Browsing by Author "Taylor, D"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Environmental and cultural changes during the terminal Neolithic: Qingpu, Yangtze delta, eastern China
    (SAGE Publications, 2007-11) Itzstein-Davey, F; Atahan, P; Dodson, JR; Taylor, D; Zheng, HB
    The lower Yangtze, eastern China, was colonized by several Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures giving rise to possibly the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in the world. Early Neolithic cultures in the delta region cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) and agricultural developments appear to have occurred throughout the Neolithic with abrupt socio-economic changes possibly associated with the terminal Neolithic. Given the extensive history of environmental exploitation and well-preserved archaeological sites, the Yangtze delta is an ideal setting to explore the complex interactions between humans and their environment. Multiproxies of environmental changes, namely pollen, charcoal and phytoliths, in a C-14 AMS-dated sequence of sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu, Yangtze delta, were investigated. C-14 AMS dating indicates that the age range of the sedimentary sequence analysed is from c. 1800 to 6000 BP, and therefore encompasses the terminal Neolithic and subsequent Bronze Age in the region. This paper reviews this sediment-based evidence in the light of current understanding of human-environment interactions during a critical phase of the development of the Yangtze delta and associated human cultures. © 2007, SAGE Publications
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    Holocene-aged sedimentary records of environmental changes and early agriculture in the lower Yangtze, China
    (Elsevier, 2008-03) Atahan, P; Itzstein-Davey, F; Taylor, D; Dodson, JR; Qin, J; Zheng, HB; Brooks, A
    Sedimentary evidence from a total of 21 AMS C-14 dates and 192 pollen and charcoal and 181 phytolith samples from three study sites in the archaeologically rich lower Yangtze in China provides an indication of interactions between early agriculturalists and generally highly dynamic environmental conditions. Results suggest that environmental changes influenced agricultural development, and attest the localised environmental impacts of incipient agriculture. Evidence of human activity, in the form of indicators of deforestation and possibly food production, is apparent by ca 7000 BP (early Neolithic or Majiabang). Clearer evidence of human activity dates to ca 4700 BP (late Neolithic or Liangzhu). Extensive, profound and apparently widespread human impacts do not appear until the Eastern Zhou (Iron Age, ca 2800-2200 BP), however, which in the lower Yangtze was a period associated with technological advances in agriculture, increased urbanisation and relatively stable hydro-geomorphological conditions. © 2008, Elsevier Ltd.
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    Neolithic agriculture, freshwater resources and rapid environmental changes on the lower Yangtze, China
    (Elsevier, 2011-01) Qin, J; Taylor, D; Atahan, P; Zhang, X; Wu, G; Dodson, JR; Zheng, H; Itzstein-Davey, F
    Analyses of sedimentary evidence in the form of spores, pollen, freshwater algae, dinoflagellate cysts, phytoliths and charcoal from AMS 14C-dated, Holocene-aged sequences provide an excellent opportunity to examine the responses of Neolithic agriculturalists in the lower Yangtze to changing environments. Evidence from two sites close to the southern margin of the Yangtze delta and separated by what is now Hangzhou Bay attests the critical importance to early attempts at food production of access to freshwater resources. More readily, if episodically, available freshwater resources during the early to mid-Holocene on the Hangjiahu plain may have encouraged an early reliance on rice-based agriculture, which in turn facilitated the accumulation of agricultural surpluses and cultural diversification. Cultural change was relatively attenuated and human population pressures possibly lower on the Ningshao plain, seemingly because of much more profound environmental impacts of variations in local hydrological conditions, and because predominantly saline conditions, associated with rising relative sea level, hampered the early development of irrigated agriculture. The evidence, although largely dating to the early and middle parts of the Holocene, provides a timely warning of the complexity of vulnerability to climate change-induced processes of agriculture, and indeed human activities more generally, on megadeltas in Asia. Analyses of sedimentary evidence in the form of spores, pollen, freshwater algae, dinoflagellate cysts, phytoliths and charcoal from AMS 14C-dated, Holocene-aged sequences provide an excellent opportunity to examine the responses of Neolithic agriculturalists in the lower Yangtze to changing environments. Evidence from two sites close to the southern margin of the Yangtze delta and separated by what is now Hangzhou Bay attests the critical importance to early attempts at food production of access to freshwater resources. More readily, if episodically, available freshwater resources during the early to mid-Holocene on the Hangjiahu plain may have encouraged an early reliance on rice-based agriculture, which in turn facilitated the accumulation of agricultural surpluses and cultural diversification. Cultural change was relatively attenuated and human population pressures possibly lower on the Ningshao plain, seemingly because of much more profound environmental impacts of variations in local hydrological conditions, and because predominantly saline conditions, associated with rising relative sea level, hampered the early development of irrigated agriculture. The evidence, although largely dating to the early and middle parts of the Holocene, provides a timely warning of the complexity of vulnerability to climate change-induced processes of agriculture, and indeed human activities more generally, on megadeltas in Asia. © 2011, Elsevier Ltd.
