The Alluvial Geoarchaeology of the Sanyangzhuang Site on the Yellow River Floodplain, Henan...

Research Article

The Alluvial Geoarchaeology of the Sanyangzhuang Site on theYellow River Floodplain, Henan Province, ChinaTristram Kidder,1,* Haiwang Liu,2 Qinghai Xu,3 and Minglin Li4

1Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis2, Henan Provincial institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology3College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Hebei Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Ecological Construction4School of Urban Planning and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

Correspondence*Corresponding author;

E-mail: [email protected]

Received28 November 2011

Accepted30 March 2012

Scientific editing by Loren Davis

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com).

doi 10.1002/gea.21411

The Sanyangzhuang site, Henan Province, China, has a 12-m-deep strati-graphic sequence with remains from the Tang (A.D. 618–907), late WesternHan (ca. 140 B.C.–A.D. 23), Warring States (475–221 B.C.), Late Neolithic orEarly Bronze Age (ca. 5000–1500 B.C.), Middle Holocene, and Early Holocenetimes. All of the paleosols are deeply buried. We investigate four issues rele-vant to the archaeology of the lower Yellow River Valley. First, we confirmthat the Yellow River flowed north toward Bohai Bay throughout most of theHolocene. Second, we expand understanding of Holocene paleoenvironments.Long episodes of landscape stability punctuated by brief periods of Yellow Riverflooding represent the dominant environmental pattern. Third, we investigatehow the complex relationships between climate, culture, and the environmentaffect Yellow River flooding, which in turn shapes Chinese civilization and his-tory. Flooding in late Western Han times affected a vast area of north-centralChina; this catastrophe contributed to the downfall of the late Western HanDynasty. Finally, this research sheds light on the role of Yellow River alluvia-tion in site burial and preservation. Rapid alluviation in the region has buriedmany archaeological sites. Settlement pattern research needs to take seriouslythe limitations placed on site visibility in quickly aggrading floodplains. How-ever, gentle alluviation has also preserved settlements and entire landscapesproviding unparalleled opportunities to explore the archaeological and histor-ical record of the lower Yellow River Valley. C© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

The Yellow River (Huanghe) is remarkably dynamic andhas frequently flooded; some of these floods are thoughtto have influenced the course of Chinese history but spe-cific connections between the river’s behavior and thedevelopment of Chinese civilization are not always clearor explicit. Although the Yellow River is considered theepicenter of the development Chinese civilization, rela-tively little is known about the geoarchaeology and pale-oenvironments of the lower reaches of the valley. Whilethere are numerous reconstructions of the paleoenvi-ronment and paleogeography of this region (Wu et al.,1996; Xu, Chen, & Kong, 1998; Liu, 2004:27–31; Cuiet al., 2005; Jin, 2009; Cao et al., 2010), many recon-structions are derived from historical sources or from in-

complete and limited sedimentary archives. Recent workat the Sanyangzhuang site in northeast Henan Province(Figure 1) provides a new geoarchaeological perspectiveto investigate the relationship between humans and en-vironmental change in a critical region of China.

Two seasons of geoarchaeological fieldwork atSanyangzhuang reveals an extensive sedimentaryarchive from the end of the Pleistocene to the present.Our work focuses on explicating the sedimentary historyat the site and reconstructing site formation processesand environmental history. In this paper, we use ar-chaeological, geological, and altimeter-based mappingdata to provide insights into four important issues thatexpand understanding of the archaeology of the lowerYellow River Valley and its role in Chinese history. First,our work helps further our knowledge of the geological

324 Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 27 (2012) 324–343 Copyright C© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

KIDDER ET AL. THE YELLOW RIVER FLOODPLAIN, HENAN PROVINCE

Figure 1 Location of the Sanyangzhuang site, Henan Province. Inset shows location covered by figure (black rectangle).

history of the lower reaches of the Yellow River andespecially the location of the Yellow River during theHolocene. It is now evident that the river flowed in anorthern direction throughout most of the Holocene;interpretations that place a Mid-Holocene channel southof the Shandong peninsula are not valid.

Second, it provides an opportunity to expand ourunderstanding of Holocene paleoenvironments in thelower Yellow River alluvial plain. This area is dominatedthrough time by lengthy periods of landscape stabilitypunctuated by episodes of rapid flooding. Including themodern surface, we have identified nine paleosols. Sixof these paleosols are directly associated with archaeo-logical or historical remains, and in three instances—theLate Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (ca. 5000–1500 B.C.),the Warring States period (475–221 B.C.), and especiallythe Western Han period (206 B.C.–A.D. 23)—agriculturalfields, collapsed houses, wells, activity areas, leaf impres-sions, and human footprints were preserved remarkablywell. Indeed, the Han occupation is so well conserved theSanyangzhuang site has been dubbed “China’s Pompeii.”

Third, our results allow us to contribute to understand-ing the effects of Yellow River flooding on the shaping ofChinese civilization and history. Using mostly historicalrecords, much has been made of how floods have alteredthe course of historical events (e.g., Bielenstein, 1947,1954, 1986; Liu, 2004:29–31, 250–251; Zhang, 2009).

We document in this paper that flooding in late West-ern Han times affected a vast area of north-central Chinaand the ways this physical record helps us understandhow large-scale human–environmental interactions con-tribute to cultural and political change.

Finally, this research sheds light on the role of Yel-low River alluviation in site burial and preservation. Onthe one hand, rapid alluviation in the region has cov-ered many landscapes in the Central Plains (Jing, Rapp,& Gao, 1995, 1997; Liu, 2004:180) and these processeshave buried many archaeological sites. Settlement pat-tern data are thus considerably influenced by geologicaldevelopments that affect site preservation and recovery.On the other hand, while alluviation has removed manysites from the superficial archaeological record, in this in-stance, it has also preserved settlements and entire land-scapes.

THE SANYANGZHUANG SITE

Sanyangzhuang is located in the Central Plains north andwest of the modern channel of the Yellow River in Nei-huang County, Henan Province (Henan Provincial Insti-tute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 2007) (Figure 1).The site is deeply buried and was discovered in the courseof excavation for an irrigation canal in 2003; by way of

Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 27 (2012) 324–343 Copyright C© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 325

THE YELLOW RIVER FLOODPLAIN, HENAN PROVINCE KIDDER ET AL.

illustration, the surface of the Han level is 5 m below themodern surface. Six stratigraphic profiles, including two12-m-deep excavations reveal a complex natural and an-thropogenic stratigraphic sequence extending to the be-ginning of the early Holocene. We have identified six an-thropogenic paleosols, one modern, one recent historic,three dated by artifact inclusions to the Tang Dynasty,late Western Han, and Warring States period, and oneby radiocarbon dates and ceramics to the late Neolithicor Early Bronze Age. Below these latter two layers aretwo paleosols radiocarbon dated to the middle and earlyHolocene (Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012).

Because the pre-Han era remains are very deeplyburied, we have only limited windows into the archae-ology of these deposits. To date, we have only exposedsmall sections of buried cultivated fields from the Late Ne-olithic/Early Bronze Age and Warring States periods. Atpresent, there are no houses or structures associated withthese fields. These fields show clear evidence of ridgesand furrows and we have found a small number of sherdsembedded within them. Human footprints are evident inone part of the Warring States field (Figure 2).

The Han era remains have been the focus of archae-ological recovery and are dated to the later part of theWestern Han Dynasty and into the Wang Mang interreg-num (ca. 140 B.C.–A.D. 23). Fifteen Han-era agrarian do-mestic structures (called compounds) have been discov-ered at Sanyangzhuang, along with ∼10,000 m2 buildingor set of buildings, a kiln, and the walls of a contemporarytown or small city (Figure 3). These remains were buriedby a massive flood ca. A.D. 14–17 (Kidder & Li, in press;Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012).

