scholarly journals Impacts of the Wetland Environment on Demographic Development During the Neolithic in the Lower Yangtze Region—Based on Peat and Archaeological Dates

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konglan Shao ◽  
Jianping Zhang ◽  
Keyang He ◽  
Can Wang ◽  
Houyuan Lu
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Wetland ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Demographic Development ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Lower Yangtze Region ◽  
Lower Yangtze ◽  
Peat Formation

Wetlands were important resources for the hunting–gathering and early farming communities in coastal areas in the Neolithic. However, the relationship between the development of the wetland environment and the human population remains unclear due to the lack of successive wetland environmental changes throughout the Holocene in coastal areas. Here, the summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates of peat were used as an indicator and combined with archaeological radiocarbon dates to reconstruct the wetland environmental and demographic changes during the Neolithic in the lower Yangtze region. The results showed that the shifts in demographic centers and population development were related to wetland environment with peat formation. The first shift of the demographic center was from the hilly regions to the coastal plain and occurred during ca. 8,300–8,000 cal yr BP, which might be caused by the attractiveness of survival resources offered by the coastal wetland environment and the 8.2 ka event. The second shift occurred from the Ningshao Plain to the Taihu region and might be attributed to the widespread waterlogged environment in the Ningshao Plain. The peak of demographic development coincided with the peak of peat formation during the middle Holocene in the lower Yangtze region, indicating that the wetland environment facilitated changes in human societies. The formation of peat might be related to the sea-level and El Niño-Southern Oscillation events; however, further studies are required for deep comprehension. The present study is an attempt at identifying the past impacts of the wetland environment on demographic development and can form the basis for a more comprehensive understanding of the interactions between the humans and their living environment.

Paleoenvironmental analysis of wet meadow in the Deseado Massif: Implications for the Holocene occupation of Argentinian Patagonia

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110259
Author(s):  
Bruno Mosquera ◽  
María V Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Semiarid Region ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Wet Meadow ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Sedimentation Environment ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Analysis ◽  
Deseado Massif

Paleoenvironmental data from wet-meadow environments in the arid-semiarid region of Patagonia are still incipient and the paleoenvironmental records came from pollen sequences of caves and rockshelters. The main reasons to study wetland records are their undisturbed (by humans) sedimentologic continuity, in contrast to deposits in rock shelters and caves; and their regional presentation of environmental changes that can be compared to archeological data. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the past hydrological dynamic of a wet-meadow from Deseado Massif and its relationship with the human occupation. For this purpose, we present the results of the sediment and pollen analysis of Mallín La Primavera wet-meadow that provide a sequence starting in the mid-Holocene. The results indicate a lower water table in the mallín prior to 6900 cal yr BP. Sediment analysis indicates low energy sedimentation environment with flood events and very low energy streams. Human occupational data show chronological discontinuities in mid-Holocene in several regions of Patagonia and the southern cone. In the studied region, two chronological hiatuses (7828–6434 cal yr BP and 3005–2710 cal yr BP) where recognized that appear to correlate with shrub steppes, indicating dry conditions. These conditions may explain the lack of archeological radiocarbon dates in the area during this period. The integration of sediment and pollen results from the Deseado Massif indicates dry and windy conditions for the middle Holocene. The lack of archeological radiocarbon dates would have been influenced by the loss of moisture in water sources such as springs and their associated wet meadows ( mallines).

scholarly journals Quantitative Holocene climatic reconstructions for the lower Yangtze region of China

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 1101-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianyong Li ◽  
John Dodson ◽  
Hong Yan ◽  
Weiming Wang ◽  
James B. Innes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Yangtze Region ◽  
Lower Yangtze

Lexicography of the Entrenched Empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-235
Author(s):  
Mårten Söderblom Saarela
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Lower Yangtze Region ◽  
Lower Yangtze

Lexicography in China under the rule of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was intimately tied up with empire. The Qing Empire was plurilingual; with the support of the Chinese elite, dominated by scholar-officials from the lower Yangtze region, the Manchu khans ruled as Confucian emperors, at the same time safeguarding a place for their own language in the polity. In this context, the bilingual elite undertook various lexicographical projects aspiring to greater integration of the empire’s main languages: Manchu and Chinese. Within this context, Mårten Söderblom Saarela addresses Banihûn’s and Pu-gong’s Qing-Han wenhai (Manchu–Chinese Literary Ocean), a reworking of an eighteenth-century poetic Chinese dictionary. He compares this bilingual project to an unfinished Chinese–French dictionary inspired by the same source. At a time of linguistic and social change in China, Banihûn and Pu-gong aspired to further integrate the empire’s two literary languages and thereby to provide a resource for lettered bannermen such as themselves and to maintain what they knew to be the fragile equilibrium of relations between these languages.

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