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• Lake deposits indicate lowest lake stages during the Bronze Age and early Chinese empires. • Groundwater table was low enough to enable settlements in low terrains. • Dian culture adapted to climate deterioration. Hydrological variations in many lake systems are connected with water supply or loss in response to climate changes. In Yunnan Province of south-eastern China major lakes and their catchments such as Dian Lake basin in the vicinity of the Provincial capital Kunming were also preferred for early settlements. Here we reconstructed hydrological conditions of the lake and parts of its catchment in combination with early human occupation during the last 6 cal. ka BP and focused on the Dian culture (Bronze Age) and succeeding Han Dynasty. We mainly used sediment composition in the lake and on land to infer transportation processes related to climate controlled hydrological variations and combined them with past human occupation in response to groundwater fluctuations and resulting settlements and land use. Our results show that Dian Lake experienced several low lake level stages between 4.5 and 1.0 cal. ka BP (negative hydrological balance) due to deteriorated monsoon climate impact, but also indicate high-frequency flood-drought events. Lowered groundwater levels enabled human cultures to settle at low-terrain sites during the late Neolithic, Bronze Age (Dian culture), and early Chinese empires. Different from other regions in eastern Asia the local cultures adapted to climate deterioration and made use of extended arable land and intensified harvest of aquatic gastropods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use archaeometallurgical data from the Yunnanese Bronze Age sites of Hebosuo and Shangxihi, to examine the nature of early exchange networks within Yunnan, across southern China and into Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). Traditional perspectives on relations between China and MSEA were viewed from a Core-Periphery (C–P) perspective, derived from World Systems Theory (WST) but this area, though now divided by national borders, has shared ecological and cultural characteristics that allow its definition as the Southeast Asian Massif (SAM). The fourteen analysed samples were all unleaded copper or bronze, mostly as-cast and with some annealing. Their lead isotope signatures did not group at site level but showed broad consistency with the other, limited, signatures available from Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi. Critically, comparison with MSEA signatures revealed good isotopic consistency with key Bronze Age sites in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, active within tight timeframes, and mostly lying on or near the path of major river systems that find their source in or via Yunnan. The picture we propose, based on current data, is one of a complex network of autochthonous SAM societies interacting at short (ca. 50 km), medium (ca. 300 km) and long (ca. 800–1600 km) ranges over mountainous and forested terrain. • Yunnan and Mainland Southeast Asia have recently aligned Bronze Age chronologies. • 14 copper-base artefacts from early 1st mill. BC Hebosuo and Shangxihi were analysed. • 8 were unleaded copper and 6 were unleaded copper.11 as-cast, 2 annealed & 1 corroded. • Lead isotope ratios did not cluster intrasite but were consistent with southern China. • Consistency with selected Mainland Southeast Asian signatures suggests radial network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]