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  

作　　者：Junyi GE Xiaoling ZHANG Shejiang WANG Linhui LI Wei HE Yingshuai JIN Peiqi ZhANG Bing XU Chenglong DENG John WOLSEN Zhengtang GUO Xing GAO 

机构地区：[1]Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100044,China [2]University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China [3]Tibetan Cultural Relics Conservation Institute,Lhasa 850000,China [4]Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.Beijing 100029,China [5]State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,100029,China [6]School of Anthropology,University of Arizona,Tucson,85721,USA

出　　处：《Science China Earth Sciences》2024年第2期531-551,共21页中国科学（地球科学英文版）

基　　金：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);the National Social Science Foundation of China(Grant No.21@WTK001);supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative Award(Grant No.2018VCA0016);the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology at the University of Arizona。

摘　　要：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 and10.3±0.5 ka using optically stimulated luminescence and accelerator mass spectrometry^(14)C 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.

关 键 词：Tibetan Plateau PALEOLITHIC Nwya Devu High-altitude adaptation Microblade industry Early Upper Paleolithic OSLdating AMS^(14)C dating 

分 类 号：K878[历史地理—考古学及博物馆学] Q911[历史地理—历史学]