Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2009, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (6): 120-128.

• Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The impact of middle to late Holocene environmental changes on human activities in the Qujialing region, Jingshan, Hubei Province.

 SHI Chen-Xi, MO Che-Wen, MAO Long-Jiang, LIU Hui   

  1. 1College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
    2Department of Atmospheric Science, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
    3Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Wuhan 430077, China
  • Received:2009-09-27 Revised:2009-11-19 Online:2009-12-16 Published:2009-12-10
  • Supported by:

    The impact of middle to late Holocene environmental changes on human activities in the Qujialing region, Jingshan, Hubei Province.

Abstract:

The Qujialing site is a representative Neolithic archaeological site on the east of lower reaches of Hanjiang River, ~130 km from the Wuhan City, Hubei province, China. Synthetic analyses of grainsize, Rb/Sr ratio, magnetic susceptibility and pollen of sedimentary samples from Qujialing profile near the Qujialing site revealed the depositional process and characteristics, and climate changes since 52 ka BP in this area. The sediments were dominantly consisted of silt and clay of percentage over 95%, and that the <30 μm particle group was the “dominant group”. The grainsize probability cumulative curves were characterized by threesegment pattern except a small number of doublesegment pattern. The average ratio of Rb/Sr in the 5th layer was 13, which was generally higher than that in 14 layers (098). Magnetic susceptibility values were in the range of (5341499)×10-8 m3·kg-1. Three pollen zones were divided from bottom topwards. The depositional characteristics showed that there were some similarities between the sediments of Qujialing profile and loess, because many of the sediments were derived from the loessic materials in upper drainage area of the Qingmudang River. But the dominant sedimentary facies of Qujialing profile was fluvial facies based on the grain size analyses, field observation and the geomorphic place. By means of magnetic susceptibility, Rb/Sr ratio and pollen analyses, the climate changes were divided into three periods during the midlate Holocene: from 52 ka BP to 42 ka BP, the temperature and precipitation were higher than present in this area, but the climate turned into cool and arid with fluctuations at the end of that time; 4220 ka BP was a coolarid period; a relatively warmwet period occurred after 20 ka BP. Both of the climate and hydrological changes may have been the controlling factors of the collapse of the late Neolithic Culture in the Qujialing region.

Key words: Qujialing; middle and late Holocene; environmental changes; Human activities