594241
HOL0010.1177/0959683615594241The Holocene)Rosen et al.
research-article2015
Special Issue: The Anthropocene in the Longue Durée
The Anthropocene and the landscape of
Confucius: A historical ecology of landscape
changes in northern and eastern China
during the middle to late-Holocene
The Holocene
2015, Vol. 25(10) 1640–1650
© The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0959683615594241
hol.sagepub.com
Arlene M Rosen,1 Jinok Lee,1 Min Li,2 Joshua Wright,3
Henry T Wright4 and Hui Fang5
Abstract
The Yellow River catchment of northern China was central to the rise of complex societies from the first Neolithic farmers through to early states and
empires. These cultural developments brought with them rising populations and increasing intensity of land-use. This region provides an important record
of landscape changes that mark the development of the Anthropocene in China. Geoarchaeological research in the middle reaches of the Yellow River
catchment of Henan Province and eastward to the Si River drainage of Shandong Province illustrates human impact on vegetation and hydrological systems
dating back at least until the middle Neolithic Yangshao Period in the mid-Holocene, ca. 7000 yr BP. This research provides geomorphological evidence
that early human impact began in the Yangshao period with deforestation, soil erosion, and increased alluviation in the upper catchment of the Yiluo
River. The increased alluviation allowed small-scale Neolithic farmers to intensify and supplement their production with rice paddy farming. Further east
along the Si River of Shandong Province, Neolithic Dawenkou farmers were intensifying production by taking advantage of the already moist floodplains,
but had little impact on the surrounding forests and hillslopes. At the beginning of the Zhou Period (ca. 1000 BCE), farmers along the Si River at Qufu
began to intensify production by digging canals into the floodplain, and deforestation of the hillslopes led to the beginnings of widespread floods and silty
floodplain buildup, culminating in the massive destructive floods of the later Han Period characterized by thick sand beds.
Keywords
agricultural intensification, Anthropocene, China, Han Period flooding, land-use, mid-Holocene
Received 17 December 2014; revised manuscript accepted 8 June 2015
Introduction
The Anthropocene was first introduced as a concept in 2002 by
Paul Crutzen (Crutzen, 2002) to emphasize and bring attention
to the critical point that human beings have had the same magnitude of impact on this planet’s natural systems as non-human
geological transitions, and astronomical cycles which drive the
change to new geological epochs. It was intended not to be
purely a taxonomic delineator, but also a wake-up call to
administrators and planners that we were quickly approaching
a tipping point of no return in the manner in which we as a species have driven major changes to all segments of the earth’s
natural systems. This article by Crutzen initiated a debate which
in part focused on topics of geological nomenclature. Some
researchers remained on message and pointed to the more
urgent goal of drawing the public’s attention to the dramatic
effects of human impact on the planet in the past few hundred
years, primarily beginning with the Industrial Revolution in
18th-century Europe. However, in order to keep the Anthropocene in perspective, there are larger issues relating to who we
are as a species, our dependence upon profoundly altering our
habitats in order to exist, and how we can survive in our large
numbers without having a damaging effect on the planet in
which we live. These lines of inquiry touch directly on the
nature of Homo sapiens. The only way we can resolve such
issues is to reach back through deep time using historical
accounts and archaeological data to examine our relationships
with the natural world throughout our cultural development.
Researchers such as Ruddiman (Ruddiman et al., 2008) have
shown that we can trace the beginnings of major human impact on
atmospheric gases such as methane (CH4) back to around 5000
BP with the spread of paddy fields in Southeast Asia. But other
human impacts are also evident from much earlier times in the
archaeological and paleoenvironmental records. Smith and Zeder
argue that human impact on the earth became most significant
with the origins and spread of crops and domestic herds as
1Department
of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
of Asian Languages & Cultures and Department of
Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
3Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College, USA
4Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, USA
5Department of Archaeology, Shandong University, China
2Department
Corresponding author:
Arlene M Rosen, Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas
at Austin, 2201 Speedway, Stop C3200, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Email: amrosen@austin.utexas.edu
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Rosen et al.
Figure 1. Map showing the locations of the Yiluo River valley, Wangjinglou, and Qufu.
agricultural lifeways became the primary means of subsistence
for many human communities. This economic orientation, and the
enhanced ‘niche construction’ that was integral to agricultural
economies began to take hold at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (Smith and Zeder, 2013). These human activities influenced
the composition and distribution of biomes, including forest and
grassland species, as well as erosive land-use practices that
impacted river and stream catchments, significantly altering the
alluvial/depositional regimes of these hydrological systems (see,
for example, Abrams and Nowacki, 2008; Anderson, 2002; Dambrine et al., 2007; Dupouey et al., 2002; Heckenberger et al.,
2007; Huang et al., 2006b; Yasuda et al., 2000). Over time, a
palimpsest of continuously changing landscapes resulted in a
deep-time historical ecology with each generation bequeathing
altered ecologies onto the next – thus resulting in landscapes that
have been profoundly transformed from their pre-human states.
An excellent record of such changes comes from northern
China and illustrates human impact on vegetation and hydrological systems dating back at least until the middle Neolithic Period
in the middle Holocene, ca. 7000 yr BP. In this paper, we will
present some of our geoarchaeological evidence which illustrates
the magnitude of human impact on vegetation and hydrological
systems in China from the middle Holocene Neolithic in northern
China along the middle catchment of the Yellow River, through to
the late-Holocene of the early Imperial Period in eastern China
along the Si River in Shandong Province (Figure 1).
Physical setting
The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are characterized by deciduous broadleaf forests, fertile loess soil (yellow silt),
and a temperate climate. Topographically, the area is demarked by
the Songshan Mountains and loess tableland to the west and
Mount Tai to the east. The Huai River lies at the southern end of
the area. It consists of uplands in the west, great plains in the
center, and a combination of highlands and alluvial lowlands in
the east. The Yellow River rises in the far west of the Tibetan
Plateau and flows eastwards across the Loess Plateau before emptying into the Bohai Sea. For much of the Holocene era, the Yellow River meandered over the area, inundating the vast area of the
Central Plain (Shen et al., 1989).
The Yiluo River valley is located within the middle reaches of
the Yellow River catchment, in the southeastern portion of the
Chinese Loess Plateau. The Yi and Luo Rivers flow from southwest to northeast through the basin to form a single channel of the
Yiluo River, which discharges into the Yellow River. The Songshan Mountains, with an average height of 1000 m, descend to the
Yiluo Basin, which is approximately 120 m lower in altitude than
the Songshan Mountains. Small tributaries, including the Gangou, Wuluo, and Liu Rivers, flow downward from the mountains
to the alluvial region before emptying into the Yiluo River. The
landscape of the area consists of a combination of alluvial plains
and terraces on loess tableland (Liu et al., 2004). Archaeologically, the Yiluo Basin was the core area of Erlitou culture,
throughout which more than 200 sites are distributed on the alluvial plains and loess tablelands (Liu and Chen, 2012).
Our third study area is in and around the modern city of Qufu.
Qufu is located in the southwest of present-day Shandong Province. The surroundings are characterized by a broad and flat alluvial plain with gentle relief, sloping toward the southwest. At
present, the area is situated in the lower reaches of the Si River,
which rises in the southern foothills of the Mengshan Mountains
and flows through Sishu county and Qufu before emptying into
Lake Nanyang.
Today, the region is primarily a wheat and maize producing
area. It has a temperate, sub-humid monsoon climate, with a mean
annual rainfall of 700 mm. The regional climate is affected by the
seasonal shifts between the winter and summer monsoons. Due to
the monsoonal climate, the majority of the rainfall occurs in the
summer months (June–August), accounting for 70% of the annual
total (Gongxian County Chronicle Editorial Board, 1991) cited by
Liu et al. (2004). This region lies at the northern edge of the summer monsoonal systems, but also receives some precipitation in
the winter months from the weaker winter monsoons.
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The Holocene 25(10)
Paleoenvironmental background
Over the course of the Holocene period, there were significant
changes in climate, vegetation, and human impact on the landscape in the region of the middle and lower Yellow River valley.
These environmental changes have had direct and indirect impacts
on the hydrology, vegetation, and landforms of the Yellow River
basin. The environmental sequences in China have been related to
local-scale environmental changes as well as global climatic
events. In general, the regional climate in northern China has been
conditioned by the interactions between the winter and summer
monsoons (An et al., 2006; Tregear and Tregear, 1980). The East
Asian monsoon is a principal determinant of the level of precipitation and therefore, is the most important atmospheric factor
affecting lake levels, vegetation, river flooding, and human adaptation in the region. The strength of the East Asian monsoons has
changed throughout the Holocene in response to changes of solar
insolation caused by alterations of the Earth’s orbital parameters
(Feng et al., 2006).
In the early phases of the Holocene, around 10,000 BP, there
was a general trend of warming and increase in precipitation
across East Asia (Li et al., 2004). High temperatures in the high
northern latitudes weakened the strength of the winter monsoon
and thus enhanced the strength of the summer monsoon. This culminated in the interval of peak warmth and moisture known as the
‘Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum’ which occurred at about 9000
BP throughout North China in response to the high latitude peak
insolation (9000–8000 BP), and lasted until 3000 yr BP (Feng
et al., 2004, 2006). The Megathermal episode is identified from
sediment sections at various localities of the Yellow River catchment basin.
