Transmutation Of Ancient Settlements And Environmental Changes From The Neolithic Age To The Han Dynasty In The Chaohu Lake Basin

With further exploration of the research on Global changes.more and more groups have been focused on the study on environmental change in the development of human civilization by the scientific community Numerous studies confirmed that environmental change has great impact on the evolution of ancient culture．Studies onthe interactive influences between transmutation of ancient settlements and environmental change have great significance in the harmony of the human—Earth relationship,not only at present.but also in the future Moreover．it is beneficial for reconstructing the historical environment,and it clarifies the formation of current environmental features．Thus．we can directly combine human activities with natural environment conditions to carry on a comprehensive research Furthermore．research on the relationship between the temporal—spatial distribution of ancient settlement sites and the natural environmental evolution has become an effective wav to studvthe past human—Earth relationship in a typical area．The Chaohu Lake Basin is not only a transitional zone ofphysical geography,but also an interaction area with different cultures in east China．It is one of the bi~hplaces of Chinese civilization with many ancient settlements in this area．Based on the temporal—spatial distribution features of ancient settlement sites from themiddle and late NeoIithic Age to the Han dynasty in the Chaohu Lake Basin ofAnhui Province．using the methods of GIS combined with the reconstructedpaleOenVironme nI by the records of lake sediment since Holocene．the transmutationof ancient settlements with response tO environmental changes in this area has beendiscussed．Studies show that the main feature of transmutation of ancient settlements fromthe middle and late Neolithic Age tO the Han dynasty was that the distribution ofsettlements in this area changed from high altitudes to low ones and kept approachingChaohu Lake with the passage of time These could be the response to the climate change from warm-moist to a relatively warm-dry condition during the middleHolocene,leading to lake level fluctuations．The large area of exposed land providedenough space for human activities．These indicate that the above changes ingeomorphologic evolution and hydrology influenced by climate conditions affectedthe transmutation of ancient settlements greatly．The distribution pattern of seRlementsites was SUch that the number of sites in the west was more than in the east．ThispaRem may be related to the geomorphologic conditions such as frequent channelshifting of the Yangtze River as well as flood disasters during the Holocene optimumTherefore,climate change was the inducement of the transmutation of ancientsettleanents in the Chaohu Lake Basin,which exerted great influence on thedistribution,expansion and development of the ancient settlements．...