Yangtze River Basin Since The Holocene Environmental Archeology Research

The reciprocal influence between environment evolution and human civilization is one of the most important research contents since Holocene epoch. So, the research of the correlation and occurring mechanislns between environmental evolution and human civilization is academically and practically significant, not only to the present harmonious human-earth relationship but also to that of future. In addition, archaeological excavation over many years shows that there are many culture intemlptions among archaeological stratigraphy at many sites in the Yangtze River Basin. Therefore, the investigation of culture interruption is one of the most important fields of the interaction research on human-earth relationship in the Holocene. All in all, environment archaeology is one of the effective ways in revealing the interaction between environment evolution and human activities and the occurring principles of unusual extreme floods. Under the support of the National Natural Sciences Foundation item (environment archaeology of transgression and flood sequence of the Yangtze Delta in the Holocene), the University Doctoral Foundation item (archaeology stratigraphy of transgression and flood of the Yangtze Delta in the Holocene) and the Relic Excavation Fund item (excavation item of submersed region and migrate region in Chongqing city), the author selected three recent excavated sites (Zhangjiawan site, Shuangyantang site and Xiatuo site in Wushan county) located in the three Gorges and three recent excavated sites (Pengzudun site in Wuxi city, Qitoushan site in Jiangyin city and Qidun site in Haian county) located in the Yangtze Delta, sought after the infonnation of human-earth relationships and environment evolution from many environment indices, discussed the distribution laws and the causes of culture intem,ptions, analyzed the space-time distribution laws of archaeological sites and laid a strong emphasis on the relationship between the development of human civilization, river geomorphology, extreme flood and coastline evolution from comprehensive view of geography, archaeology and history.Based on some chronological data detemmmd by ¹⁴C technique and cultural relics, the schedule of archaeological culture before Qing and Han dynasty m the three Gorges region can be divided into six cultural periods: Chengbeixi Culture (8200～6300a BP)→Daxi Culture (6300～5000a BP)→Qujialing Culture (5000～4600a BP)→Baimiao and Weijialiangzi Culture (4600～4000a BP)→Earlier Ba Culture coming from the west part of the Yangtze River Basin (4000～3000a BP) and Chu Culture (3000a BP～278BC). The phase of archaeological culture in the Yangtze Delta from the Neolithic to Shang and Chou dynasty can also be divided into four periods. They are Majiabang Culture (7000～6000a BP)→Songze Culture (6000～5000a BP)→Liangzhu Culture (5000～4000a BP) and Maqiao Culture (3900～3300a BP).According to the field investigation, laboratory analyses of sedimentary from profiles (such as sediment granularity, geochemistry, sporopollen, foraminifera, magnetic and etc.) and statistical data of geographical sites, ¹⁴C dating and archaeological chronological data, the depth and thickness of cultural layers and culture interruptions, the conclusions about the distribution laws of archaeological sites, paleoenvironment evolution process, relationships between environmental evolution and human activities, and extreme flooding were obtained as follows:1.According to the analysis of substantive statistical data of site excavation in the Yangtze drainage area, it clearly showed that the space-time distribution is related to many factors, such as Geomorphology, climate, ecological environment, the development of productivity and technology, cultural tradition and so on.(1) The analysis of field investigation, chronological measurement, and ancient flow direction of riverbed gravel and the results of archaeological excavation showed that before 30 ka BP, the riverbed of Dachang segment of Daning River might be at the area of Shuangyantang site, and then might move westward to the current place. The development of rivers geomorphology greatly impacted on the distribution of ancient culture along the Daning River. The ancient cultural center in the Dachang zone of Daning river might transfer many times along with the riverbed movement to the west. Most of Prehistorical and historical sites in the region of the three Gorges distributed at three dale belts. At these dale belts, the banks of river were even and the thickness of soil was relative thick, which provided better inhabited location for ancient people. So it can be concluded obviously that geomorphology is one of the important factors that influence the distribution laws of sites. In addition, the change of distribution pattern of sites, site number and the height above sea level of sites related to certain disaster events, especially the extreme floodings.(2) It can be seen that the coastline displacement in the region of the Yangtze Delta is the main reason of migration and diffusion of human civilization from statistical data of archaeological excavation of 28 Majiabang cultural sites (the total number of sites is 74), 38 Songze cultural sites (the number of sites is 65) and 107 Liangzhu cultural sites (the nurnber of sites is 261) and the distribution map of Neolithic cultural sites. The change of altitude of sites and thickness of cultural interruptions indirectly reflected the relationships between the migration and flooding in this region.2.The general analysis of the excavation data from other sites and many laboratory data of six sites of the Yangtze delta and the three Gorges indicated that the favorable natural environment resulted in the rapid development and boom of ancient culture, and the deteriorative environment interrupted or impeded further development of prehistoric civilization. So environmental change remarkably affected the prehistoric civilization in the Yangtze River Basin.3.By the comparison between archaeological stratigraphy, sediment characteristics of cultural layers and cultural interruptions, 46 ¹⁴C chronological data of buried paleotrees and peat, the synthetical analysis of the distribution laws of sites, and the reference to the results from other scholars, we can see that there are 7 cultural interruptions in the three Gorges and 7 cultural interruptions in the Yangtze Delta. They are from the last stage of Chengbeixi Culture to the initial stage of Daxi Culture (7200～6000a BP)→the third stage of Guanmiaoshan Culture Style of Daxi Culture (5800～5500a BP)→the initial stage of Shangzhou Culture (4000～3500a BP )→the last stage of Shangzhou Culture (2500～2200a BP)→During the Song dynasty Culture (960-1276AD) During the Ming and Qing Culture (1368-1911AD) in the prehistorical and historical period in the three Gorges。And they are the middle stage of the Majiabang Culture (6500 a BP)→the last stage of the Majiabang Culture (6000a BP)→the middle stage of the Songze Culture (5500a BP)→the last stage of the Songze Culture (5200～5000a BP)→the last stage of the Liangzhu Culture (4200～4003a BP)→the middle stage of the Shangzhou Culture (3000a BP) and the last stage of Shangzhou Culture (2500a BP) in the Yangzte Delta.In the future, high-resolution research on environmental archaeology in this region should be strengthened. If advanced technologies are adopted to improve the precision of chronological determination, the integrated study of environmental archaeology, geochemistry, phylithic and micropaleonotology and sedimentology could provide available evidence with environment evolution and human activities.