Multicultural responses to environmental changes of the Holocene in the Nihewan-Huliu Basin of North China.

The Nihewan-Huliu Basin was located in environmental transition zone, where was an important multicultural intersection in North China. The geographical and ecological transition was revealed by large scale vegetation changes, and the climatic changes had been estimated during the Holocene based on comprehensive comparison and analysis of the paleoenvironmental records surrounding the study area. Meanwhile, multicultural exchanges were represented based on the spatial distributions of archaeological sites in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. It is proposed that repeated multicultural exchanges and integration were inferential responses to the complex spatial-temporal evolution of the climate, ecology and geography near the Nihewan-Huliu Basin, especially, diverse cultures converged here from different directions after the abrupt cold events or serious climate changes in the mid-Holocene; the spatial connectivity with intermontane rivers and basins provided potential pathways for sustainable multicultural exchanges among mountains; the North-South movement of the forest boundary compelled the formation of steppe-forest and farming-pastoral ecotone here, and finally formed an active multicultural core region with integrated human civilization in North China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]