Understanding the societal impacts of past climate changes may deepen our insight into human adaptation and resilience against potential climate changes in the future. However, the degree and nature of climate-civilization link are still a matter of debate. Fluvial deposits preserved within a cultural stratigraphical context at archaeological sites in the lower Yellow River area may offer an exceptional framework for evaluating the role of climate changes in the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. Here we show evidence for great lower Yellow River floods during the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition about 4000-3500 years ago. Comparing with existing terrestrial and marine records suggests that they were a downstream manifestation of flooding in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, most likely triggered by excessive summer precipitation while a weak El Nino condition prevailed. The floods substantially modified the preexisting landscape and altered the agricultural conditions, thereby driving people dwelling on the higher mounds to move upward. Our results provide a past analogue of the linked climatic, environmental, and societal changes at a time when large and rapid climate changes occurred. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.