Natural Disasters of the Lower Reaches of Yellow River during the Longshan Period——The Natural Background of Dayu's Flood Control

It is very important to study the archaeological culture and origin of civilization in ancient China.The changes of the channels in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in the prehistoric period are part of the natural environmental background of the development of the ancient civilization in that area to be explored.This paper presents a series of legends,indications,scientific evidence,and macroscopic geographical background information of the evolution in the lower reaches of the Yellow River during the Longshan period.At first the river flowed from Northern Henan and Hebei to southwestern Shandong Province and Northern Anhui–Jiangsu provinces,and the mainstream of the Yellow River changed from the southeast to return to the north and flowed into the Bohai Sea in the late Longshan Period.During this period,floods were frequent.Various ethnic groups in the northern China plains suffered natural disasters and made great migrations which also contributed to the ethnic exchanges and integration.The people of the Central Plains made more dynamic adjustments in the relationship between mankind and the land by primitively escaping from the water and self–defensively controlling the rivers then to maintaining the local ecological environment by large–scale flood control measures,which promoted the settlement of Shandong,Henan,Jiangsu and Anhui provinces,the urban cultural development,and social evolution.Based on these events,the culture symbol of Dayu's Flood Control could be formed.

Multiple evidences indicate no relationship between prehistoric disasters in Lajia site and outburst flood in upper Yellow River valley, China

All around the world, ancient legends exist about the Great Flood, and the influence of the Great Flood in human evolutionary history is a hotly debated topic. In China, the legend of the prehistoric Great Flood and Yu the Great's flood control has a long history and is considered to be closely linked to the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. However, there is a lack of solid scientific evidence. Against this issue, some scholars have proposed that an earthquake around 1920 BCE in the Guanting Basin along the upper reaches of the Yellow River led to the creation of a lake by damming in the Jishi Gorge and that the outburst of water from that lake led to the massive flood in the Yellow River region. These studies provided new scientific evidence for the Chinese legend. In this paper, we date skeletal samples embedded in earthquake sand blasting from the Lajia site, analyze remains from natural disasters(such as earthquakes and floods) and also archaeological remains. In addition, we compared the skeletal samples dating with that of sediments from the dammed-up lake. Our results are inconsistent with those of previous scholars. The earthquake at the Lajia site occurred no earlier than 1800 BCE, and the dammed-up lake in Jishi Gorge had disappeared by 3600 BCE. Thus, the formation and outburst of the dammed lake, the sudden death of ancient humans at the Lajia site and the ancient earthquake were independent events occurring at different times. In addition, the massive flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River did not actually happen. Thus, we argue against and invalidate the hypothesis that the massive flood was related to Yu the Great's flood control and the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.