Elsevier

Science Bulletin

Volume 66, Issue 6, 30 March 2021, Pages 603-611
Science Bulletin

Article
Megadrought and cultural exchange along the proto-silk road

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2020.10.011Get rights and content
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Abstract

Arid Central Asia (ACA), with its diverse landscapes of high mountains, oases, and deserts, hosted the central routes of the Silk Roads that linked trade centers from East Asia to the eastern Mediterranean. Ecological pockets and ecoclines in ACA are largely determined by local precipitation. However, little research has gone into the effects of hydroclimatic changes on trans-Eurasian cultural exchange. Here, we reconstruct precipitation changes in ACA, covering the mid-late Holocene with a U-Th dated, ~3 a resolution, multi-proxy time series of replicated stalagmites from the southeastern Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan. Our data reveal a 640-a megadrought between 5820 and 5180 a BP, which likely impacted cultural development in ACA and impeded the expansion of cultural traits along oasis routes. Instead, it may have diverted the earliest transcontinental exchange along the Eurasian steppe during the 5th millennium BP. With gradually increasing precipitation after the megadrought, settlement of peoples in the oases and river valleys may have facilitated the opening of the oasis routes, “prehistoric Silk Roads”, of trans-Eurasian exchange. By the 4th millennium BP, this process may have reshaped cultures across the two continents, laying the foundation for the organized Silk Roads.

Graphical abstract

The δ13C, δ18O and Sr/Ca series of a stalagmite from Kyrgyzstan, provide so far, the highest-resolved (~3 yr) and most precisely-dated (~6‰) precipitation record in Arid Central Asia covering the middle to late Holocene. The record reveals a 640-yr megadrought between 5820 and 5180 a BP, which likely delayed prehistoric trans-Eurasian cultural exchange along the proto-Silk Road.

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Keywords

Megadrought
Trans-Eurasian exchange
Silk Roads
Arid Central Asia
Mid-Holocene

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Liangcheng Tan received his Ph.D. degree in Quaternary Geology at Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) in 2009. Since then, he has worked in IEECAS as an assistant professor, an associate professor, and a full professor. His research interest includes high-resolution climate proxies in speleothems, Holocene climate change, impacts and human adaption, Anthropocene environment change.