Two of the four compounds and their surrounding ac-tivity areas have been fully exposed and two partially

Figure 2 Human footprints visible in a section of the Warring States

ridge-and-furrow field (APS-6) in the Compound 2 excavation. Photograph

courtesy of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeol-

ogy.

cleared (Figure 4). Each compound consists of multi-ple tile-roofed structures and open courtyards enclosedby a rammed earth wall. The compounds have betweenthree and six rooms and two outdoor courtyards (HenanProvincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeologyand Neihuang County Office for the Preservation of An-cient Monuments, 2010; Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012).

The compounds were surrounded by ridge-and-furrowfields indicating the use of row-crop agriculture. Pre-served casts of evenly spaced trees were found close tothe north wall of Compound 3 and trees screened theeast side of compounds 2 and 4. Fossilized mulberry leafimpressions were recovered (Henan Provincial Instituteof Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 2007:31; Kidder, Liu,& Li, 2012: Figure 6) suggesting the inhabitants practicedsericulture as a means of supplementing agricultural in-come.

Sanyangzhuang was a prosperous community at thetime it was buried. Artifacts include grinding stones, stonecontainers, pottery vessels, iron tools (including iron-tipped plows with wooden handles, iron vessels, buckles,scythes, knives, and axes), and coins. The abundance ofartifacts in primary contexts and their diverse size classesranging from large, heavy objects to small coins indicatesthe site was abandoned rapidly before the inhabitantscould gather their possessions (Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012).

THE GEOLOGICAL SETTING

Sanyangzhuang lies beneath a complex alluvial fan in thenorth central portion of the lower Yellow River alluvialplain. For the purposes of our discussion, this plain beginsat the point where the Yiluo River enters the main chan-nel between Luoyang and Zhengzhou. The Yellow Riverflows through the easily eroded Loess Plateau of centralChina and as a consequence the river entrains remarkablequantities of sediment (concentrations at flood stage arein excess of 250 kg/m3 (Table 5 in Chien, 1961)); onceit enters the alluvial plain, the carrying capacity of theriver is exceeded by the amount of sediment load leadingto rapid aggradation (Liu & Jiyang, 1989:223–224). Theriver’s bed and banks are prone to erosion with chang-ing flood conditions because they are composed of rel-atively coarse-grained sediments that lack structural co-hesion (Chien, 1961; Jing, Rapp, & Gao, 1995:484–485).Avulsions are common as the channel aggrades and theslope differential between the channel bed and the sur-rounding flood basin increases.

For much of the Holocene, the lower Yellow Riverflowed north to discharge in the Gulf of Bohai (Xu, 1989;Figure 1 in Ye, 1989; Xue, 1993; Wu et al., 1996; Saitoet al., 2000; Saito, Yang, & Hori, 2001). At the end ofthe Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 960–1127), the river



Figure 3 Map of Sanyangzhuang site area showing known Han-age cultural features, areas of coring, and the location of stratigraphic profiles (originally

published in Antiquity vol. 86 (2012): Figure 2. Reprinted with permission).

Figure 4 Aerial view of the Compound 3 and 4 excavation showing the

late Western Han occupation at ∼5 m below the modern ground surface.

The excavations halted when the roof tiles were exposed. Compound 3,

on the left, has a shallow ditch on the east and west side (see Kidder, Liu,

& Li, 2012: Figure 7b for a plan view). Well preserved ridge-and-furrow

fields can be seen to the west and north of compound 3 and between

compounds 3 and 4. Arrow 1 points to the Han erawell and arrow 2 points

to a Tang dynasty well that cut into the earlier Han occupation level.

Individuals visible in upper left corner provide scale. Photograph courtesy

of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

was artificially breached and the channel relocated south-ward from its ancestral course (Lamouroux, 1998; Zhang,2009). Between A.D. 1128 and 1855, the main trunk ofthe river flowed east to the Yellow Sea south of the Shan-dong Peninsula. An avulsion east of Kaifeng in 1855 di-

verted the river northward into its current channel (Jing,Rapp, & Gao, 1995:285–286; Xu, 1989).

Humans have been trying to contain and constrain theYellow River since at least the 4th century B.C. These at-tempts include the construction of levees, dikes, dams,reservoirs, canals, and irrigation structures. By Han times,large-scale levee and canal building projects were wellunderway and were consuming an ever larger share ofimperial resources and labor (Needham, Ling, & Gwei-Djen, 1971:232–235).

METHODS

We excavated six stratigraphic profiles at Sanyangzhuang(Figure 3). Profiles 1 and 2 were dug to ∼12 m belowground surface. Profiles 1 New, 1 West, 3/4, and 3/4 Eastwere excavated from the modern ground surface to theHan occupation level. The six profiles combined provideaccess to a nearly continuous sedimentary archive fromthe Late Pleistocene to the present.

Profile walls were described and interpreted in the fieldand samples were studied under laboratory conditions.Descriptions included Munsell color, field texture, soilhorizonation, and the presence of artifacts or organicsand follow guidelines employed by the Natural ResourceConservation Service and the United States GeologicalSurvey and summarized by various authors (Birkeland,1999; Soil Survey Staff, 1999; Schoeneberger et al., 2002;



Vogel, 2002; Holliday, 2004). We collected 149 ∼100 gsamples for analysis. We analyzed grain size using thehydrometer method (American Society for Testing andMaterials, 2003). Samples were processed for pH, as wellas organic carbon and carbonate content using sequen-tial loss-on-ignition assays (Schrader & Monsen, 2000;Heiri, Lotter, & Lemcke, 2001). Pollen samples were re-covered from all strata in Profile 1. Accelerator mass spec-trometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on soil organic matterwere obtained from samples taken at 2-cm intervals inthe buried soil horizons and analyzed at the Xi’an Labo-ratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology (Table I).

FLOODPLAIN STRATIGRAPHY ANDANALYSIS

Twelve alluvial lithostratigraphic units and their as-sociated pedostratigraphic units are defined in theSanyangzhuang sequence (Figure 5, Table II). The lithos-tratigraphic units are labeled I–XII from the top to thebottom of the Sanyangzhuang excavations. The top ofmost of the lithostratigraphic units is marked by a pa-leosol (designated PS). Each pedostratigraphic unit con-sists of one or more buried pedologic horizons (e.g.,Ab, Bwb, Bkb) developed in a corresponding lithostrati-graphic unit and overlain by one or more younger lithos-tratigraphic units (Table II). Six of the paleosols in theSanyangzhuang sequence are recognized as originatingfrom human factors and are labeled APS. These aresoils that “exhibit anthropogenic physical and chemical

alterations” (Holliday 2004:27; see also Driessen et al.2001:37).

At Sanyangzhuang, the composition of the anthrosolsis spatially variable. This is most notable in the Han level,where in the same stratigraphic level, we encounter an-throsols defined as above (most notably plowed fields)as well as living and activity area surfaces (house floors,courtyard spaces, footpaths, wells, and roads) in closeproximity. This suggests a complex situation similar tothat observed by Fraser et al. (2011) where they notethat among Amazonian Dark Earth sites, there is a con-tinuum among anthropogenically altered soils diagnosedby levels of soil fertility. Variability in soil fertility repre-sents different types and intensity of land use and typifiesspatial distinctions in settlements from core to periph-ery. At Sanyangzhuang where we have well preservedburied living surfaces, the continuum ranges from thefields that were plowed and amended with manure andorganics (M. J. Storozum personal communication) tofeatures such as footpaths that, while “originating fromhuman factors,” at best marginally demonstrate “physicaland chemical alterations.” In our deeply buried anthro-pogenic paleosols, we have fewer exposures covering lessarea and thus rely on evidence of physical alteration toclassify the paleosols.

Excavation of the profiles at Sanyangzhuang providesan opportunity to investigate the geological and environ-mental history of this locality (see Figure 5 and Table II).Because of the extreme depth of the oldest exposures, ourinterpretations of these deposits are limited; however, by

Table I Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates in stratigraphic order from the Sanyangzhuang site. Dates are calibrated with the program

Calib 6.1 (Stuiver and Reimer, 1993) using the INTCAL09.14C dataset (Reimer et al., 2009).

δ13C/ Conventional RC cal. 2-Sigma cal. 2-Sigma Area under

Provenience Material Dateda Lab No. 12C Age Age Ranges (B.P.) Age Ranges (B.C.) Curve

Profile 1, Unit X, top 10Apb1 SOM XLQQ-SYZ18–03 −17.09 9175 ± 46b

Profile 1, Unit X, top 10Ab2 SOM XLQQ-SYZ17–01 −18.38 4474 ± 39 5294–5028 3345–3079 0.893406

5019–4974 3070–3025 0.106594

Profile 1, Unit XII, base 11Ab SOM XLLQ-SYZ10–01 −15.18 6092 ± 40 7156–7095 5207–5146 0.122018

7087–7076 5138–5127 0.010082

7070–7042 5121–5093 0.030508

7030–6850 50814901 0.825583

6813–6804 48644855 0.011809

Profile 1, Unit XII, top 12Ab SOM XLLQ-SYZ04–11 −17.87 6330 ± 45 7414–7390 5465–5441 0.042148

7373–7355 5424–5406 0.025095

7331–7165 5382–5216 0.932757

Profile 1, Unit XII, base 12Ab SOM XLLQ-SYZ01–01 −1.98 9003 ± 46 10246–10124 8297–8175 0.837238

10062–10038 8113–8089 0.036143

10027–10007 8078–8058 0.02157

9993–9931 8044–7982 0.0105049

aSoil organic matter.bDate is clearly anomalous and thus no calibration was performed.

RC = radiocarbon



Figure 5 Composite lithostratigraphy, chronology, and description of the Sanyangzhuang site sequence. This sequence was compiled on the basis of

investigations in profiles 1 and 2 supplemented by work done on the other four profiles. Depth scale in meters.

the time we reach the Warring States and especially Hanlevels, we have far more data from the archaeological ex-cavations as well as better historical evidence and thuscan say more about the geology and environment, espe-cially as it pertains to human uses of the landscape.

Unit XII

We have two radiocarbon dates from Unit XII, one fromthe base of the Ab horizon (10,246–9931 cal. B.P.) andone from its upper 2 cm (7414–7165 cal. B.P.) (Table I).This unit formed when the late to terminal Pleistocenefluvial outwash plain was exposed for roughly 4000 yearsduring which an organically enriched cumulic A horizonformed. The inception of paleosol PS-9 and its buildup

coincides with the onset of increasingly humid conditionsin the Early Holocene (Dong et al., 2010; Yang & Scuderi,2010; Yang et al., 2010). The low rates of sediment ac-cumulation show that the Yellow River was not activelydepositing sediments across the region suggesting it mayhave been entrenched or located far from the site area.

Unit XI

Unit XI represents the first Holocene age Yellow Riverflood in the Sanyangzhuang region. It appears to be theresult of a single flood associated with an avulsion of theYellow River. An abrupt shift in depositional energy in-dicates the end of the flood sequence and the onset of anepisode of landscape stability marked by the evolution of



Table II Master stratigraphic sequence at Sanyangzhuang.

Lithostrati- Pedostrati- Elevation of

graphic Unit graphic Unit top of Unita Comments

I Ap1 b Modern farm fields, roads, activity areas (APS-1); silt loam; wetland completely drained

Ap2

Bw

II 2Ab 99.374 Thin, weakly developed A horizon; recent Historic (Ming (?) and Qing) (APS-2/PS-2); silt loam

2Bw1 with progressively more sand; wetland mostly drained

2Bw2

III 3Ab 99.144 Weakly developed A horizon (PS-3) drained hydric soil with extensive bioturbation and abundant

3Bw1 redox (commences in late Jin to Yuan?; end date unknown, probablyMing); silty clay to silt

3Bw2 loam; gleying in the lower level and strong redox features in the upper levels

3Btg

IV 4C 98.224 Massive Yellow River slackwater deposit; ∼12th century; clay

V 5C 97.954 Aeolian scour and redeposition within N. Song/Jin channel (drought?); ∼5–10 cm thick, massive

light-colored silt, some fine sand, and little clay

VI 6C 97.814 N. Song/Jin channel (∼A.D. 1048–1128); thick (1–2 m) to very thick (>5 m) braided channel with

multiple laminated horizontal and trough cross-bedded bands; upper 10–15 cm strongly

oxidized; fine sand, sandy loam, and very sandy silt loam.

VII Unconformity 97.287c Unconformity

7Ab1/7Apb1 Tang anthrosol (A.D. 618–907) (APS-4)

7Ab2 Post Han/pre-Tang paleosol (PS-4); silt loam to silty clay loam;

7C1b (stage 3) LateWestern Han flood (stages 1–3); exceptionally thick fluvial deposit nearly 3 m thick and

subdivided into three stages. Stage 1: ∼20-cm-thick silty clay;

Brief Stage 2: period of fluctuating flood energy reflected in variations in the silt/clay ratio; silty clay,

unconformity silty clay loam. There is an unconformity at the upper surface of Stage 2; few roots and

infrequent bioturbation marks indicate the surface of Stage 2 was exposed as a stable surface

7C2b (stage 2) for a brief period; Stage 3: thick deposit of yellow silt interspersed with thin (<10 cm) to very

7C3b (stage 1) thin (<1 cm) laminae of red-hued silty clay; rapid accumulation of all stages (ca. A.D.

17–69/70?); clay, silty clay, silt

VIII 8Ab/8Apb 94.939 Han occupation level (∼140 B.C.–A.D. 14/17) (APS-5); silty clay and silt loam

8Cb Flood; closely spaced laminated silt, silt loam, and silty clay bands no more than a few

centimeters thick

IX 9Ab/9Apb 94.132 Warring States (∼475–221 B.C.) ridge-and-furrow field (APS-6); silty, clay, and silt loam

Unconformity Unconformity

9Cb Massive flood; silt

X 10Apb1 92.810 Neolithic/early Bronze age anthropogenic (APS-7) ridge-and-furrow field; silt loam

10Ab2 Ab horizon (PS-7) (date from top of 10Ab2 = 5294–4974 cal. B.P.); silt loam

10Bwb

10Cb Flood; alternating beds and laminae of yellow silt and red silty clay

XI 11Ab

11Btkb1

91.204 Middle Holocene buried soil (date from base of 11Ab = 7156–6804 cal. B.P.) (PS-8); silt loam;

diminishing CaCo3 nodules with depth

11Btkb2

11Ckb1 Massive flood; silt; diminishing CaCo3 nodules with depth

11Cb2

XII 12Ab

12Btkb1

12Btkb2

12Ckb1

89.892 Early Holocene/middle Holocene buried soil (top of 12Ab = 7414–7165 cal. B.P.; base of 12Ab =10246–9931 cal. B.P.) (PS-9); Silty clay loam; the ∼30 cm thick Ab horizon is depleted of

carbonates, while the Btkb horizon shows evidence of Stage I–II calcium carbonate (CaCO3)

nodules and filaments

12Ckb2d Upper surface of late Pleistocene outwash plain; silt loam to sandy silt loam; abundant CaCo3nodules throughout; increasingly sandy to depth (∼14 m below ground surface)

aDatum is set at an arbitrary elevation of +100 m.bGround surface; elevation of this level is variable depending on context.cThis is an average of three elevations, one from Profile 1 New (97.274), one from Profile 3/4 East (97.206), and one from Profile 3/4 (97.381).dThis horizon was defined based on a core placed at the base of the Profile 1 2009 excavation; description based entirely on field assessment and no

laboratory analysis was conducted on these sediments.



