Shifting Patterns of House Structures during the Neolithic-Bronze Age in the Yellow River Basin: An Environmental Perspective

Peng Lu, Yan Tian, Michael Storozum, Panpan Chen, Hui Wang, Xia Wang, Junjie Xu, Lei Jing, Lijie Yan, Li Zhang and Duowen Mo
Additional contact information
Peng Lu: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Yan Tian: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Michael Storozum: Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Panpan Chen: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Hui Wang: The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710, China
Xia Wang: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Junjie Xu: College of History, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China
Lei Jing: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Lijie Yan: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Li Zhang: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Duowen Mo: Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: The emergence of houses is a social revolution around the world. Over the past several decades, Chinese archaeologists have excavated many Neolithic to Bronze Age houses, but there is still a great amount of uncertainty about the social and environmental factors driving the differences between these house structures in the Yellow River Basin. In this paper, we summarize data from excavation reports on the shape and size of Neolithic-Bronze Age houses in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, respectively, to identify some social and environmental factors that may have affected the development of house structures across northern China. Our results show that the shape and size of the houses developed at a different pace, but in general followed a similar developmental sequence: (1) 10–8 ka BP, the bud of settlements emerged in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River; (2) 8–7 ka BP, people started to construct small pithouses without walls; (3) 7–6 ka BP, people made medium-sized pithouses with low walls, and surface buildings were made with a wood skeleton and mud walls; (4) 6–5 ka BP, ultra-large houses emerged; (5) 5–4 ka BP, house form became more varied, including pithouses, cave dwellings and surface buildings with a wood skeleton mud wall, rammed earth wall, piled mud-grass mixed walls and adobe walls; and (6) 4–3 ka BP, original palaces emerged. Our analyses indicate that the environment played an essential role in determining the house changes over time and that the early to middle Holocene’s warm and humid climate provided excellent conditions for the emergence of settlements throughout the region. Due to the shortage of trees, people chose to change their house construction methods to accommodate the growing lumber shortage. In conclusion, the rapid shift in house construction methods reflects the changing ecological condition as well as a feedback cycle between the environment and social practices driven by resource limitations.

Keywords: Yellow River Basin; Neolithic-Bronze Age; house evolution; human-land interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/6/574/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/6/574/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:6:p:574-:d:564790

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().