Neolithisation in North China: Landscape and geoarchaeological perspectives

Multi-disciplinary research in different parts of the world has demonstrated that neolithisation or the establishment of the ‘neolithic’ way of life, including economy, settlement, landscape management and ideology, was a lengthy process. In North China, this prolonged neolithisation is characterised by ecological diversity and increasing landscape management throughout the Terminal Palaeolithic to the Early Neolithic. Geoarchaeology is a crucial subject for the improvement of a better understanding of long-term interaction between landscape change and cultural evolution. This paper presents brief summaries of geoarchaeological surveys in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the Lower Yellow River, reviews recent archaeological discoveries dating to the Terminal Palaeolithic to the Early Neolithic in the same and related areas from the geoarchaeological perspective and discusses the different roles that the environment played in the neolithisation process in various areas. The conclusions are: (a) there is an enhanced engagement between people and the landscape during the Pleistocene–Holocene transitional period and (b) the ecological diversity and continuing mobility of archaeological cultures during the Early Holocene were critical for the transition to the Neolithic.