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Vegetation, Architecture, and Human Activities: Reconstructing Land Use History from the Late Yangshao Period in Zhengzhou Region, Central China

Author

Listed:
  • Xia Wang

    (Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China)

  • Junjie Xu

    (School of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Duowen Mo

    (Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China)

  • Hui Wang

    (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710, China)

  • Peng Lu

    (Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450052, China)

Abstract

In recent decades, a large number of houses from the Late Yangshao period have been excavated in Zhengzhou. They are basically single-level buildings with wood skeletons and mud walls and use a huge amount of timber resources. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of questions about the uncertain relationship between plants, architecture, and human activities. In this study, we complete the reconstruction of a Holocene vegetation community around the Dahecun site via pollen analysis of the Z2 core. We take house F1 in Dahecun as an example to estimate the wood consumption of a single house and collect the published data of all houses from the Late Yangshao period in the study area to estimate the wood consumption of houses built in Zhengzhou during this period. Combining the above two approaches, this study explores the relationship between plants, architecture, and human activities in Zhengzhou in the Late Yangshao period, as well as the history of land use. The results are as follows: (1) After 4.9 ka BP, the number of trees and shrubs such as Pinus (falling from 58.8% to 46.9%) decreased rapidly, and the number of herbaceous plants increased. (2) Excluding the influence of the Holocene climate change, the large-scale decline in trees and shrubs in the region is likely to have been human-driven. The number of excavated houses in 11 of the 236 Late Yangshao sites in the Zhengzhou area reached 362, while the minimum wood consumption reached 1270.62 m 3 . In addition, the rapid expansion of the population size and the large-scale development of new arable land and forest clearance in the Late Yangshao period show that humans had a strong influence on the surrounding vegetation and land cover/use. The trend of regional deforestation was so obvious and irreversible that the inhabitants had to adopt techniques using less wood or no wood to build houses during the subsequent Longshan culture period.

Suggested Citation

  • Xia Wang & Junjie Xu & Duowen Mo & Hui Wang & Peng Lu, 2025. "Vegetation, Architecture, and Human Activities: Reconstructing Land Use History from the Late Yangshao Period in Zhengzhou Region, Central China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:321-:d:1584039
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maomao Zhang & Enqing Chen & Cheng Zhang & Chen Liu & Jianxing Li, 2024. "Multi-Scenario Simulation of Land Use Change and Ecosystem Service Value Based on the Markov–FLUS Model in Ezhou City, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-23, July.
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