Figure 6 Photograph of the lower part of the stratigraphy of Profile 1

at Sanyangzhuang showing palaeosols and intervening Yellow River flood

deposits: (1) Pleistocene-age deposits; (2) early Holocene paleosol (PS-

9; top of strata is 10.1 m below ground surface); (3) Yellow River flood;

(4) middle Holocene paleosol (PS-8; top of strata is 8.8 m below ground

surface); (5) laminated Yellow River flood; (6) late Neolithic-age paleosol

(PS-7); (7) lateNeolithic/early Bronze age ridge-and-furrowfield (APS-7; top

of strata is ∼7.19 m below ground surface); (8) lower portion of massive

Yellow River flood.

PS-8. A radiocarbon date from the base of PS-8 yieldedan age of 7156–6804 cal. B.P. (I) indicating the flood sep-arating PS-9 and PS-8 was very brief. We do not have adate from the top of PS-8, but the paleosol accumulatedwithout interruption until it was truncated by floodingassociated with Unit X. The base of the paleosol (PS-7) onthe surface of Unit X is dated 5294–4974 cal. B.P., whichsuggests PS-8 probably developed over several thousandyears. The few CaCO3 concretions indicate this paleosolwas not exposed for the same duration as PS-9.

Although there are mid-Holocene archaeological re-mains in eastern Henan, including Early and Middle Ne-olithic sites within the floodplain (L. Liu 2004: Figures6.3, 6.7, 6.8), there is no cultural material in these de-posits. However, this buried landscape is likely to have ahigh potential for yielding remains from Early Neolithicand later communities.

Figure 7 Photograph of themiddle portion of the stratigraphy in Profile 1

at Sanyangzhuang showing anthropogenic paleosols and intervening Yel-

low River flood deposits: (1) upper part of laminated Yellow River flood; (2)

Late Neolithic-age paleosol (PS-7); Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age ridge-

and-furrow field (APS-7; top of strata is∼7.19mbelowground surface); (4)

massive Yellow River flood; (5) Warring States field (APS-6; top of strata is

5.87 m below ground surface; note the band of red silty clay capping this

level); (6) laminated Yellow River flood; (7) Han dynasty field/occupation

level (APS-5; top of strata is 5.1 m below ground surface); (8) Stage 1 of

the terminal Western Han flood; (9) Stage 2 of the terminal Western Han

flood; 10) lower part of Stage 3 of the terminal Western Han flood; (11)

recent historic disturbance.

Unit X

Unit X formed when the Yellow River again flooded theregion. In this case, the laminated deposits suggest regularseasonal flooding. When the flooding waned, presumablybecause the Yellow River shifted away from the immedi-ate site area, a paleosol (PS-7) formed. The base of PS-7is extensively bioturbated with many root traces and in-sect burrows penetrating into the underlying laminatedstrata below. At some point, humans moved into the sitelocality and began to cultivate PS-7 leaving behind a verydistinctive ridge-and-furrow field (APS-7) (Figures 6, 7).PS-7 is dated to 5294–4974 cal. B.P. (Table I) but the age



Figure 8 Post-Han stratigraphy inProfile 1New: (1) Stage2of the terminal

Western Han flood; (2) Stage 3 of the terminal Western Han flood (note

thin red silty clay laminae); (3) the pre-Tang paleosol (PS-4) that developed

in and on the surface of the Stage 3 late Western Han-era flood; (4) Tang

midden (APS-4); (5) late Northern Song/Jin period channel deposits (Unit

VI). Note the sharp unconformity at the base of the unit (at the top of

APS-4 in Unit VII); (6) a 5–10 cm thick silt deposit interpreted to be Unit

VI channel deposits reworked by wind during a drought period (Unit V);

(7) Yellow River slackwater clay deposit associated with flooding in the

eleventh and/or twelfth centuries; (8) stratified hydric (wetland) soil (Unit

III) with a blue–gray gley layer at their base and a weakly developed A

horizon (PS-3) at its top (note the extensive root holes and evidence of

bioturbation that extends into the Unit VI channel deposits; (9) weakly

developed A horizon (AP-2/APS-2) on the surface of the largely drained

wetland; (10) modern soil (APS-1). Scale bar is 30 cm.

of the field itself is not established. Ceramics found inthe field could date it as recently as the early part of theBronze Age. A radiocarbon date from the top of the fieldreturned a clearly anomalous age of 9175 ± 46 rcybp.

This ridge-and-furrow field is the first clear evidence ofhuman activity at Sanyangzhuang and marks the first ofthree ridge-and-furrow fields buried by subsequent flood-ing. We have found this field in profiles 1 and 2, whichare separated by ∼450 m, suggesting an extensive occu-pation.

Unit IX

The evolution of Unit IX began with the deposition of a2–4 cm band of red-hued silty clay draped on the sur-face of the underlying APS-7 ridge-and-furrow field (Fig-ures 6, 7). This low-energy event that lasted long enoughfor fine-grained sediments to precipitate out of standingwater deep enough to cover the entire field. The en-ergy regime then shifted and an approximately 1.3-m-thick massive silt layer was deposited on which we find aburied ridge-and-furrow field (APS-6). This field is datedby included ceramics to the Warring States period. Unlikethe underlying APS-7 field, this field is thin and the baseis truncated with no significant bioturbation suggesting itwas created very soon after flooding ceased. This field toois found over a wide area. The base of this field rests ona 3–5 cm bed of red-hued silty clay that is abruptly sepa-rated from the underlying strata by an unconformity.

The unconformity between APS-7 and APS-6 repre-sents a temporal gap that could be as few as ∼570 to asmany as 1000+ years. However, because we lack datesfrom the top of APS-7, we cannot say how long this fieldwas in use; the flood deposit of Unit IX appears to be arelatively rapid occurrence, so it could be that there is lit-tle or no hiatus between the ages of these two fields. Theunconformity at the base of APS-6 and this possible tem-poral gap require further scrutiny.

After the mid-Holocene, flooding in theSanyangzhuang area was always initiated by a red-hued silty clay layer. The site was first rapidly inundatedwith water that carried hyperconcentrated suspendedclay and silty clay. Following this initial occurrence,coarser sediment with a characteristic yellow-huedcolor is deposited. These coarser sediments may havebeen carried in suspension (Chien, 1961:734) or maybe bedload materials (Xu, 1999), but either way theymark a shift toward higher energy fluvial processes asflood intensity increases. This sequence seems to evolverapidly. This pattern of flooding has consequences forthe archaeological record. One result was the rapidhuman abandonment of the site each time it flooded.Another was that the stiff, erosion-resistant fine-grainedclay deposits protect archaeological remains from later,higher energy flooding that inevitably followed.

