An international group of scientists has shown that the Liangzhu culture that existed more than five thousand years ago in the east of China, disappeared due to climate change in the region. Despite the fact that the ancient Chinese civilization owned quite advanced water management technologies, it died due to severe floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains. The results of the study are published in the SCience Advances magazine. Briefly about scientific work is described in a press release on PHYS.ORG.
Ruins of the city of Lianzzu are located in the Delta of the Yangtze River, about 160 kilometers south-west of Shanghai. About 5.3 thousand years ago, a highly developed culture was born, which created large hydraulic structures, although it did not owe metalworking. Liangzu was a fortress city with a complex system of shipping channels, dams and reservoirs. The system covered large agricultural areas and allowed them to handle them throughout the year.
is still not known, which led to the disappearance of the ancient Chinese civilization. Archaeologists did not find traces of military conflicts, which eliminates the human factor in the death of the culture of Liangzhu. The key to the disclosure of Fate Lianzzhu was the thin layer of clay, which covered the ruins and indicating a possible connection with the floods on the Yangtze River or storm napodes in the East-Chinese Sea.
Researchers analyzed samples of stalagmites from Chennong caves and Julun, south-west of Liangzhu’s excavation site. This made it possible to reconstruct climatic conditions in the region over the past few hundred thousand years on the isotopic composition of carbon in sediments. The data show that 4324-4345 years ago a period occurred, characterized by an extremely large amount of precipitation. Accurate dating was carried out by analyzing uranium and thorium isotopes with measurement accuracy plus-minus 30 years.
Abundant monsoon rains were probably led to the strong flooding of the Yangtze and her sleeves, so that even a complex system of dams and channels could no longer withstand the masses of water that destroyed the city of Lyanzzhu and forced people to flee. Extremely wet climatic conditions persisted after this three hundred years.