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Multiple evidences indicate no relationship between prehistoric disasters in Lajia site and outburst flood in upper Yellow River valley, China

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Abstract

All around the world, ancient legends exist about the Great Flood, and the influence of the Great Flood in human evolutionary history is a hotly debated topic. In China, the legend of the prehistoric Great Flood and Yu the Great’s flood control has a long history and is considered to be closely linked to the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. However, there is a lack of solid scientific evidence. Against this issue, some scholars have proposed that an earthquake around 1920 BCE in the Guanting Basin along the upper reaches of the Yellow River led to the creation of a lake by damming in the Jishi Gorge and that the outburst of water from that lake led to the massive flood in the Yellow River region. These studies provided new scientific evidence for the Chinese legend. In this paper, we date skeletal samples embedded in earthquake sand blasting from the Lajia site, analyze remains from natural disasters (such as earthquakes and floods) and also archaeological remains. In addition, we compared the skeletal samples dating with that of sediments from the dammed-up lake. Our results are inconsistent with those of previous scholars. The earthquake at the Lajia site occurred no earlier than 1800 BCE, and the dammed-up lake in Jishi Gorge had disappeared by 3600 BCE. Thus, the formation and outburst of the dammed lake, the sudden death of ancient humans at the Lajia site and the ancient earthquake were independent events occurring at different times. In addition, the massive flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River did not actually happen. Thus, we argue against and invalidate the hypothesis that the massive flood was related to Yu the Great’s flood control and the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41620104007, 41671077 and 41402240).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    GuangHui Dong, FengWen Liu, DongJu Zhang, AiFeng Zhou & YiShi Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Disaster and Environment in Western China (Ministry of Education), Department of Geological Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    FanYu Zhang

  3. Research Center on Landslides, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    GongHui Wang

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  1. GuangHui Dong
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Correspondence to GuangHui Dong.

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Dong, G., Zhang, F., Liu, F. et al. Multiple evidences indicate no relationship between prehistoric disasters in Lajia site and outburst flood in upper Yellow River valley, China. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 441–449 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9079-3

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