User:TripleRoryFan/sandbox/Paleolithic China

Environmental changes
The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene was characterized by rising temperatures after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). During the LGM, China experienced lower temperatures and reduced precipitation compared to the present day, with average annual temperatures 6–9°C lower in North China and 4–5°C lower in the Yangtze river region. Once the LGM came to an end, the climate became warmer and wetter.

The changes in climate led to changes in vegetation in China. Pollen profiles from the early Holocene show a transition from cool and dry conditions dominated by herbaceous plants to warmer and wetter conditions with more deciduous and broadleaf trees.

Hunter-gatherer society
The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene also saw a transition from a mobile hunter-gatherer society towards sedentism. During the late Pleistocene, rapid changes in the environment and the scarcity of food resources forced people to move from place to place, but the Holocene brought stability and more abundant plant foods, allowing people to stay in one place for longer.

The strategy involved in the collection of food became more complex during this period. In the late Pleistocene a simple forager strategy was used where the residential base would move whenever resources in the local area were exhausted. In the Holocene a more complex collector strategy was used where people would keep the same residential base for longer and send small groups of people out to collect food in season, which would then be stored for the seasons where food was less available.

Pottery
Pottery first appeared in China during the LGM, but it didn't become widespread until the Holocene. The main function of early pottery vessels was for cooking food. In North China, the vessels were mainly cylindrical in shape and sand-tempered; they were likely heated directly, as evidenced by soot found on the surface, and continued to be used into the early Neolithic. In the Yangtze area, the vessels were shaped as a basin and likely heated from within using heated stones in water as there are no external traces of heating.