Environmental Change Linked to Changes in the Neolithic Agricultural Development in the East Coast of China

摘要

INTRODUCTION In coastal regions, such as the Lower Yangtze, sea-level change is an environmental factor additional to the climatic factor that has caused changes in environmental conditions. Sea-level stabilization in the Middle Holocene made the resources of coastal areas more predictable and plentiful, thus attractive to human communities. Furthermore, coastal ecosystems are sensitive to small changes in sea level, as it changes the frequency of marine flooding and the salinity of coastal waters. Neolithic communities exploiting coastal resources were generally vulnerable to, or affected by such changes (Innes et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2008; Zong et al., 2007). Rises in sea level during the Middle Holocene may have increased marine flood in the Yangtze deltaic lowland, which in turn contributed to the rise and fall of the Neolithic culture once flourished in the Taihu area (Chen et al., 2008; Stanley and Chen, 1996).