Abstract
In this chapter, I deal with two episodes of the dispersal of the Neolithic elements out of the so-called Central Plain in the Middle reaches of the Yellow River, China: the first about 5000 BCE, associated with spread of the elements of the Early Neolithic Peiligang Culture, and the second after 4000 BCE, which is associated with expansion of the Yangshao Culture. I argue that while both episodes of dispersal were at least partly driven by migrations of the bearers of the both cultures, their causes were different: in the first case, the push-out effect seems to be triggered by the more frequent flooding and enlargement of the lakes surfaces in the central area of the former Peiligang Culture, which was caused by higher precipitation in the Holocene Climatic Optimum Period, while in the second case, the main cause seems to be demographic pressure caused by the complete shift to the agricultural way of subsistence.