Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China

Ren, X. , Xu, J., Wang, H., Storozum, M., Lu, P., Mo, D., Li, T., Xiong, J. and Kidder, T. R. (2021) Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China. Environmental Research Letters, 16(5), 055030. (doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/abdf0a)

Abstract

Archaeologists and palaeoclimatologists have focused on the impact of climate on the prehistoric civilizations around the world; however, social resilience in the face of the climate change remains unclear, especially during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Central Plains of China (CPC). In this paper, we present palynological results from the Dahecun Core, Henan Province, China. Our pollen data indicate a warm and wet climate condition from 9200 to 4000 cal BP, which then switches to a cool and dry climatic condition during the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition (∼4000–3600 cal BP). We analyze 14C dates from archaeological sites to demonstrate four episodes of population increase and present vegetation dynamics, determined from available pollen data, to provide evidence for the synchronous shifts in vegetation and human population during the Neolithic. Our results indicate that the aridification in the early Bronze Age did not cause population collapse, highlighting the importance of social resilience to climate change. The pollen, radiocarbon dates and archaeobotanical records from the CPC provides new evidence that supports the claim that the development of agriculture and complex societies, under the stress of a dry climate, set the stage for the dramatic increase of human population around 3800–3400 cal BP.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41888101, 41690114, 41907374, 41877441, 41671014), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB26000000), the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 18CKG003), the Zhengzhou Environmental Archaeological Research Project, the Digital Environment Archaeology Specially-appointed Researcher of Henan, China, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (‘The Wall’ project, Grant Agreement No. 882894).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ren, Dr Xiaolin
• Authors: Ren, X., Xu, J., Wang, H., Storozum, M., Lu, P., Mo, D., Li, T., Xiong, J., and Kidder, T. R.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Archaeology
• Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• ISSN: 1748-9326
• ISSN (Online): 1748-9326
• Published Online: 12 May 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Environmental Research Letters 16(5): 055030
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License