Impact of fluvial landform changes on the Neolithic settlement distribution in the upper reaches of the Yinghe River

Fluvial landform change is one of principal elements that constrained the Neolithic settlement processes and direction. In the upper reaches of the Yinghe River, paleo-environmental proxies from layers of the Qianjing Profile, Rb/Sr ratios, magnetic susceptibility and grain size distribution patterns suggest that the weather was hot-wet then in the Yangshao period (circa 7.0～5.0 kaBP), but warm-dry in the Longshan period (circa 4.6～4.1 kaBP). Also, from the stalactite of the Madonggou Cave, δ¹⁸O record evidenced 3 climatic fluctuations at 11.2, 9.1 and 5.0 kaBP respectively. In association with landform-climatic driven theory, we suggest that the first terrace of the Yinghe River on which the Neolithic inhabitation sites was formed around 11.2～10.6 kaBP. In the Longhsan period, however, the dry climate decreased runoff of the Yinghe River and aggradation was in predominance, which lifted river water level higher. The moat remains at the Wadian site showed that people started building barrages to irrigate crops especially rice-farming in the Longshan period. Simultaneously, the locales of habitats became more open than they were in the Yangshao period. However, the 4 ka cooling event and continuous floods cut the study area’s cultural vein, and the major settlements retracted to the Dengfeng basin from the Yuzhou plain. Since then the cultural form of this area had turned back to the closed type and planned to move their living space from the upper reaches of the Yinghe River to the Luoyang basin.