Holocene-aged inudation, vegetation, and early rice-based agriculture on former settlement sites on the Southern Yangtze Delta of China : a geoarchaeological investigation

Abstract

The Southern Yangtze Delta was one of the key locations for development of early rice-based agriculture in China. Early Neolithic and Bronze-age communities on the delta are thought to have been closely associated with the initiation and development of rice-based agriculture, according to the available archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence. Understanding the history of early rice-based agriculture and social changes in the area has, however, been hampered by a relative lack of information on the environmental context for the initiation and development of food production on the delta. The current thesis aims to address this gap in information and understanding through an examination of the relationship between early food production and Holocene environmental changes on the Southern Yangtze Delta using a combination of sedimentary and archaeological data (both unpublished and published).