RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Outburst flood at 1920 BCE supports historicity of China’s Great Flood and the Xia dynasty JF Science JO Science FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP 579 OP 582 DO 10.1126/science.aaf0842 VO 353 IS 6299 A1 Wu, Qinglong A1 Zhao, Zhijun A1 Liu, Li A1 Granger, Darryl E. A1 Wang, Hui A1 Cohen, David J. A1 Wu, Xiaohong A1 Ye, Maolin A1 Bar-Yosef, Ofer A1 Lu, Bin A1 Zhang, Jin A1 Zhang, Peizhen A1 Yuan, Daoyang A1 Qi, Wuyun A1 Cai, Linhai A1 Bai, Shibiao YR 2016 UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6299/579.abstract AB Around four millennia ago, Emperor Yu the Great succeeded in controlling a huge flood in the Yellow River basin. This is considered to have led to the establishment of the Xia dynasty and the start of Chinese civilization. However, the dates of the events and the links between them have remained uncertain and controversial. Using stratigraphic data and radiocarbon dating, Wu et al. verify that the flood occurred and place the start of the Xia dynasty at about 1900 BC, thus reconciling the historical and archaeological chronologies (see the Perspective by Montgomery).Science, this issue p. 579; see also p. 538China’s historiographical traditions tell of the successful control of a Great Flood leading to the establishment of the Xia dynasty and the beginning of civilization. However, the historicity of the flood and Xia remain controversial. Here, we reconstruct an earthquake-induced landslide dam outburst flood on the Yellow River about 1920 BCE that ranks as one of the largest freshwater floods of the Holocene and could account for the Great Flood. This would place the beginning of Xia at ~1900 BCE, several centuries later than traditionally thought. This date coincides with the major transition from the Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Yellow River valley and supports hypotheses that the primary state-level society of the Erlitou culture is an archaeological manifestation of the Xia dynasty.