Emergence of ancient cities in relation to geopolitical circumstances and climate change during late Holocene in northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Abstract

The study of the history of human activities in ancient cities has provided valuable evidences for understanding the evolution of human-land relations during the late Holocene. Numerous ancient cities were discovered through archaeological surveys of the east Qinghai Province, located on the northeastern border of the Tibetan Plateau, China; however , the mystery of when or why these cities were built remains unsolved. As recorded in this paper, we sampled reliable dating materials from 47 ancient cities in the area, determined their ages by radiocarbon dating, and compared the dating results with historical documents and high resolution paleoclimate records to explore the influencing factors for the development of these ancient cities. The 54 radiocarbon dates indicated that most of these cities were built or repaired during the Han Dynasty (202 BC‒AD 220), Tang Dynasty (AD 618‒AD 907), the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (AD 907‒AD 960), the Song dynasty (AD 960‒AD 1279), and the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368‒AD 1644). The radiocarbon dates correspond well with historical records of the area. Our work suggests the ancient cities in east Qinghai Province were likely built primarily for military defense, and may have also have been affected by climate change.

Keywords

radiocarbon dating / ancient city / historic records / war / climate change

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12&ZD151 and 12XKG006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41271218), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2015-k09, lzujbky-2014-116), as well as the 111 Program (#B06026) of Chinese State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. We would like to thank Dr. Emma LIGHFOOT for improving the English, and Mr. Zhilin Shi for providing historical documents.

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2015 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg