The Revelation Of Advanced Chinese Civilization's Disappearance 4,000 Years Ago Has Finally Been Solved

Around 5,300 years ago, an ancient civilization arose in China's east, constructing a magnificent city unlike any other in Asia, if not the entire world. The Liangzhu civilization, which arose along the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, is a testament to what this unique Neolithic society was capable of during the Stone Age's last stages.

The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City show significant indicators of social, cultural, and technological achievements, particularly in agriculture and aquaculture, for the time period. The Liangzhu culture inexplicably fell around 4,300 years ago after a single inventive millennium, and the ancient city was abruptly abandoned. The exact cause of the abrupt fall has never been determined, however many have speculated that catastrophic flooding was to blame.

Geologist Christoph Spötl of the University of Innsbruck in Austria explained that a thin coating of clay was discovered on the conserved ruins, which alludes to a possible link connecting the death of the advanced civilization and floods of the Yangtze River or floods from the East China Sea

The mud layer, on the other hand, did not allow for any conclusive conclusions on the cause. They had a better idea of the flood that had engulfed this magnificent location. The recent study reveals that spotl and an international team of researchers examined mineral formations such as stalagmites within two underwater caves in the region, which carry chemical traces of long-ago climatic conditions.

The analysis of the stalagmite datasets, led by first author Haiwei Zhang of China's Xi'an Jiaotong University, shows that the collapse of Liangzhu City occurred during a duration of extremely high precipitation that spanned for decades over 4,300 years ago, most likely for the elevated frequency of El Nio–Southern Oscillation circumstances.

According to researchers several Neolithic cultures that inhabited the region until the Liangzhu society arose in a phase of dry and generally stable environmental circumstances may have been impacted by prior occurrences of climate change in the Yangtze River Delta region. However, due to history and the elements, this affluent city could not last indefinitely. They have revealed the presence of large-scale hydraulic systems around Liangzhu city, such as huge earthen dams built between 5,300 and 4,700 years ago.

This shows that the Liangzhu civilization used hydraulic infrastructure for flood prevention and irrigation in order to survive in a dry climate. Conversely, the dry climate appeared to gradually and steadily drier over time, resulting in a possible 'megadrought' about 4,400 years ago, at which moment the dam construction had appears to have halted, as existing dams would have sufficed in the arid conditions. Then came the rains, which fell in two different bursts between 4,400 and 4,300 years ago. Massive rainfall in the entire middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River Valley, combined with geochemical proof of flood deposits above the Liangzhu culture layer, suggests that fluvial flooding and overbank marine flooding transported by the Yangtze River plume hampered human habitation and rice farming.

The Liangzhu people may have been compelled to flee their capital city and houses on the Taihu Plain due to severe floods and inundation caused by poor drainage in the low-lying land, eventually leading to the collapse of the entire Liangzhu civilization. After that, humid conditions persisted for centuries, throughout which time other ancient cultures arose to temporarily succeed the Liangzhu - at least until another megadrought caused the final extinction of Neolithic human societies in the region.

With the creation of the Xia dynasty in 2070 BCE, regarded to be China's first dynasty, commanded by Yu the Great, Chinese society was about to embark on a transformational new chapter.

According to Chinese historical documents and earlier research that numerous texts say that Yu established the Xia Dynasty by successfully managing river floods, some studies suggest that Yu's flood control can be attributed to climate change. Adding that their own speleothem evidence supports the theory. This finding adds to the growing body of evidence that the Xia Dynasty arose during a major climate shift from wet to dry