Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

Abstract

The history of water management is closely intertwined with evolution of social structures. In particular, the emergence of rice farming and transition to sedentary life contributed significantly to the development of water management practices, with increasing labour and economic investments to build and operate water-management infrastructures. Here we present archaeological, archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence of early water management obtained from the excavations of three early-to-middle Holocene sites in the upper and middle Huai River region (UMHR), including Hanjing from Sihong County of Jiangsu Province and Xielaozhuang and Zhangwangzhuang from Luohe City and Zhumadian City of Henan Province. Our 14C dates suggest multiple episodes of regional inhabitation in the UMHR region. Our results also reveal that the wells at Xielaozhuang represent some of the earliest attempts to ensure water consumption in the village, and importantly, the rice-field-like structures at Hanjing and Zhangwangzhuang are evidence of a more systematic effort to modify and transform local landscapes for rice cultivation and related economic activities. In line with the results from published phytolith studies, we found that the early experiment of rice cultivation altered local soil and hydrological conditions at these sites. These early forms of rice fields share some similarities in micro-and-macro- morphologies and represent successful adaptations to the low-lying plains that continued to have fluctuating hydrological regimes. The construction and operation of these wells, moats and rice-field-like structures stimulated collaboration beyond individual households and groups in these early-to-middle Holocene villages in the UMHR region and thus would have had profound social and economic ramifications.