Evidence suggests that China’s “cradle of civilization” experienced marked climate disasters and social upheavals during the mid-late Holocene (around 3,000 years ago). However, the direct causes and impacts of these ancient inland disasters were unclear. In a new study, published in Science Advances, a team of Chinese researchers points to intensified typhoon activities during this time as a main driving factor for disaster and social change, backing up their claims with archaeological evidence and AI and physics-based climate modeling.