An ancient civilization emerged in the east of China about 5,300 years ago, building a brilliant city that had never been seen before in all of Asia.
The Neolithic society of the Liangzhu culture, which rose up along the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in China's east, is a testament to what it was capable of in the final stretches of the Stone Age.
The ruins of the city show a number of signs of social, cultural, and technological advancement.
The allusions of Liangzhu being a Neolithic "Venice of the East" were caused by the sophisticated architectural features.
These marvels would not last.
The Administrative District Management Committee is responsible for the archaeological site.
There is an aerial view of the palace.
The ancient city was abandoned after the collapse of the Liangzhu culture around 4,300 years ago.
Many have suggested that catastrophic flooding may have caused the sudden decline.
A thin layer of clay was found on the ruins, which may be related to the demise of the advanced civilization and the floods of the Yangtze River or the East China Sea.
There were no clear conclusions from the mud layer.
We now have a better idea of what happened.
In a new study, Sptl and an international team of researchers went far deeper than the ancient mud deposits, examining mineral formations such as stalagmites from two underwater caves in the region, which preserve chemical signatures of climatic conditions long ago.
There are stalagmites in Shennong Cave. Haiwei Zhang.
The stalagmite samples analyzed by the first author show that the collapse of the city was caused by a period of extremely high precipitation that lasted for decades over 4,300 years ago.
Sptl says that it is amazingly precise.
The flooding of the Yangtze and its branches was so severe that even the sophisticated dams and canals could not keep up with the water.
Climate change may have had an impact on other Neolithic cultures that inhabited the area before the Liangzhu society rose up in a period of dry and relatively stable environmental conditions.
This prosperous city could not last forever.
According to the researchers, the large-scale dams near the Liangzhu city were constructed between 5,300 and 4,700 years ago.
This suggests that the society was able to survive in a dry climate with the use of water resources.
The dry climate seems to have gotten more dry with time, and it's thought that dam construction ceased around 4,400 years ago, since existing dams would have been sufficient under the arid conditions.
The rains fell in two separate burst periods between 4,400 and 4,300 years ago.
The records show that the entire middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River Valley may have been the site of fluvial flooding and/or overbank marine flooding.
Poor drainage in the low-lying land may have led to the collapse of the entire Liangzhu civilization, as the people were forced to abandon their capital city and dwellings in the Taihu Plain.
The humid conditions for hundreds of years afterwards allowed other ancient cultures to rise up to succeed the Liangzhu, until another megadrought likely led to the "Final demise" of Neolithic human societies in the region.
The first dynasty of China, led by Yu the Great, was about to be founded in 2070 BCE, at the same time as Chinese society was about to begin a new chapter.
Some studies suggest that Yu's control of the flooding can be attributed to climate change, and the researchers have their own data to back it up.
The rise of the Xia Dynasty was related to a major climate transition from wet to dry, as shown by the observation.
Science Advances has the findings reported.