Feng et al. (2004) analyzed bog deposits from Sujiawan and
Dadiwan sections in Gansu Province and synthesized existing
data to search for the regional pattern of the Holocene Climatic
Optimum. Through the analyses of magnetic susceptibility, particle size distribution, carbonate concentration, and pollen from
lake sediments, they identified a widespread occurrence of wetland deposits dating from 8000 to 5000 BP. Based on this, they
concluded that the Holocene Climatic Optimum, which is characterized by high moisture content in soils, occurred nearly contemporaneously in North China.
The Climatic Optimum is also detectable from wind-blown
deposits of the Loess Plateau. Since soils develop on stable land
surfaces under warm and moist climatic conditions, soil formation in loess deposits is used as a proxy for the mid-Holocene
Climatic Optimum. Feng et al. (2006) examined paleosol
sequences in northern China and identified four stages of soilforming sequences (10,000–9000; 7500–5000; 4000–3000; and
2700–2000 BP) with 7500–5000 BP being the most pronounced
soil-forming phase. An et al. (2000) also documented the bestdeveloped paleosol sequence on the Loess Plateau ranging from
9000 to 5000 BP. These favorable climatic conditions corresponded to dense and diverse ecosystems, as well. A comprehensive palynological study was carried out by Yi et al. (2003) in the
Yellow River delta. Through the study of pollen preserved in deltaic sediments, they identified a vegetation dominated by monsoonal evergreen and broad-leaved deciduous forests, and
increasingly diverse plant species during the times ca. 9800–4500
BP. These forest species were probably restricted to the littoral
zones of streams, since pollen studies from the Yaoxian section in
the southernmost portion of the Loess Plateau indicate that shrubs
and grassland steppe were the dominant vegetation type on the
interfluves throughout the Holocene, with more humid grasslands
dominating in the wetter phases (Li et al., 2003).
Sediment from the Yellow River delta is another source of climate proxy data, as the formation rate and chemical properties of
deltaic sediments reflect sea-level fluctuations and sediment
discharge, as well as depositional environments and vegetation of
the upper drainage areas (Jiang and Piperno, 1999; Ren, 1992;
Saito et al., 2001; Sun et al., 2011). Sun et al. (2011) examined
geochemical proxies and molecular biomarkers for sediment
cores from the Bohai Sea and documented an increase in organic
matter derived from woody plant contents between 6000 and
3800 BP. They attributed this abrupt change to increased vegetation density and soil development under the warm and humid climatic conditions.
The mid-Holocene Optimum came to an end around ca. 4000
BP and the climate became generally cooler and drier (Feng et al.,
2004, 2006). As summer monsoons were weakened and retreated
southward to the Yangzi River, a cool and dry climate regime prevailed in the Yellow River valley (Peng et al., 2005; Xiao et al.,
2004). This climatic shift is also evidenced by multiple proxies,
including isotope, pollen, and sediment profiles from throughout
the Loess Plateau and Yellow Sea deltas (e.g. Peng et al., 2005;
Zhou et al., 2004). Pollen data from coastal sediments clearly display a reduction in the percentage of deciduous broad-leaved
plants in the arboreal total and an abrupt increase in grass taxa
beginning ca. 3800 BP (Sun et al., 2011). Other proxy data also
indicate that the cooling episode led to a sparsely vegetated
ground surface, increasing channel incision and erosion, and
therefore an increase in sediment flux delivered into rivers.
It is noteworthy that the landscape changes primarily initiated
by climate conditions were further amplified by anthropogenic
activities. Rapid population growth during the late-Holocene has
increasingly put high pressure on regional landscapes. Multiple
pollen data have pointed to a sudden replacement of broad-leaved
forest to secondary forest (Pinus) at around 4000 BP (Jiang and
Piperno, 1999; Sun et al., 2011; Yi et al., 2003). Jiang and Piperno
(1999) interpret the increased percentages of Pinus as marking
the development of the secondary pine woodland which resulted
from human-induced deforestation.
Human impacts are also inferred by sediment data from both
the Loess Plateau and the coastal delta. Saito et al. (2001) reported
a sudden increase in sediment discharge that occurred ca. 3000
BP, which resulted from human interference, such as intensive
land-use and deforestation on the Loess Plateau. Xu (2003) also
documented an increase of the sedimentation rate in the lower
reaches of the Yellow River at 1300 BP, which he interpreted as
the result of human-induced soil erosion and land clearance.
Results of geoarchaeological
investigations
Yiluo Basin Henan Province
Work on this project began in 2000 with the initial goal of recording archaeological sites and the environmental setting of rising
early complex societies in China (Liu et al., 2004; Figure 1). In
the course of geoarchaeological research, Rosen identified evidence for the earliest paddy fields in this region, as well as major
human impact on vegetation and hydrological systems beginning
in the middle Neolithic Yangshao Period from 5000 to 3000 BCE
(Rosen, 2007, 2008).
