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New dating indicates intermittent human occupation of the Nwya Devu Paleolithic site on the high-altitude central Tibetan Plateau during the past 45,000 years

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Abstract

The timing and mechanisms of the human occupation of the demanding high-altitude Tibetan Plateau environment are of great interest. Here, we report on our reinvestigations and dating of the Nwya Devu site, located nearly 4600 meters above sea level on the central Tibetan Plateau. A new microblade techno-complex was identified on a lower lake shore at this site, distinct from the previously reported blade tool assemblage. These two lithic assemblages were dated to 45.6±2.6 and 10.3±0.5 ka using optically stimulated luminescence and accelerator mass spectrometry 14C methods. They represent, respectively, the earliest known Paleolithic and microlithic sites on the interior Tibetan Plateau, indicating multiple occupation episodes of hunter-gatherers during the past 45 ka. Our studies reveal that relatively stable depositional conditions and a paleoenvironment characterized by a comparatively warm climate facilitated these multiple occupations at Nwya Devu. The contemporaneous occurrence of the Upper Paleolithic blade technology on the Tibetan Plateau and most of Eurasia between 50 and 40 ka indicates rapid, large-scale dispersals of humans that profoundly affected human demography on a large scale. Combining new archaeological evidence and previously reported genetic data, we conclude that the Tibetan Plateau provided a relatively stable habitat for Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, which may have contributed to the complex and multiple-origin gene pool of present-day Tibetans.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Yan LI and Xuefeng SUN for their important input and discussions, and Hao LONG, Ruiping TANG, and Hao XIE for their invaluable assistance in the field and the lab, as well as Jiequn HUA for his assistance in creating the figures. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41888101, 41977380 and 42072033), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDB26000000 and XDA2004010102), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (Grant No. 2019QZKK0601), and the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21@WTK001). Olsen’s participation was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative Award (Grant No. 2018VCA0016) and the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology at the University of Arizona.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Junyi Ge, Xiaoling Zhang, Shejiang Wang, Yingshuai Jin, Peiqi Zhang, John W. Olsen & Xing Gao

  2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Junyi Ge, Xiaoling Zhang, Shejiang Wang, Yingshuai Jin, Bing Xu, Chenglong Deng, Zhengtang Guo & Xing Gao

  3. Tibetan Cultural Relics Conservation Institute, Lhasa, 850000, China

    Linhui Li & Wei He

  4. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Bing Xu & Zhengtang Guo

  5. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Chenglong Deng

  6. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, USA

    John W. Olsen

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Ge, J., Zhang, X., Wang, S. et al. New dating indicates intermittent human occupation of the Nwya Devu Paleolithic site on the high-altitude central Tibetan Plateau during the past 45,000 years. Sci. China Earth Sci. 67, 531–551 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1225-7

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