Unit VIII

Following the creation and use of the ridge-and-furrowfields of APS-6, there was another flood marked by a 3–6cm band of red-hued fine-grained silty clay overlain byroughly 60 cm of closely spaced laminated silt, silt loam,and silty clay bands no more than a few centimeters thick(Figure 7). The laminated sediments in Unit VIII are the



Figure 9 Particle size and loss-on-ignition graph of post-Han sediments from Profile 3/4 East. The general pattern of coarsening upward in stages 1–3 of

the late Western Han-era flood is evident, reflecting increasing flood energy as the breach of the Yellow River to the west grew larger. The fluctuations in

the stage 3 depositsmay reflect seasonal sediment pulses, with the finer textured laminae representingwinter–spring low flow conditions and the courser

silts indicating reactivation of the breach in the levee during late summer/early fall flooding. We only sampled the most prominent silty clay laminae to

avoid contamination with silt deposits above and below. Note also the sharp fluctuations in sand, silt, and clay in the Unit VI, V, and IV deposits.

result of multiple, possibly seasonal pulses of water; be-cause historical records indicate levee construction oc-curred before the 4th century B.C. (Needham, Ling, &Gwei-Djen, 1971:232) we think these laminated depositsrepresent a break in the artificial levee, which lay openfor some duration. Alternatively, these could representoverbank flow during episodes of high water.

On the surface of Unit VIII is a 10–15 cm thick or-ganically enriched silty clay loam horizon (APS-5) on/inwhich is found the buildings, roads, fields, and featuresdated to the end of Western Han and the onset of theWang Mang period, ca. 140 B.C.–23 A.D. (Kidder, Liu, &Li, 2012) (Figures 4, 7).

A large and prosperous community developed atSanyangzhuang. By this time, the Yellow River waswithin 10–20 km of the site (Xiang, 1982–1987) but thisdid not stop the occupants from investing considerable

effort and wealth in the construction of large domesticcompounds, wells, ponds, and roads. It is possible thatwith increased government investment in flood controlworks during later Western Han times, people may havebecome complacent about the risks of flooding or over-confident in the ability of levees, dikes, and canals to pro-tect them from the ravages of the Yellow River. The ac-tions of the occupants of the site are not ones that wouldbe expected of a community feeling it lived on the mar-gins of catastrophe from the failure of the Yellow Riverdikes.

Unit VII

The late Western Han community at Sanyangzhuang wascatastrophically buried by a flood that deposited a nearly3-m-thick layer of clay, silty clay, and silt (Figures 8, 9).



Figure 10 Topographic map of the alluvial splay covering Sanyangzhuang with locations of Han-era avulsions. The approximate outline of the crevasse

splay that formed following these avulsions is also shown by the dotted line. The prominent channel that extends over the site formed during the late

Northern Song/Jin period (A.D. 1115–1234). Map data from United States Geological Survey 3 Arc Second Shuttle Radar Topography Mission dataset

(http://www.glcf.umd.edu/data/srtm/) (after Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012: Figure 11).

We hypothesize this flood is related to the breaching ofthe Yellow River levee west of the site. This unit can besubdivided into three stages. In stages 1 and 2, clay-richwater infiltrated houses and deposited mud as a blanketacross the site. Even though the flood energy increasedslightly in Stage 2, the inundation was gentle and build-ings collapsed into these sediments because the standingwater weakened rammed earth building material, allow-ing structures to melt into the watery slurry. The sitewas rapidly abandoned and in situ archaeological remainswere sealed from subsequent disturbance by fine-grainedmud and the cultural deposits were locked in their pri-mary context at the time of the flood. The surface of Stage2 was exposed for at least a brief period before the on-set of Stage 3. The relatively coarse-grained sediments ofStage 3 indicate the complete failure of the Yellow Riverlevee; at this point, the river had abandoned its formerchannel and rapidly formed a large fan extending east-ward from its point of rupture (Figure 10).

On the top of Unit VII at Sanyangzhuang is a naturalpaleosol (PS-4) on/in which we find an anthropogenicpaleosol (APS-4) attributed by ceramics contained withinit to the Tang Dynasty (Figure 8). The natural paleosol(PS-4) developed soon after the Han-period flood ceased

depositing sediments in the region. Archaeological evi-dence indicates the flood that formed Unit VII began be-tween A.D. 14 and 17 (Kidder, Liu, & Li, 2012) and his-torical records suggest it ended in A.D. 70, at which timethe government repaired the Yellow River levees (Bielen-stein, 1954:147–149; Hsu, 1980:104, 268; Xu, 1989:549–550). This scenario suggests there was a period of land-scape stability following the Han flood and up to orthrough at least a part of the Tang Dynasty. However,there are no cultural remains at Sanyangzhuang that fallinto the period between the end of Western Han and theTang Dynasty suggesting the site was abandoned in thisinterval. The Tang occupation is intensive across the sitearea and we have identified fields, activity areas, mid-dens, and tombs dating to this time.

Unit VI

Unit VI represents a braided Yellow River channel thatflowed over the Sanyangzhuang site area in late North-ern Song (A.D. 960–1127) or Jin (A.D. 1115–1234) Dy-nasty times (Figure 11). The initial progradation of thischannel through the Sanyangzhuang area was very vi-olent and left behind a clear unconformity; everywhere



Figure 11 Photographshowing the lateNorthernSong/Jinperiodchannel

deposits (Unit VI) in Profile 2. Note the sharp unconformity at the base of

UnitVI.Alongthebottomof thisunconformitywefoundabundant rounded

and elongated rip-up clasts (3–6 cm diameter), large (∼7–10 cm) pieces of

Jin Dynasty ceramics, and rounded pieces of coal and CaCO3 concretions.

This is the thickest section of the Unit IV channel deposits located to

date; the thalweg of this braided channel branch lies just to the north

(left) of this image. Thirty meters west of this profile in Compound 2 the

channel scoured down to within a few cm of the Han-era deposit. The Unit

VI channel has completely eroded the pre-Tang and Tang-era paleosols

(PS-4/APS-4) here but the upper part of the Sanyangzhuang stratigraphic

sequence (Units V-III) is intact. Scale bar is 100 cm.

across the site this channel incised into the Tang level(APS-4) and in the Compound 2 area, a paleochannel cutdown to within a few centimeters of the Han-age sur-face (Figures 8, 11). In doing so, the channel scouredthrough and flowed over some of the collapsed Hanbuildings encased in the fine-grained sediments of thestage 1 and 2 Han flood. Artifacts, including bricks androof tiles that had collapsed onto and in the Han flooddeposits, were deflated and displaced vertically and insome instances laterally. This flood disturbed remains onthe north side of Compound 2 and appears to have af-fected another structure west and south of the compound

based on the presence of scattered artifacts depositedon the scoured surface left by the Northern Song/Jinflood. The energy of this channel can be further mea-sured by the abundant round to oval clay rip-up clasts(up to 6 cm diameter), gravel-sized clasts of naturaland cultural materials (including rounded pieces of coaland CaCO3), and large fragments of Northern Song andJin Dynasty pottery found in lag deposits. Eventually,flow in the channel waned and became episodic (pre-sumably seasonal) leading to oxidization of sands andsilts on the surface of the channel during low waterperiods.

Unit V

The Yellow River shifted location at some point in lateJin times and the channel at Sanyangzhuang was aban-doned. Unit V consists of ∼5–10 cm thick, massive layerof fine light-colored silt with very low quantities of clay(Figures 8,9). Because it has neither the color characteris-tic of fluvially deposited silts nor micro- or macrolaminae,we interpret this as a brief period of aeolian depositionformed when winds scoured fine-grained deposits out ofthe Northern Song/Jin channel and deposited the silt andsand fraction locally. Unit V formed during a period ofdrought sufficient to dry up the Northern Song/Jin erachannel.

