Possible role of the "Holocene Event 3" on the collapse of neolithic cultures around the Central Plain of China

Profound archaeological transformations that mark the collapse of Neolithic Cultures around Central China during the late third millennium BC have been identified widely. However, the causes for their collapse have been disputed. In this paper, paleoclimatic data are synthesized to show that an interval of severe climatic anomalies occurred across much of China, which were synchronous with a climatic event identified at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Our syntheses also indicate that this climatic interval was not only one of several climatic events during the Holocene, but marked the middle Holocene climatic transition (the ending of Holocene optimum). Based on geological evidences and analysis of relationships between variations in the intensity of the East Asian monsoon and changes in distributional pattern of monsoon-related rain belts in eastern China, we suggest that this climatic anomaly was superimposed on the middle Holocene transition and significantly altered the hydrological regime. This generated an environmental framework of drought in the north and flooding in the south of China, which was mainly responsible for the collapse of Neolithic Cultures around the Central Plain. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.