Previous to this period, the first significant settlement in the
Yiluo catchment occurred during the early Neolithic later Peiligang Period (6000–5000 cal. BCE). At this time, semi-sedentary
forager-farmers moved into this region with a tradition of gathering wild resources and low-level cultivation (sensu Smith, 2001)
of millet (Lee et al., 2007). Their settlements were sparsely scattered across the landscape and according to the geoarchaeological
record, they had a minor impact on vegetation, and caused very
little hillslope erosion (Rosen, 2008). This first settlement
occurred during the early phases of the period often referred to as
the Holocene Climatic Optimum, when the summer monsoonal
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Rosen et al.
systems were strong and pushed further to the north in the context
of warmer and moister conditions. Following this initial settlement, the Yangshao Period farmers moved into the region bringing with them a tradition of rice cultivation in addition to the more
prevalent millet cultivation. This was also the period in which
increased rainfall from stronger mid-Holocene monsoon systems
coincided with growing populations and significantly increased
deforestation and subsequent soil erosion (Rosen, 2007, 2008).
Geoarchaeological evidence from this region shows an
important interaction between human-induced soil erosion
beginning with the Yangshao settlements, rapidly increasing
alluviation in the drainages along the valley bottoms, and the
beginnings of rice paddy farming in this area which is well outside the range of the natural habitat of wild rice, and distant from
the region where the earliest rice was first cultivated (Crawford,
2006; Fuller et al., 2008, 2009; Liu et al., 2007). To make the
point bluntly, the deforestation and subsequent hillslope erosion
increased alluviation in the valley bottoms, leading to favorable
conditions for paddy construction and the production of rice in
this region. It is an excellent example of early farmers altering
the landscape and hydrological systems to create a situation
which was economically favorable to a developing agricultural
economy (Rosen, 2008).
This active valley alluviation and paddy-field construction
continued to occur throughout the Yangshao Period and well into
the late Neolithic Longshan Period (3000–2000 BCE). However,
after around 2000 BCE, the hydrological systems began to change
and long-term stream incision dominated the regime in this upper
catchment area. This shift in stream regime coincided with the
rise of the first state society in China, with its center at the large
town of Erlitou located along the Yiluo River, a major tributary to
the middle catchment of the Yellow River (Liu et al., 2004). The
incision and downcutting carved out the valleys to a depth of
around 15 m in the upper catchment of the Yiluo Basin. The trigger for this phase of downcutting may have been at least in part
related to the beginnings of drier conditions that accompanied the
late-Holocene, and the natural adjustments of the hydrological
cycle to the weakening of the summer monsoons. The effect on
human agricultural systems was to remove much of the irrigable
land on the narrow valley bottoms of the upper catchment. This
would have altered the agricultural economies of the smaller villages and towns in this region by removing the flat marshy floodplain where paddies could be easily constructed, and making it
more difficult to cultivate a crop of rice.
Geoarchaeology of Wangjinglou
Moving to the middle reaches of the Yellow River catchment, the
geological section at the early Bronze Age Erlitou/Erligang site of
Wangjinglou (N34° 26′ 53.2″, E113° 43′ 05.9″) provided insights
into the history of alluvial activity and human impact on the
hydrology further downstream. This site is located 55 km south of
the current channel of the Yellow River, within the modern city of
Xinzheng, about 100 km southeast of the early Bronze Age site of
Erlitou. As the center of the first state society in China, Erlitou is
associated with a major increase in population in this area. The
Wangjinglou sediment section is located at the edge of the ancient
town, at the interface between the archaeological site and the
ancient floodplain (Figure 2).
The whole Wangjinglou sediment section gives us insights
into the landscape history of this lower/middle portion of the Yellow River catchment. The section begins at the base with a massive sandy silt layer that appears to extend about 10 m down to the
modern river channel. This sand-rich deposit seems to derive
from streams that meandered over a broad floodplain. Subsequently, the alluviation waned and the landscape was stabilized to
form a pre-Yangshao paleosol appearing in Unit 5. The paleosol
unit is characterized by a high organic content and high magnetic
susceptibility readings, indicating soil developed under prolonged
stable conditions. It is thus probable that at the time of Unit 5, the
small river that runs at the base of this site moved to the other side
of the valley and stopped flooding this area for millennia.
Although there are no dateable materials found from the unit, the
soil sequence closely resembles mid-Holocene paleosols observed
at other localities in the Yellow River valley, especially the paleosol identified as associated with Peiligang early Neolithic deposits in the Yiluo Basin (Feng et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2006a,
2007; Rosen, 2008). Therefore, we assign this unit to the early
part of the mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum when the climate
was warmer and moister, but before there was a major human
impact on this area in the form of deforestation and resulting hillslope erosion.
Above this paleosol, Yangshao people occupied the site and
left behind the pit containing fragments of their ceramics (Unit 4).
