Flood events in the lower reaches of the Yellow River: OSL and radiocarbon dating on the Anshang site

Abstract

The lower reaches of the Yellow River have witnessed numerous episodes of flooding and considerable shifts in its course. Examining flood records within the Yellow River basin offers invaluable insights into ancient human settlements, agricultural practices, trade routes, and technological advancements of ancient Chinese civilizations. However, dating these fluvial sediments poses a considerable challenge due to either the scarcity of organic material for radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating or the potential incomplete bleaching of sediments for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques. This study focused on the Anshang site located in Henan Province, we obtained OSL ages from distinct grain size fractions of quartz and cross-verified them with independent acceleration mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C ages. The findings revealed that both coarse quartz grains (CG) and medium quartz grains (MG) underwent complete bleaching in silt-dominated flood deposits and shallow lacustrine deposits. Conversely, the OSL ages of CG and MG quartz were notably overestimated by approximately 3–6 ka in silty clay-dominated flood deposits. Upon comparing the OSL ages with AMS ¹⁴C ages, it was evident that bulk organic matter AMS ¹⁴C ages aligned with CG OSL ages in shallow lacustrine deposits, but they appeared older than CG OSL ages in flood deposits. However, the AMS ¹⁴C ages from plant demonstrated good consistency. Consequently, we successfully identified flood-lacustrine sediments dating back to approximately ∼13 ka, ∼8–3 ka, ∼2.6 ka, ∼1 ka, and the last few hundred years, aligning well with historical documentation and earlier research. The regional evidence presented herein enhances our understanding of the applicability of OSL dating and AMS ¹⁴C dating in fluvial-lacustrine sediments. Armed with these new ages, we constructed a reference chronology for archaeological localities situated in the fluvial sediments of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.