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    OPAL cold neutron source maintenance, reliability and operational status
    (International Group On Research Reactors, 2010-09-19) Taylor, D; Thiering, R; Lu, W
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    Sediment-based record of lateglacial and holocene environmental changes from Guangfulin, Yangtze delta, eastern China
    (SAGE Publications, 2007-12) Itzstein-Davey, F; Atahan, P; Dodson, JR; Taylor, D; Zheng, HB
    Multiproxies of past environmental conditions, comprising 53 sediment samples analysed for their lithostratigraphic properties (mainly their charcoal, phytoliths and pollen contents) from an AMS C-14-dated sequence of sediments accumulating at Guangfulin, Yangtze delta, are presented. The oldest sediments recovered date to the Lateglacial when a mosaic of mixed (conifer-deciduous) temperate forest and wetland vegetation characterized the Study area. The Lateglacial-Holocene transition and much of the early Holocene record to c. 7400 yr BP appears to be missing from the sequence. The earliest evidence possibly representing human activities in the study area (the remains of cereals and indicators of forest) date to c. 7000 yr BP. A large increase in macrocharcoal remains c. 4700 yr BP is a more certain indication of human activities close to the study site, and may indicate the first occupation of what is now the location of a major archaeological excavation at Guangfulin. Technological changes during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 Bc) may be responsible for an increased abundance of rice (Oryza sp.), and possibly also foxtail or Chinese millet (Setaria italica), detected in the Guangfulin record after c. 2400 yr BP. An abrupt sedimentary change at c. 4000 yr BP may represent a short-lived episode of catchment instability. Aside front this, the sediment record from Guangfulin contains no evidence of dramatic environmental changes that could have led to a major decline in agricultural productivity c. 4000 yr BP, as has been suggested for the lower Yangtze by some researchers, who associate this with the cultural transition from Liangzhu to Maqiao. The findings do, however, add weight to the argument that developments in rice-based agriculture on the Yangtze delta varied both spatially and temporally. © 2007, SAGE Publications
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    Wild and domesticated forms of rice (Oryza sp.) in early agriculture at Qingpu, lower Yangtze, China: evidence from phytoliths
    (Elsevier, 2007-12) Itzstein-Davey, F; Taylor, D; Dodson, JR; Atahan, P; Zheng, HB
    Rice cultivation in parts of the Yangtze valley, eastern China, is thought to date to at least the early Holocene. Using phytolith analysis, sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu in the lower Yangtze were examined in detail in order to contribute to the growing body of information relating to the history of rice agriculture in the Yangtze delta area. The presence of phytoliths from domesticated rice, Oryza sativa, indicates that rice agriculture was well developed at Qingpu by ca. 2350 BP and may have increased in intensity from ca. 2100 BP. Rice cultivation at Qingpu was comparatively late in relation to other areas in the Yangtze valley, possibly due to the seasonal intrusion of saline waters, while the cultivation of wild rice remained a prominent feature of food production in the area to at least as late as ca. 1800 BP. Results presented here support the existence of a period of overlap, during which both wild and domesticated forms of rice were cultivated, rather than a linear transition from wild to domesticated rice cultivation and the possible influence of environmental factors over farming in an area subjected to frequent flooding. © 2007, Elsevier Ltd.