Ecological change and human responses to the YD in a subtropical area: Archaeological evidences and isotope records from Zhongshan site, south China

Abstract

Climate change, a global challenge for human beings, is in the long term best documented through archaeological research. As this has shown, some cold reversal events, like Last Glacial Maximum and YD, greatly impacted of human behavior in mid-latitude areas of the northern hemisphere. A general recognition on how these events affected those in low latitude areas is yet to be determined. Previous studies have suggested that cold reversal events had a limited impact on humans in the latter parts of the world. This account discusses the effect of the YD on human behavior in a subtropical region, based on isotope analyses, and samples both faunal and artificial from the late Pleistocene site of Zhongshan in the Bubing Basin, Guangxi. During the YD, the environment became more open, and the consumption of aquatic resources increased. Polished stone artefacts first occurred in this period, probably for finer food processing. Our study highlights the significant impact of the YD on the ecology and human behavior in this subtropical region.