But unlike the Yiluo Basin, their impact on the hydrology of the
stream system here appears to have been minimal. In the subsequent early Bronze Age Erlitou times, the occupants of Wangjinglou built a rammed earth wall (Unit 3), and the site was occupied
until the early Iron Age Eastern Zhou Period. During this time, a
fortification wall was constructed on top of the rammed earth
walls. Finally, a subsequent flood cut into and destroyed part of
the early Bronze Age fortification and deposited the silts shown in
Unit 2. Our field observations and grain-size analysis indicate that
Unit 2 consists of several layers that are different in particle size
and sediment characteristics. The lower portion of Unit 2 is dominated by finer-grained silt lamina that was sourced from a suspended sediment load in a floodwater overbank flow. This
silt-dominated layer is overlain by sandy alluvium. On top of the
section is sandy silt alluvium (or possibly colluvium) mixed with
ceramic sherds dating to the later Eastern Zhou Period. These
finely laminated sediments indicate low-energy overbank flow
that is often associated with levee deposits. Importantly, they are
indicators of a renewed destabilization of the alluvial system. It is
highly likely that this is a result of human-induced soil erosion
resulting from renewed deforestation in the upper catchment due
to ever-increasing population and growing extensive agricultural
systems during the Zhou Period.
In summary, the geological section at Wangjinglou shows that
the rammed earth walls from the Erlitou Period are blanketed by
later period finely laminated alluvial sandy silt, dated by ceramic
inclusions to the Eastern Zhou Period or later. These floodwater
sediments also directly overlay an early Holocene paleosol which
is a sign of a stable land surface from Neolithic times until the
Eastern Zhou Period. The paleosol was cut by pits containing
Yangshao Period pottery, which is indicative of the first Neolithic
settlement in this region. Interestingly, however, unlike the upper
catchment of the Yiluo Basin, the alluvial system of the tributaries
to the Yellow River in this vicinity was stable during the Neolithic, suggesting that the sediment load which increased because
of human impact on the hillslopes further upstream in the Yellow
River system did not impact this middle zone until well into the
late Bronze Age. Jing et al. (1995) also recorded stable land surfaces during the Neolithic Periods from the lower Yellow River.
Geoarchaeology of Qufu
We were able to obtain further information about human impact on
landscape and hydrology of the major river systems that flow from
west to east in northern China from our work in Shandong Province in the area around Qufu (Figure 3). Qufu was the seat of a
major regional center dated to the Zhou Period, and it supported a
palace complex, rammed earth fortifications, and a large population. It is also notable as being the city in which Confucius and his
students lived and operated in the 6th century BCE. We conducted
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The Holocene 25(10)
Figure 2. Grain size, magnetic susceptibility, and Loss on Ignition data for the Wangjinglou section.
Figure 3. Locations of geological sections in Qufu.
geoarchaeological investigations in this town and its surroundings
using a simple but highly effective strategy of ‘crane chasing’
(originally suggested by H Wright), in which we located major
modern-day building sites of hotel, apartment complex, and
shopping center construction, and took advantage of the deep
excavation pits, sometimes around 6–10 m deep, to examine elements of landscape history of this region. This has proven to be a
highly effective means of extensive geoarchaeological survey
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Rosen et al.
Figure 4. Photo of Wanjia geoarchaeological section in Qufu,
showing Zhou Period canal features cut into the early/midHolocene backswamp sediment, and subsequent late-Holocene
flood deposits.
across the town of Qufu. This allowed us to conduct an intensive
study of deep sections from the modern-day surface extending
down well into the Pleistocene sediment deposits. In most cases,
the period of time spanning the Holocene consisted of sediment
sections in the upper ca. 6 m of deposits, and we were fortunate
enough to find these deposits and dateable material within them
from almost all of the sections we investigated across the town.
Qufu is located in the present-day Si River drainage in the
southwest part of Shandong Province. Since it is located on the
broad floodplain of an active river system, it is very sensitive to
hydrological changes caused by climate and human land-use in
the surrounding catchment. The Pleistocene record can be used as
a base-line indicating very minimal human impact on the surrounding landscape. This Pleistocene record consists of undated
sets of well-sorted river sands deposited as bars within a broad
meandering stream, and thick very clayey red or gleyed floodplain deposits. There are many sand units that show evidence of
strong gley as well as units of iron pan formations. These Pleistocene deposits extend down for at least 30 m, based on cores and
core logs taken by engineering geologists prior to the construction
of the Shangri-La Hotel in central Qufu (notes of cores on file at
the Environmental Archaeology Laboratory, Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin). These deposits indicate a very active
river regime that was probably driven by strong summer monsoons of interglacial periods, punctuated by weaker summer monsoonal activity in the cooler/drier glacial episodes, as well as the
placement of the meandering river as it migrated across the broad
floodplain of the Pleistocene Si River.
