---
title: "Xia Dynasty Flood Disaster and Relief"
year: 2000
country: "China"
canonical: "https://recap.at/2000/xia-dynasty-flood"
slug: "xia-dynasty-flood"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "2000-01-01"
---

# Xia Dynasty Flood Disaster and Relief

> Traditional accounts and archaeological evidence describe catastrophic Yellow River flooding during early Xia rule, precipitating water-management innovations and governance.

## Summary

Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevare, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. When a relief is carved into a flat surface of wood or stone, the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires chiselling away of the background, which can be time-intensive. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, particularly in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be simply added to or raised up from the background. Monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting.

## Sources

- [Relief](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief) - Wikipedia

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Canonical: https://recap.at/2000/xia-dynasty-flood