The impact of Holocene alluvial landscape evolution on an ancient settlement in the southeastern piedmont of Songshan Mountain, Central China: A study from the Shiyuan site

Abstract

The Central Plains of China have long been argued to be swampy during the middle Holocene, despite the presence of many Neolithic sites in the area. Here, we investigate this contradiction using a combination of geoarchaeological and geospatial methods to reconstruct the alluvial landscape at the Shiyuan site, located along the southeastern piedmont of Songshan Mountain. Our results indicate that the river valley started to aggrade sometime before 10,000 BP, incise from 10,000 to 9000 BP, aggrade again from 9000 to 4000 BP, and then heavily incise after 4000 BP. Our results also show that during the late Yangshao period (5000 BP), the landscape around Shiyuan had many rivers, lakes, and wetlands but these aqueous areas are not all contiguous, revealing a mosaic of different environments. Most of the archaeological sites, including Shiyuan, are located on landforms that are naturally elevated, providing these Neolithic villages with an ample supply of nearby aquatic resources. Contrary to suggestions that Neolithic villages were primarily reliant on dry farming, these wetland environments provided an important and overlooked part of the Neolithic landscape in Central China.