The Holocene deposits represent an abrupt change in the sediment regime. They rest on top of the Pleistocene deposits with an
unconformable contact indicating a profound erosional event
between the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene. This erosional contact appears in all of our geological sections around
Qufu and could be indicative of the 1300-year interval of the
Younger Dryas cold/dry episode that has been recorded in other
proxy data sets in China (Li et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2008; Madsen
et al., 1998; Porter, 2001; Yi et al., 2003). A lowered Pleistocene
sea level might also be responsible, which would have dropped
the base level of all of the rivers flowing into the sea, resulting in
downcutting upstream.
Wherever we find these early Holocene deposits, they are
around 2 m thick and typically consist of massive dark-brown clayrich sediments with a strong prismatic soil structure (Figure 4).
They indicate a broad slowly accumulating organic-rich marshy
floodplain, signaling a return to a stable stream regime in which the
Si River system consisted of gentle seasonal flooding and the accumulation of backswamp deposits, most likely on a yearly basis during the period of stronger summer monsoons that accompanied the
Holocene Climatic Optimum. Zhuang et al. (2013) reported on
floodplain aggradation from the nearby site of Yuezhuang in the
lower Yellow River catchment, also in Shandong Province. They
found a series of alluvial episodes punctuated by periods of stability. The stable floodplains corresponded with phases of Neolithic
occupation. Given this more stable stream regime, we can postulate
a landscape containing forested uplands with shrubs and gallery
trees in the valley bottoms. This vegetation was not greatly
impacted by the presumably small populations of foragers and lowlevel farmers that might have lived here in the early Neolithic.
We identified the first significant human impact on the river
valley in the deep section recorded under the site of the ShangriLa hotel. Here we found the same early Holocene dark-brown
clayey floodplain deposits that we identified within all of the sections under modern Qufu. The marshy backswamp deposits had
been cut into U-shaped features, possibly indicative of canals for
drainage or for irrigation. These channels were subsequently
filled with gleyed sandy silt deposits that were dated by 14C to cal.
3270–2910 BCE (4406 ± 28 BP; ZK3403; Upper canal fill – ca.
6 m below surface) and cal. 3630–3370 BCE (4701 ± 28 BP;
ZK3404; Lower canal fill – ca. 6.2 m below surface), coinciding
with the middle Neolithic Dawenkou Period (equivalent to the
Yangshao Period of the Yiluo Basin). This was a time of growing
populations and incipient complex societies consisting of a network of walled-towns and villages. These populations were
beginning to impact the landscape and floodplains of this region
in significant ways, but it is likely that they still had only a very
minimal effect on the upland hill country that surrounds the Si
Basin. We postulate this based on the lack of evidence for significantly increased sediment yields that would constitute evidence
for soil erosion, and the lack of indicators for a rapid increase in
flood deposits. In all of the four deep geological sections we
worked on within Qufu, we found similar sediment sections
showing this sequence of changes from Pleistocene deposits to
Holocene backswamps, and then a cessation of backswamp
development during the Neolithic Dawenkou Period.
The early Holocene stream system consisting of a stable
regime of slow floodplain accumulation lasted for several thousand years of the early to mid-Holocene, preceding the Dawenkou
Period occupation. It coincided with the episode of strong summer monsoons, and its cessation corresponded to the weakening
of the monsoonal system, and resulting reduction of stream flow
and smaller, more constrained overbank flooding. The construction of canal-like features into the dark-brown marshy deposits
signals the end of this alluvial regime of gentle overbank flow and
backswamp formation. Archaeologically, we have no evidence of
further interference with either the hydrological regime of the Si,
or the surrounding mountain vegetation throughout most of the
roughly 1500-year period from the beginning of the Bronze Age
around 2000 BCE until the beginning of the early Iron Age Zhou
Period (1046–256 BCE; Rapp and Jing, 2011).
In this portion of the Si floodplain, we found several instances
of both Dawenkou and Zhou Period ceramic fragments mixed
together within the uppermost 10 cm of the dark-brown clayey
deposits of Unit 4. This strongly suggests that there was little
hydrological activity from the Si which would have impacted this
portion of the floodplain. This would indicate a relatively stable
stream system that remained within the confines of the main
channel with little overbank flow or downcutting. If this is a representative picture of the Si stream regime, it indicates that
throughout the early and mid-Holocene, and well into the lateHolocene, there was little anthropogenic impact on this region of
eastern China. The lack of human impact coincides with the
reduction in population and settlement in the lower Yellow River
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Figure 5. Grain size, magnetic susceptibility, and Loss on Ignition data for the Wanjia section. Although Sample WJ-15 appears to have a high
sand content, it actually consists of almost pure clay, with sand-sized particles of flocculated clay conglomerates.
valley during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Underhill
et al., 2008).
