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To identify the weathering intensity and to deduce the provenance of sediments (black-brown soil and loess) from the loess tableland in the Liyang Plain is of great importance for understanding the development and origin of civilization of this critical region in China. The geochemical results show similar REE distribution patterns among sediments sampled from the YC profile in the Liyang Plain, reticulated red soils from the Dongting lake area, Xiashu loess in Zhenjiang, and loess from the Loess Plateau in China. These similarities imply a single provenance, from dust storms. REEs, especially the LREE/HREE ratio and Eu anomaly, can trace weathering intensity. Higher LREE/HREE ratios, and remarkably Eu anomalies, are present in the top loess (L0), Lower LREE/HREE ratios and insignificant Eu anomalies are present in black-brown soil (S0*) from the Liyang Plain. These demonstrate that the black-brown soils have undergone a lower intensity of weathering than the loess of YC profile. Moreover, CIA values for sediments from the YC profile provide powerful evidence to support the above result. Comparisons of analyses of the REE contents of sediments from the YC profile, of reticulated red soils from the Dongting Lake area, Xiashu loess from the Yangtze River, and loess from the Loess Plateau, clearly show the weathering intensity decreases according to the following sequence: reticulated red soil from the Dongting Lake area > sediments of YC profile from the Liyang Plain, which formed from dust storms ≈ Xiashu loess from lower reach of the Yangtze River > loess from the Loess Plateau.

Paleosalinity records of the Tianluoshan site are derived from measurations data of clay mineral, boron, strontium, barium, after field sampling in three profiles of the Tianluoshan site. The relative sea level changes are discussed according to the lab results. The record indicates that the region where the Tianluoshan site located has witnessed at least three times of relative sea level high-stand before, during and after the Hemudu period. Based on previous researches, this paper also focuses on discussing several environmental elements, the inter-relationships between environmental condition, human activities and development of the Hemudu culture comprehensively.

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 climate, 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 temperature 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 archaeological sites, and can connect the paleolithic culture with Neolithic culture. It could be assumed from the results that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are the home of rice cultivation, 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.

Assessments of the impacts of environmental hazards on ecological systems and human health have become a subject of ever-increasing importance. In this work, we extend current ecological hazard evaluation to the problem of protecting cultural relics from hazards attributable to the presence of a large-scale canal system being planned in China. The development and utilization of water resources must be closely combined with the preservation of cultural relics. The Middle Route Project for Water Transfer from South to North China (MRWT) is a current example. In this paper, the engineering background of this project is briefly introduced. The distribution of cultural relics related to it is also summarized in terms of different geographical divisions. An influence index E = f(L, δh, k, I, v, s) is introduced to measure the comprehensive effect of the canal on cultural relics. Because this function is really established at the preconstruction stage, it is treated by use of fuzzy mathematics. Each cultural rel...

The Peiligang Culture (9000-7000 cal. yr BP) in the Middle Yellow River region, North China, has long been considered representative of millet farming. It is still unclear, however, if broomcorn millet or foxtail millet was the first species domesticated during the Peiligang Culture. Furthermore, it is also unknown whether millet was cultivated singly or together with rice at the same period. In this study, phytolith analysis of samples from the Tanghu archaeological site reveals early crop information in the Middle Yellow River region, China. Our results show that broomcorn millet was the early dry farming species in the Peiligang Culture at 7800 cal. yr BP, while rice cultivation took place from 7800 to 4500 cal. yr BP. Our data provide new evidence of broomcorn millet and rice mixed farming at 7800 cal. yr BP in the Middle Yellow River region, which has implications for understanding the domestication process of the two crops, and the formation and continuance of the Ancient Yellow River Civilization.

The Chaohu Lake Basin is an important area for ancient human activities in East China. The Lingjiatan site, which is located at the southeast of Chaohu City, Anhui Province, and 35 km north to the Yangtze River and 5 km south to the Taihu Mountain, is the most representative Neolithic Age site with advanced jade-carving techniques in this area. The 14C date of Lingjiatan Site is about 5600~5300aBP, the same time as the Hongshan culture and earlier than the Liangzhu culture, which falls into the Mid-Holocene epoch. Based on mid-high resolution remote sensing images and former archaeological materials, combin ed with field investigations and sampling analysis of the archaeological site profile of Lingjiatan Site as well as core drillings in the Chaohu Lake, the paper reconstructs the climate environment of the Lingjiatan site and the environmental background of ancien t human activities during Mid-Holocene. The research results show that: (1) The ancients in Lingjiatan lived in the Holocene Optimum, its culture development was during the interim phase when the climate transformed from warm and wet to cool and dry. (2) The ground surface deposited in the last phase of late Pleistocene epoch (OSL dating is 11.6 ±1.0 ka BP) was the living ground for Lingjiatan ancient humans. The sedimentary discontinuous surface may be caused by strong fluvial erosion under the warm and humid climatic conditions of the Mid-Holocene. (3) Originally, paleo-geomorphic surface was a level shallow mesa foreside southern part of Taihu Mountain, but was cut by fluvial waters and the geomorphologic configuration formed “finger-like” features alternately with strip hillocks and rivers. These features can be seen on the Landsat ETM+ remote sensing image, especially the depression area. This depression is now cropland, and was interpreted as the palaeochannels. (4) Based on the remote sensing image interpretation, the site was in a “peninsula shape” environment which had rivers flowing around the east, west and south sides of the Changgang terrain and that was good for rice planting, hunting, fishing and water transportation. (5) The most particular characteristic of the Lingjiatan site is the advanced jade production, those maybe have some relationship with the convenient shipping, trade exchanges and optimal environmental conditions, which was also conducive to rice cultivation. Keywords: geographical environment background, site profile, digital reconstruction, Mid-Holocene, Lingjiatan culture

The origin of millet from Neolithic China has generally been accepted, but it remains unknown whether common millet ( Panicum miliaceum ) or foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ) was the first species domesticated. Nor do we know the timing of their domestication and their routes of dispersal. Here, we report the discovery of husk phytoliths and biomolecular components identifiable solely as common millet from newly excavated storage pits at the Neolithic Cishan site, China, dated to between ca. 10,300 and ca. 8,700 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP). After ca. 8,700 cal yr BP, the grain crops began to contain a small quantity of foxtail millet. Our research reveals that the common millet was the earliest dry farming crop in East Asia, which is probably attributed to its excellent resistance to drought.