Unit IV

Unit IV is a lithologically distinctive 20–30 cm thick bandof red-colored silty clay (Figures 8, 9, 11). This mate-rial represents slackwater deposits associated with YellowRiver flooding at the end of the Northern Song/middleJin period. Historic records indicate that the Yellow Riverin northeast Henan and southern Hebei flooded in A.D.1034, 1048, 1056, 1068, 1081, 1099, and 1128 (Lam-ouroux, 1998; Zhang, 2009). The Northern Song/Jinchannel may have filled with fine-grained mud of UnitIV during any one or all of these floods.

The sediments in units VI, V, and IV accumulatedrapidly. Unit VI has Jin ceramics in lag deposits, suggest-ing this braided channel was flowing after A.D. 1115.In A.D. 1128, the Yellow River dike was breached westof Huanxian, Henan Province, and the river began toflow east into the Yellow Sea in Jiangsu Province (Xu,1989; Jing, Rapp, & Gao,1995; Lamouroux, 1998; Zhang,2009). Thus, it is possible these three lithostratigraphicunits were laid down in as little as 13 years, but we thinkit likely that more time was involved.



Unit III

The red silty clay of Unit IV formed a relatively impervi-ous layer within the depression formed by the NorthernSong/Jin channel. Consequently, a wetland developedwith a small, intermittent stream (the Xiao River) flowingthrough it. Gleying in the lower levels and strong redoxfeatures in the upper levels suggest this wetland evolvedover some time (Figure 8); the presence of a weakly de-veloped A horizon at the surface indicates an episode ofstability during the formation of this unit.

Unit II

The Xiao River was canalized in late Ming or early Qingtimes (17th century); the wetland diminished and a his-toric soil formed with a thin paleosol and/or anthrosol(PS-2/APS-2) on its surface.

Unit I

By the mid-20th century, environmental change, en-hanced drainage, and anthropogenic modification low-ered the water table and the recent historic soil beganforming (APS-1).

HUMAN–ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONAND THE HAN FLOOD(S) OF A.D. 1–17

The Yellow River has flooded countless times and it hasearned a reputation as a dynamic and unpredictable river.Some scholars argue Yellow River flooding and courseshifts cause significant historical change. A case in pointis the collapse of the Western Han Dynasty in the firstdecades of the Common Era. During the period ca. A.D.9–23, the Western Han emperor was replaced by WangMang, who seized the throne and instituted a new dy-nasty. Wang Mang’s reign was brief; he was overthrownin A.D. 23 and replaced by the first Eastern Han emperorafter a period of civil war.

There is considerable debate about the collapse ofWestern Han and the failure of Wang Mang’s regime;some Chinese historians assert that Wang Mang lackedmoral authority to lay claim to the Mandate of Heaven(Ban, 1962; Fan, 1965; Clark, 2008:139–182). In contrast,Western scholars emphasize external factors to accountfor Wang Mang’s failure (Bielenstein, 1947, 1953, 1954,1986, 1987; Dubs, 1955:112–115). Bielenstein arguesthat floods in the lower Yellow River between A.D. 1 and11 caused widespread famine, political unrest, and ulti-mately rebellion that directly lead to the collapse of WangMang’s government. Many Western historians have ac-cepted the conclusion that flooding caused the collapse

of Wang Mang’s brief reign (Bielenstein, 1986:242–244;Hansen, 2000:135; Kruger, 2003:142–143; De Crespigny,2007:xvi, 196; Tanner, 2009:111). This hypothesis is notsettled because the historical documents are at best am-biguous sources (Dubs, 1955:112–124; Yu, 1956; Clark,2008). Most importantly, no one has examined the phys-ical evidence to see if there is a record of massive floodingat the end of the Western Han, and if so, can we deter-mine its effects across space and over time.

Historical and archaeological data indicate there wereat least three major floods in the lower reaches of the Yel-low River in the first 20 years of the Common Era. TheYellow River broke its banks south of Sanyangzhuang atthe Bian Canal in Henan Commandery between A.D. 1and 6 (Fan, 1965:116, 2464). In A.D. 11, there was an-other breach at Wei Commandery to the north of the site(Ban, 1962:4127). Finally, our data show that there wasa massive flood in A.D. 14 or soon after and no later thanA.D. 17. These latter two floods may be independent or,given that the histories were written after the fact, theymay be one multiyear flood. Because of the ambiguity ofthe data, we refer to these events as the Han floods ofA.D. 1–17.

Data from Sanyangzhuang—specifically the Unit VIIdeposits (Figure 5 and Table II)—provides a new geolog-ically and archaeologically informed perspective on thefloods of A.D. 1–17. The first two floods were limited intheir geographic extent and their effect on society andgovernment. The flood in A.D. 14–17, however, had amajor effect. The floodplain east of the trunk channelbelt was lower than the river bed and when the riveravulsed from the N-S running main trunk channel of theYellow River then located west of Sanyangzhuang (Xu,1989) it flooded the lowlands, at first effectively form-ing a shallow lake into which a sediment splay developedas the Yellow River bank failed. The southern margin ofthe splay is sharply demarcated from the lowlands sug-gesting it formed initially as a subaqueous delta lobe. Thisdelta-like splay, visible in altimeter-based satellite mapsand confirmed by coring and examining deeply excavatedirrigation ditches, covered the west-central part of theCentral Plains almost as far as Puyang and buried theSanyangzhuang area (Figure 10). After the splay frontprograded north and east, a coherent channel evolvedalong its southern margin; this new trunk channel con-veyed the majority of the flow into a course that followeda path to the sea south and east of the previous WesternHan distributary (Xu, 1989; Saito et al., 2000).

Much of the Central Plains east of the former trunkchannel and north of the modern course of the riverwas catastrophically inundated by this flood. A verylarge area—perhaps as large as 1800 km2—was buriedby the rapidly advancing crevasse splay. The human



cost of this flood must have been significant. Accordingto the Han census of A.D. 2, Yan Province, which laymost directly in the path of these floods, had a popu-lation of 6,285,369 persons living in 1,309,781 “house-holds” (Ban, 1962). Because most of the land in thisprovince lay below the elevation of the bed of the river,the flooding affected nearly all inhabitants. Our researchdocuments that flooding across the Central Plains dur-ing Wang Mang’s time was extensive and catastrophi-cally disruptive at the local and regional level. How thisflooding affected Han economy and politics during WangMang’s time is yet to be determined, but these data sup-ply new evidence to explore the role of the Yellow Riveras an agent of historical change.

The end of the Wang Mang period is a noted timeof social unrest; historical records indicate that follow-ing A.D. 17, large numbers of people were displacedfrom their land and took to banditry or joined inwidespread peasant uprisings (Ban, 1962). In his anal-ysis of the rise and fall of Wang Mang, Bielenstein(1947; 1954:145–154; 1986:240–243; 1987) argues thatflooding caused widespread destruction across the Cen-tral Plains, which in turn led to agricultural failure andthus to ensuing social unrest and rebellion. The flood-ing and its negative social, political, and economic con-sequences destabilized the government leading to thecollapse of Wang Mang’s brief reign (Bielenstein 1954:115).

The Han floods of A.D. 1–17 were part of a large-scaleavulsion and relocation of the Yellow River trunk chan-nel east of its previous location along the western edgeof the Central Plains. This avulsion may be the resultof a stochastic event or events. Yellow River flooding isa frequent occurrence (Xu, 1989, 2001) and it is diffi-cult if not impossible to pinpoint specific causal reasonsfor any given historical flood. But there are geomorphic,climatic, and/or human influences that led to or exacer-bated these floods that changed the Yellow River channellocation.