All of this changed rapidly and quite dramatically with the
early Iron Age in the Eastern Zhou Period, and even more markedly and more extensively with the subsequent Han Imperial
Period. All of our four geological sections from Qufu and our one
geological section from the Nishan Mountains north of Qufu
demonstrate this profound change in stream regime quite clearly.
The full sequence is best described and analyzed in our geological
section from the Wanjia neighborhood in Qufu (Figures 4 and 5).
This is located just across a main road from the now-completed
Shangri-La Hotel. The base of the Wanjia section clearly shows
how the early/mid-Holocene dark-brown backswamp deposits
were cut by a series of canal-like features. The upper 10 cm of this
deposit (Unit 4) also contains a mix of late Neolithic and Zhou
Period sherd fragments. Unlike the Shangri-La Section, the
sandy/silty alluvium which fills these canals (Unit 3b) returned
14C dates of 921–831 cal. BCE (2740 ± 20 BP; UCI AMS#131664)
and 1005–900 cal. BCE (2795 ± 20 BP; UCI AMS#131665). This
is consistent with the Zhou Period, suggesting a similar type of
land-use and canal use from the middle Neolithic to the early Iron
Age indicating a long period of stability on this surface between
the Dawenkou and Zhou Periods.
Above Unit 4, and the canal features, there are several meters
of lighter brown silts signaling the renewal of overbank flooding
(Unit 3a) from the Si River. These deposits indicate an abrupt
change in the stream regime from a very stable system with low
sediment yield, gentle overbank flow events, and backswamps, to
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Rosen et al.
Figure 7. Photograph of Han Period sandy alluvium at Nishan,
showing graded and cross-bedded sands.
Figure 6. Grain size, magnetic susceptibility, and Loss on Ignition
data for the Nishan section.
one of a rapidly alluviating system that built up meters of sediment just within the time period of the Zhou settlement. The
brown color and composition of the deposit suggests that the
source of sediment derived from former soils on the hillslopes of
the upper catchment of the Si River and its surrounding tributaries. As such, it indicates the first stages of massive soil erosion
probably due to the rapid expansion of population into these
localities, deforestation for building, industry, and agriculture,
and erosive agricultural practices during this period. In two of our
geoarchaeological sections (Wanjia and CGL – not discussed in
this paper), these brown floodplain silts contained in situ roof
tiles, pits, and a possible collapsed farm house all dating to the
Zhou Period, showing that populations at that time period were
farming and conducting other activities at intervals on that
floodplain.
It is likely that by the end of the Zhou Period, the upper catchment was completely stripped of its soil cover deep into the
B-Horizon in much of the area surrounding Qufu. The evidence
for this determination comes from the subsequent Han Period sediment deposits which are almost devoid of silt and clay, and composed primarily of sandy sediments suggesting a source material
of parent rock or the exposed C-Horizon and regolith under the
soils that were previously eroded during the Zhou Period occupation. The upper catchment of the Si River extends into the Nishan
Mountains (Figure 3). Here, we have a geoarchaeological section
that illustrates very clearly the coarse nature of the flood sands,
suggesting a sandy sediment source with no overlaying soil deposits at the time of entrainment (Figures 6 and 7).
The Nishan section has a counterpart with equally thick Han
Period alluvial sediments down on the floodplain at Qufu, where
we recorded an exposure at Qufu Section 1 (QS1; N35° 33.078′,
E116° 58.597′). At QS1 (Figure 8), the basal layer, Unit 5, from
660 to 690 cm below the modern surface (temporally and stratigraphically equivalent to Unit 4 from Shangri-La and Wanjia) is a
dark-brown backswamp deposit that is equivalent to early Holocene basal layers found in all of the other sections located around
the modern town of Qufu. Directly above this, Unit 4 is a lighter
brown silty deposit that is stratigraphically and lithologically
similar to the deposits that have been dated by 14C to the Zhou
Period and contain Zhou Period pottery in the other Qufu sections. Overlaying this Zhou Period floodplain is a deposit (Unit 3)
composed of at least 2 m of thick fluvial sands with Han Period
sherds resting at the base. The sands are well-sorted with crossbedding near the top and graded bedding in some locations. This
deposit is likely related to the well-documented episodes of Han
Period flooding, and the character of the grain-size and sedimentary structures indicate that these flood deposits were laid down
by well-sustained and powerful flows. The upper two units of
QS1 show a return to low-energy floodplain deposits and contain
medieval pottery in them. Han Period flooding is well-known
from historical documents which record major episodes of
destructive floods that devastated whole towns and villages along
the Yellow River. Kidder et al. (2012) have reported on the geoarchaeological evidence for these ancient catastrophic floods in the
Han Period from the site of Sanyangzhuang along the middle
reaches of the Yellow River.
