Journal of Geographical Sciences ›› 2007, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (3): 285-292.doi: 10.1007/s11442-007-0285-5

• Climate and Environmental Change • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Environmental change and cultural response around 4200 cal. yr BP in the Yishu River Basin, Shandong

GAO Huazhong1,2, ZHU Cheng2, XU Weifeng2   

  1. 1. Department of Geography and Tourism, Linyi Normal University, Linyi 276005, Shandong, China|
    2. College of Geography and Ocean Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  • Received:2007-04-05 Revised:2007-05-30 Online:2007-09-25 Published:2007-09-25
  • Supported by:

    National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40271103; Subject Construction of Physical Geography during “985” and Testing Fund of Nanjing University

Abstract:

Neolithic culture series in the Yishu River Basin developed in the order of Beixin culture–Dawenkou culture–Longshan culture–Yueshi culture. During the early and middle stage of Longshan culture (4600–4300 cal. yr BP), the climate in the Yishu River Basin was warm and wet. Paddy-oriented agriculture planted paddy was very developed. The society was flourishing with great amount of archaeological sites. The cooling starting in 4200 cal. yr BP made the paddies shortfall in output or even no seeds were gathered. This situation in-tensified the discrepancy between population and resource. The scarcity in natural resource led to substantial decrease in population and subsequent drop in archaeological sites. About 4000 cal. yr BP Longshan culture was displaced by Yueshi culture which was relatively un-derdeveloped, simple and unsophisticated.

Key words: Yishu River, Shandong, 4200 cal. yr BP, environmental change, cultural response