Neolithic sites

List of Neolithic sites

Australia

The local aborigines in South Australia remember the rising sea level ‘cutting off’ Kangaroo Island (and those on it) about 6000 years ago. Backstairs Passage average depth 40 metres (max, 73 metres).

The separation by flooding of Bass Strait must have been earlier as its average depth is 50 metres (wikipedia) or 60 metres (wikipedia). The rising sea level “forming a marine embayment from 11,800 BP to 8700 BP and the basin rim was completely flooded by about 8000 BP, at which point Bass Strait was formed and Tasmania became a separate island”.

China

The landscape evolution of the East China coastal plain, one of the most important restrictive factors in the development of Neolithic culture, has largely been governed by sea level changes during the Holocene...... spatial and temporal distribution of Neolithic sites has largely been controlled by landscape evolution, which ultimately governed by sea level changes.

(a) The elevation of East China coastal plain and shelves of marginal seas (revised from Li et al., 2014). (b) Global sea level change since the Last Deglaciation (revised from Lambeck et al., 2014).

Maps of Neolithic sites in East China coastal plain. (a) Map of all prehistoric cultural sites in East China coastal plain, which data retrieved from our statistics materials. (b) Map of the distribution of the Paleolithic sites in our research area. (c) Map of the distribution of the Neolithic sites during 10.0–8.5 ka. (d) Map of the distribution of the Neolithic sites during 8.5–7.3 ka. (e) Map of the distribution of the Neolithic sites during 7.3–5.8 ka. (f) Map of the distribution of Neolithic sites during 5.8–5.3 ka. (g) Map of the distribution of the Neolithic sites during 5.3–4.3 ka. (h) Map of the distribution of the Neolithic sites during 4.3–4.0 ka. The location of paleocoast line and cheniers (shell banks) are fixed according to previous studies

At about 7 ka, sea level rise decelerate remarkably. In the meantime, East Asian summer monsoon strengthened significantly, which enhanced erosion in the drainage and sedimentation in the lower reach of the rivers, leading to land formation and propagation in the coastal region. The vast, extremely flat and fertile land provided a cradle for Neolithic ancestors, with resplendent cultural achievements during Liangzhu period.

The East China coastal plain is located in the lowest reaches of large rivers, with a landscape of extreme flatness with low elevation and dense networks of drainages, and is therefore vulnerable to extreme climatic-environmental events, which exerts great influence on the distribution, migration and succession of Neolithic cultures.

Europe

Neolithic settlement spread in Europe