Discussion
If we combine the results from Huizui, Wangjinglou, and Qufu,
we have a picture of human impact that varies in intensity and
degree depending upon the region and the location within the
catchment. In the Yiluo Basin at the middle reaches of the Yellow
River, the deforestation and resulting impact of the hydrological
systems began relatively early – within the middle Neolithic
Yangshao Period when large numbers of farming villages began
to appear in the region. Unlike the Peiligang inhabitants, they
were fully invested in agriculture and had more intensive farming
systems including limited-scale rice agriculture (Lee et al., 2007).
The deforestation associated with this settlement contributed to
major soil erosion, higher sediment yields, and increased buildup
of clayey silts on the valley floors. The alluvium on the valley
floors made an important contribution to farming systems by contributing a much broader area for wet floodwater farming and
paddy construction. These alluvial soils were water-logged, and
with a small amount of canal and basin construction the water
could be retained for the cultivation of rice and other moistureloving crops. This situation ensued throughout the Yangshao and
subsequent late Neolithic Longshan Period (Rosen, 2008).
However, we could not detect this Neolithic alluvial episode
further downstream, and it is possible that either the sediment
remained for the most part in storage in the upper catchment of
the smaller tributaries of the Yiluo River, or possibly the sediments that made it further downstream were simply buried by tens
of meters of subsequent alluvium along the Yellow River system.
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The Holocene 25(10)
Figure 8. Grain size, magnetic susceptibility, and Loss on Ignition data for the Qufu section.
The earliest alluvial events we detected further downstream are
the floodplain deposits that overlay both the in situ Yangshao surface and the Bronze Age rammed earth construction at the site of
Wangjinglou. Further east, early Iron Age Period alluvium also
appears along the Si River at Qufu. This Zhou Period alluvium is
superseded by at least 2 m of Han Period flood sands.
Conclusion
In this study, we identified three distinctive episodes of soil erosion, flooding, and massive alluvial buildup on former stable
floodplains in north central China. These are dated to the Yangshao
(middle Neolithic) through Longshan (late Neolithic) periods in
the upper catchment of the Yiluo River, a tributary to the Yellow
River, and massive flood deposits from the Eastern Zhou and Han
Periods along the Si River near Qufu in Shandong Province. These
deposits indicate destabilized landscapes and are directly related to
human impact on the landscape of China. All of these episodes are
attributed to major increases in soil erosion caused by both widespread deforestation and the intensification of agriculture that
comes with rapidly increasing populations on the landscape. The
Neolithic Period flooding was also likely enhanced by the stronger
monsoons that brought higher rainfall amounts to northern China
during the mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum. However, the monsoons alone were not solely responsible for the build-up of alluvium, since there were strong monsoons and moister conditions
during the early Neolithic Peiligang Period as well as in the middle
and late Neolithic Yangshao and Longshan Periods, yet significant
alluviation only began in the Yangshao Period. Here, we argue that
the new alluvial regime which began in the Yangshao Period was a
result of purposeful landscape management on the part of middle
Neolithic populations who moved into these upper valleys of the
Yiluo catchment. The rapid floodplain buildup that accompanied
deforestation allowed the construction and management of wellwatered paddy fields and canals, as well as increasing the irrigable
farmland as the V-shaped valleys began to fill with fine-grained
alluvium (Rosen, 2007, 2008).
This situation in which the landscape and hydrology appear to
have been carefully managed by Neolithic Yangshao and Longshan populations is in stark contrast to the situation in the Zhou
and Han Periods, when massive destructive floods were responsible for the rapid buildup of the floodplains in Qufu. These floods
devastated numerous farming towns and villages (Kidder et al.,
2012), and in the Han Period particularly, also deposited large
quantities of sand on what was once presumably a very fertile
floodplain surrounding the ancient town of Qufu. These landscape changes which began in the Zhou Period mark the beginning of the most disruptive and destructive effects on the
hydrologies of the large river systems that drain from west to east
in China. This human impact has historically led to numerous
destructive flooding events which rebounded with catastrophic
tolls of human life, livelihood, and property, earning the Yellow
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Rosen et al.
River the infamous distinction as ‘China’s Sorrow’ (Ball, 2015).
This historical ecology of land-use in northern and eastern China
is a legacy that continues into the modern era.
Acknowledgements
We would like to particularly thank Rachel Lee and Wang Huan
for help in the field and in the Geoarchaeology Laboratory at
Shandong University. Shandong University staff and students
were very helpful and accommodating during our field seasons.
Brian Damiata prepared and ran the 14C determinations. We also
acknowledge support from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology,
and a UCLA Faculty Research Grant to M Li; The Institute of
Archaeology, University College London and the Environmental
Archaeology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin supported additional laboratory analyses. We
also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.
Funding
Fieldwork and analyses were partially funded by the Liching
Guest Professor Fellowship from Shandong University to A
Rosen, a Henry Luce Foundation for East Asian Archaeology
Grant to M Li, and a Ministry of Education of China 111 Project
Grant to H Fang.
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