Climate and Environmental Change

Environmental change since mid-Pleistocene re-corded in Shangshan achaeological site of Zhejiang

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  • 1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China|
    2. Zhejiang Provincial institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hangzhou 310014, China|
    3. Department of Tourism and Environment, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China|
    4. Department of Resources Environment and Tourism, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang 421008, China|
    5. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS, Beijing 100029, China

Received date: 2007-12-25

  Revised date: 2008-02-18

  Online published: 2008-06-25

Supported by

National Science and Technology Support Program, No.2006BAK21B02; National Basic Research Program of China, No.2003CB415201; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40671016

Abstract

At about 173 ka BP of the late period of mid-Pleistocene, the second terrace of the river had been formed as a result of uplift happening in Shangshan area because of the cli-mate, sea level change and tectonic action. Between 173?75 ka BP, aeolian deposited on the terrace, a layer of reticulate red clayey soil about 80?100 cm thick deposited and developed under the warmer and higher temperature. In the last glacial period, the drop of the tem-perature and the decrease of the precipitation induced the dust-storms increased, A layer of Xiashu loess about 1.0?1.5 m thick accumulated on Shangshan terrace in the last glacial, which has the reticulate red clayey soil buried. At the beginning of the Holocene (11500 a BP?), temperature went higher gradually and precipitation got more, the pre-persons moved on the Shangshan terrace (11,400?8600 a BP), which is one of the most important archaeo-logical sites, and can connect the paleolithic culture with Neolithic culture. It could be as-sumed from the results that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are the home of rice cul-tivation, too. The lower place to the west of the Shangshan site experienced the two cycles process of the fluvial facies and the lacustrine facies, indicating that the water source of the pre-historical Shangshan is the river water or lake water. Two AMS 14C age proved the water source disappeared more than 1000 years ago.

Cite this article

MAO Longjiang, MO Duowen, JIANG Leping, JIA Yaofeng, LIU Xiaoyan, LI Minglin, ZHOU Kunshu, SHI Chenxi . Environmental change since mid-Pleistocene re-corded in Shangshan achaeological site of Zhejiang[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2008 , 18(2) : 247 -256 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-008-0247-6

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