A Preliminary Study On Human Activities In Sand Fields Of Northern China And Its Relationship With The Climatic Variations During Holocene

Sand fields in northern China are key area to study relationship between human activities and climatic variations, due to its relatively weak and vulnerable ecological environment. However, this kind of research work was not undertaken before. In this study, we investigate relationship between human activities and the climatic variations in Holocene by analyzing the extant archaeological and paleoclimatic data. We collected a complete data set and use density of the archaeological sites (archaeological sites/ka.1000km2) as proxy indicator to reconstruct the culture development in the sandy fields during the Holocene.Our preliminary results show that the relatively warm/humid climate during9～4ka is the cause of beginning of the human activity in these sandy fields of northern China. The deterioration of climate during4～2ka led to critical effect on human activity in the Hulun Buir and Otindag sandy fields, in addition restraining the Mu Us prehistoric human-beings’ development. The climatic situation in Horqin sandy field is relatively favorable. Even though the density of the archaeological sites has increased compared with that of earlier stages, the over-exploitation for which sites inside the sandy field has enormously decreased. Since2ka, the ability of humans became stronger and the extent of human activity was expanded. Through the regional comparison, the Hulun Buir sandy field located at high latitudes and the Otindag sandy field that has a high level of desertification and aridity cause the human activity density was low; the human activity in the Horqin and Mu Us sandy fields, which has better environment, also influenced by the Central Plain Culture, were stronger and had a relatively complete culture development sequence. As a result of the relatively arid environment, the archaeological sites distribution was always along the river in the four sand fields, reflecting water is a limit factor of human activity in this arid region.