination of the Liangzhu culture has received great attention and it is still a matter of debate. Previous studies have shown that the disappearance of the Liangzhu culture may have been ascribed to a catastrophic environmental event such as rapid climate cooling (Yu et al., 2000, Innes et al., 2014), marine transgression (Stanley and Chen, 1996, Chen et al., 2008), or flash flooding (Zhang et al., 2004, Zhang et al., 2005, Zong et al., 2012, Long et al., 2014, Liu et al., 2015). However, evidence for such a rapid termination of the Liangzhu culture is scarce.

The Mojiaoshan archaeological site is located in close proximity to Hangzhou (Fig. 1), East China. It is the first Neolithic fortified township has ever discovered in the lower Yangtze River area. Archaeological excavations reveal that this site appears to be the central township of the Liangzhu culture in Yangtze Delta, representing the highest stage of the Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze River area (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, 2008, Liu and Wang, 2014). As such, this site is of great importance for unraveling the reason and process of the termination of the Liangzhu culture.

Previous studies have focused on the structure and provenance (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, 2008, Hu et al., 2013), the internal and external layout of the wall surrounding the Mojiaoshan site (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 2015), the age when the earthen dike was constructed (Zhang et al., 2014, Liu et al., 2015), as well as the hydroclimatic condition and palaeoecological background (Li et al., 2010, Shi et al., 2011, Liu et al., 2014b) of the Liangzhu culture. There have been a few studies on the age constraint on the timing of the construction and abandonment of the wall at this site. For example, base on archaeological evidence, archaeologists infer that the wall was built no later than the late Liangzhu period (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 2008), while AMS 14C and OSL dating suggests that the wall was built during 4.8–4.5 cal kyr BP (Liu et al., 2015). However, there is still a key question about the environmental context in which the site was abandoned (Li et al., 2010, Shi et al., 2011, Long et al., 2014, Liu et al., 2014b, Liu et al., 2015). Here we aim to reconstruct vegetation history, environmental changes, and human activities at the Mojiaoshan site based on detailed AMS 14C dating, pollen and charcoal analyses, which in turn may provide an ecological context and a chronological framework for the abandonment of this Neolithic Liangzhu township.

Section snippets

Regional setting

The Mojiaoshan site is located at the township of Pingyao, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province (Fig. 1). It is surrounded by the Daxiongshan Mountain on the south, the Yaoshan and Nanshan Mountains on the west, and the Dazheshan Mountain on the north. This area is drained by several creeks such as North Tiaoxi, Middle Tiaoxi, and South Tiaoxi, which originate in the west of the Tianmushan Mountain and merge into East Tiaoxi River, running down the Tianmushan Mountain from southwest to northeast and

Materials and methods

Two profiles, hereafter referred to as LZ-N and LZ-W, were studied. Samples were taken from trenches artificially dug at the outside of the northern and western parts of the Mojiaoshan site. The LZ-N profile (30°24.131′ N, 119°59.264′ E) was dug in modern paddy field outside of the northern wall of the Mojiaoshan site (Fig. 2). According to field observation, the LZ-N profile can be subdivided into four units. Unit 1 (180-92 cm) is dark-gray clayed silt; Unit 2 (92-56 cm) is yellowish brown

Radiocarbon chronology

A total of 12 AMS 14C ages were obtained from the LZ-N and LZ-W profiles (Table 1). The age offset between charcoal and pollen concentrates was determined using paired samples at 120–144 cm deep of the LZ-N profile. Pollen concentrates are 70–685 years older than charcoal. The age of pollen concentrates at the depth of 86–88 cm of the LZ-N profile is 2230 years older than the age at 88–90 cm deep and older than that of all samples from the two profiles. Therefore, the age at 86–88 cm deep was

Local vegetation history

Pollen data from profiles LZ-W and LZ-N indicate that subtropical mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forests with subtropical evergreen components such as Quercus–E and Castanopsis as the dominant genus developed at the study site since 5000 cal yr BP. Deciduous trees such as deciduous Quercus occurred in the following period. The pollen spectra of the LZ-W profile show that the percentage of deciduous Quercus increased at 4900 cal yr BP, reflecting that temperature dropped at this time as

Conclusions

Based on detailed pollen and charcoal analyses as well as radiocarbon dating, we are able to reconstruct the process of vegetational and environmental changes and human activities at the Neolithic Mojiaoshan site. The early-middle Liangzhu cultural period (5000-4500 cal yr BP) was characterized by a warm and humid climate, and a lacustrine-swamp environment prevailed during this period. Rice farming in the study area was prosperous during the early-middle Liangzhu cultural period and the

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41372185 and 41372183), the National Science and Technology Supporting Projects of China (grant number 2013BAK08B02), and the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 11&ZD183). We thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

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