Geomorphically, rapid channel aggradation and in-creasing slope advantage relative to the flood basin to theeast were aggravated by unstable bank conditions causedby coarse-textured substrates (Chien, 1961) that facilitatechannel scouring, bank failure, and the development ofcrevasse splays (Aslan et al., 2005; Phillips, 2011). Thepre-Han channel of the Yellow River had been relativelystable for millennia, and the Sanyangzhuang record indi-cates increasing flood frequency following the late Ne-olithic, suggesting the river had reached and begun tocross the geomorphic threshold that constrained it in thiswestern channel alignment (Schumm, 2005). Changes insea level following a possible mid-Holocene high stand(Zhao, 1993; Saito et al., 2000; Figure 2.6 in Liu, 2004;

Zong, 2004; Jin, 2009) may also have led to long-termshifts in threshold conditions.

Flooding at this time may also be at least partiallycontrolled by climatic fluctuations and their influenceson upstream water and sediment inputs. The Holocenehistory of north China indicates the climate was shift-ing toward increasing drought conditions following amid-Holocene episode of increased moisture (see Huanget al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2008, 2011). As insolation de-creased through the Holocene, the Intertropical Conver-gence Zone boundary retreated southward and the mon-soon frontal boundary followed suit. Progressive droughtconditions in north China reduced effective vegetationcover, notably in the Loess Plateau, and increased ratesof erosion within the upper and middle reaches of theYellow River basin. Climatic deterioration was especiallysevere in Han times and drought frequency and inten-sity were increasing during Wang Mang’s reign (Pan,1955:476–481; Hsu, 1980: Table 12).

Human alteration of the environment and the contri-butions these modifications played in changing the Yel-low River also are an important driver of change (Rosen,2008; Cao et al., 2010). The Western Han period was atime of major political, technological, and demographicchange. Three factors influenced how humans interactedwith and altered the environment. The first is populationgrowth and the migration of populations into the middlereaches of the Yellow River valley, especially in the LoessPlateau. The second is the evolution of large-scale in-dustrial production, notably iron technology and its rolein agricultural intensification, and the third is increasingemphasis on human control of rivers for economic pur-poses.

First, populations were expanding in later Zhou andHan times. Population density was greatest in the areaaround modern Xi’an and in the Yellow River flood-plain to the east (Bielenstein 1947, 1987). Populationdensities in the lower Yellow River alluvial valley wereexceptionally high relative to the empire-wide average(Yates, 1990). During Western Han, there were deliber-ate governmental policies to encourage migration northand west into the middle reaches of the Yellow River andits tributaries, to relieve population pressures in the east-ern provinces but also in response to Xiongnu incursionsalong the northern borders of the expanding Chinesestate (Loewe, 1967, 1974, 1986; Chang, 2007). These im-migrants brought with them new farming technology andwere expected to become agriculturally self-sufficient inrapid order.

A second theme is the emergence of intensive agri-culture and agricultural practices through late Zhou andcertainly into Han times (Bray, 1978, 1979–1980; Hsu,1980) coupled with expanding technological innovation



in iron production (Wagner, 2008: chapters 2–3). The in-troduction of iron tools by the 4th century B.C. may havehad an especially large role in expanding agricultural op-portunities but state intervention in taxation and eco-nomic policy was also critical in this regard (Pan, 1950;Loewe, 1974). Iron production expanded rapidly in West-ern Han times and technology improved dramatically(Wang, 1982:122; Wagner, 2001, 2008: chapters 3–5).Especially important in this regard was the increased uti-lization of cast iron for plow shares, rakes, harrows, andother agricultural implements that allowed for increasingintensification based on putting more land under culti-vation (Bray, 1979–1980). At Sanyangzhuang, iron wasbeing used for a variety of tools and functions and wascommonly available to the residents of the compoundsat the site. This technological innovation had two conse-quences.

One was the expansion of agriculture into regions pre-viously un- or underutilized (Wang, 1982:52–61). TheLoess Plateau was especially affected because the use ofiron-tipped plows, harrows, rakes, and similar tools in-creased dramatically in Han times. One result of thesechanges was increasing erosion in the upper and mid-dle reaches of the Yellow River because greater numbersof people were undertaking more intensive farming prac-tices using increasingly efficient iron tools. Because of thehighly erodible nature of loess, intensification of agricul-ture in the Loess Plateau increased sediment loads beingcarried into the lower reaches of the river as it emergedonto the Central Plain (Chen et al., 1989:280–283).

However, the impact of this technology on the frag-ile soil of the Loess Plateau is not completely clear. Incontrast to post-Tang times, sedimentation rates in theHan were relatively low; estimates range from 0.2 to 0.44cm/yr in the lower Yellow River valley (Xu, 2003:3363,Figure 2, Table I). Although sedimentation rates are lowin historical context, it appears that during Han timesthere was a considerable increase in sedimentation com-pared to the periods before ca. 2500 14C yr BP (Table I inMilliman et al., 1987; Chen et al., 1989; Table 4 in Ren& Zhu, 1994:317–318; Shi, Dian, & You, 2002; Xu, 2003;He et al., 2006; Huang et al., 2006; Li et al., 2006).

The connection between anthropogenic change in theLoess Plateau and elsewhere in the Yellow River water-shed and lower Yellow River sedimentation is very com-plex. At Sanyangzhuang, there is an increase in sedi-mentation rates following the mid-Holocene. Episodes offlooding at Sanyangzhuang in the Warring States andHan periods were probably related to changing humanintervention in the landscape leading to increasing sed-iment accumulation within the Yellow River channel.Even if sedimentation rates were not escalating greatly,the frequency of major floods was, and their consequence

was being felt by an evergrowing population over an in-creasingly large area.

Another consequence was significant deforestation toprovide wood for charcoal used in iron smelting (Fang& Xie, 1994; Wagner, 2001:62–63), and other agricul-tural and industrial uses. The effects of deforestationfor iron smelting were amplified by large-scale anthro-pogenic modifications to the environment from agricul-tural intensification (Chen, Wang, & Dai, 2009), resourceconsumption for a growing population, and widespreadinterventions in the natural world, such as the construc-tion of canals, irrigation facilities, reservoirs, and espe-cially levees and dikes to constrain the Yellow River andits tributaries (Needham, Ling, & Gwei-Djen, 1971:232–247). These activities led to greater erosion and increasedaggradation within the Yellow River channel, and theyenlarged and compounded the effects of environmentaldisasters (Ssu-ma Ch’ien, 1961:76–77). Similar problemsarose in later Song times when resource requirementsfor building and maintaining dikes and levees outstrippedthe capacity of anthropogenically depleted landscapes toproduce wood for fascines and erosion control mats innorthern Henan and southwest Hebie (Zhang, 2009:18–25).

Finally, by Warring States times, humans were exert-ing increasing control over the Yellow River and its en-vironments. Greater effort was devoted to managementof the river through the construction of dams, dikes, lev-ees, canals, and reservoirs. These structures were estab-lished by the central government to further commerceand to provide flood control on the Yellow River andits tributaries (Needham, Ling, & Gwei-Djen, 1971:211–231; Sadao, 1986:554–555). These efforts had only par-tial success in combating flooding (Pan, 1944:90; Bie-lenstein, 1954:145–153; Ssu-ma Ch’ien, 1961:61, 70–78;Xu, 1989). Furthermore, while construction of levees anddikes along the river bank possibly diminished flood fre-quency, it may have increased flood magnitudes becausemore sediment was being deposited in the bed of the riverthus raising it higher and higher above the surroundingfloodplain.

