It is this unique entanglement between social competition, intensification of economic production, and infrastructure construction that needs to be unpacked in future research efforts to demonstrate the long-term water-management practices in this region and their relationship with environmental changes and the corresponding social evolution. This not only changed patterns of economic development in the region, a region that was driven and accelerated by ritual activities and associated social gatherings, but also profoundly transformed the local landscape into one that was densely occupied by moats, ditches and other water-management infrastructures. By the Qujialing-Shijiahe period (3000–2100 BC), regional competition had become one of the main driving forces that stimulated large-scale infrastructure construction and production of various consumables among large to medium-sized settlements. Moats became increasingly important in water management, especially flood prevention, and particularly when the settlements occupied large areas of local landscapes, often encroaching upon low-lying areas, because of population growth and migration. We demonstrate how the construction and maintenance of these moated sites were related to and constrained by the changing environmental and socio-economic conditions. We present evidence from our regional geoarchaeological surveys of prehistoric sites in the Middle River Yangtze, focusing particularly on the moats at these sites. These hydraulic features formed a robust water-management system that sustained continuous socio-economic growth in the region. Moated sites appeared very early in the Middle River Yangtze, and their numbers continued to grow throughout Neolithic times, indicating the increasing investment in hydraulic engineering undertaken by prehistoric societies. Geoarchaeology of prehistoric moated sites and water management in the Middle River Yangtze, China

Moated Sites by David ...