In the case of the collapse of the Western Han andWang Mang, it is prudent to adopt a broad perspectiveon forces leading to their decline and fall. The YellowRiver had followed a course along the western marginof the floodplain for millennia and built up its bed toa point where it had reached or crossed the geomor-phic threshold that would lead, inevitably, to avulsionand reconfiguration of the channel. Repeated environ-mental and hydraulic crises over a short period of time,though, destabilized the economy and the governmentwas unprepared to respond to the problems these crisesengendered.



In the Central Plains, the Yellow River was not har-nessed for more than 60 years after the floods of A.D.1–17 and during this time it “did not possess a fixedbed” and “wandered all over the inundated area” (Xu,1989:550). When finally the levees and dikes were re-paired, the river had developed a new channel that fol-lowed a course east of its previous location (Xue, 1993;Saito et al., 2000; Saito, Yang, & Hori, 2001) and onceprosperous communities such as Sanyangzhuang wereabandoned and not reoccupied until after the fall of theEastern Han Dynasty.

CONCLUSION

The sedimentary archive at Sanyangzhuang is remarkablefor its thickness and exceptional preservation. The envi-ronmental and archaeological record here is almost un-matched in China and for that matter, on a global scale.Research at Sanyangzhuang provides an opportunity forexploring long-term changes in climate and its influenceson the environment, the relationships between humanbehavior, technology, and nature, as well as the roles andinfluences of the Yellow River on history, politics, eco-nomics, and society.

The repeated sequences of flood deposits capped withorganically enriched horizons indicating episodes of land-scape stability record a long-term pattern of chang-ing landscape–climate–human interactions not seenelsewhere in the region. While deeply buried, there areunparalleled opportunities to study the Early and MiddleHolocene climatic and environmental record. The discov-ery of two buried fields beneath the Sanyangzhuang site’sHan-period occupation represents an exciting chance toexplore the evolution of agricultural practices and to rec-oncile historical and archaeological research in ways notpreviously considered.

One important outcome of our research is that we canspeak with considerable confidence about the location ofthe main course of the Yellow River through time. Al-though Wang (1993, 1999) and others (Liu 2004:29–30,see also Figure 2.1) argue that there was an early lateHolocene (ca. 4600–4000 B.P.) course of the river extend-ing to the sea south of the Shandong peninsula, we nowknow this cannot be true. Our work at Sanyangzhuangindicates there was a continuous pattern of Yellow Riversedimentation through most of the Holocene, interruptedonly from A.D. 1128 to A.D.1855. But most importantly,Jing, Rapp, & Gao’s work (1995, 1997) at Shangqiu, eastof Kaifeng, shows that the Yellow River did not providesediments to the region until after Han times. Similarly,evidence from the Bohai Bay area shows a series of earlyto mid-Holocene paleodeltas developed along the west-

ern margin near Tianjin (Xue 1993; Saito et al. 2000, Fig-ure 3 in Saito, Yang, & Hori, 2001) but there is no ev-idence of a mid-Holocene delta south of the Shandongpeninsula where it would have to be based on Wang’shypothesized channel location.

The environmental history of the region is complexand models of climate and environment will require sig-nificant modification. The Middle Holocene is one exam-ple of this need for revision of existing concepts. As anexample, Liu (2004:26) argues that because of “high pre-cipitation and expansion of freshwater areas in the low-land regions much of the lowlands of the Central Plainwere probably covered by water.” However, the Earlyand Middle Holocene paleosols at Sanyangzhuang sug-gests a very stable landscape over a lengthy period oftime. Although there is considerable debate about the na-ture of mid-Holocene climates in China (Shi et al., 1993;Feng et al., 2004; Jiang & Liu, 2007; Cui, Zhou, & Chang,2009), long episodes of landscape stability punctuated bybrief periods of Yellow River flooding represent the domi-nant environmental circumstance in the Sanyangzhuangarea.

While these landscape processes are affected by geo-morphic thresholds as well as climate forcing, evidenceis growing that human intervention may have been oneof the predominant forcing factors affecting the YellowRiver’s evolution in the later part of the Holocene (Rosen,2008). Expanding populations, emerging technologicaland industrial intensification, increasing resource con-sumption, and the expansion of China’s political domain(Chang, 2007), all play a role in shaping the fortunesof those living in the Central Plains. Our work graph-ically demonstrates that flooding in late Western Hantimes was locally and probably regionally catastrophic,and allows us to combine historical and geoarchaeologicalresults to amplify the conclusion that complex human–environmental interactions contributed directly to alter-ing the course of Chinese history. If nothing else, it iscritical to recognize that by the early dynastic period, ifnot considerably before, human modification of the envi-ronment makes understanding the history of the YellowRiver and its effects on human societies exceedingly com-plicated.

Finally, our work sounds a cautionary note to archae-ologists conducting settlement pattern research in theCentral Plains and in similar dynamic alluvial environ-ments. The Han community at Sanyangzhuang lies 5 mbelow the modern surface and the deposits that bury thiscommunity cover ∼ 1800 km2, suggesting that settlementpattern research in the area needs to take seriously thelimitations placed on site visibility in this quickly aggrad-ing floodplain. For example, according to Liu (2004:26),Middle Neolithic Yangshao sites in “these areas [Central



Plains of Henan] are small and scattered, and tend to belocated on relatively high ground.” We argue that thispattern is as likely a result of rapid alluviation as it is a realreflection of human settlement in the region. Thus, full-coverage regional settlement survey methods and objec-tives (Kowalewski, 2008; Underhill et al., 2008) need tobe carefully considered and geoarchaeological knowledgeof these environments must be factored in to any under-standing of the distribution of human settlements (seealso Jing, Rapp, & Gao, 1995; Beeton & Mandel, 2011;Maher, 2011; and Nials, Gregory, & Hill, 2011 for similarexamples in China and elsewhere).

Geoarchaeological work clarifies the nature of the floodthat buried the Han occupation, demonstrating that it wasan episode of exceptional magnitude as demonstrated bya thick and extensive sediment splay. Because the flood atSanyangzhuang was initiated by transport of hypercon-centrated fine-grained sediment, a blanket of mud coversthe area and protects and preserves the underlying Han-age landscape leading to preservation so exceptional thatleaf impressions and hoof prints are recovered. The fine-grained mud entombed the site, preserving features andstructures and minimizing damage once the flood regimechanged to deposit coarser sediments under higher en-ergy conditions. There is a wealth of environmental, ge-ological, and archaeological data at Sanyangzhuang andin the surrounding regions. The Yellow River is creditedas the cradle of Chinese civilization and it is importantto understand how the behavior of this river shaped civ-ilization and influenced history through time. The sedi-mentary archive at Sanyangzhuang provides a critical re-source for reading the past and provides a vital text foradvancing our understanding of Chinese history.

The authors are exceptionally thankful for the comments ofVance Holliday and the two anonymous reviewers. We alsowish to thank the Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Ar-chaeology, and especially Director Sun Xinmin, for logisticalassistance. We are indebted to Mo Duowen, Ma Xiaolin, JingZhichun, Ling-yu Hung, and Sarah Sherwood for support andassistance. This work was supported by the Henan Provincial In-stitute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the McDonnellAcademy Global Energy and Environment Partnership. Li Min-glin’s research at Washington University was supported by theChina Scholarship Council (File No. 2010601207). Tim Schilling,Michael Storozum, and Qin Zhen helped prepare the maps andtheir assistance is grateful acknowledged.

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