High-altitude discovery sheds light on early settlers of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Chinese archaeologists have uncovered a 12,000-year-old Paleolithic site at an unprecedented altitude of over 4,300 meters on the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, significantly broadening the understanding of early human activities in high-altitude regions, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The site was found near Tsochen Tso Lake in Daocheng county, Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. It has yielded over 190 stone artifacts, primarily small flake tools and microblades, according to the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration.

The stone tools were crafted with sophisticated and distinctive knapping techniques and feature finely retouched, sharp edges capable of easily cutting hide and meat, archaeologists said.

Archaeologists believe the site is an important part of the Piluo site complex in Daocheng, which dates back more than 200,000 years and sits at an average altitude of 3,750 meters. It is considered the earliest, largest, and culturally richest known site on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

"The discovery suggests that over 10,000 years ago, ancient human groups already seized opportunities during warmer climatic periods to settle by the plateau lake," said Zheng Zhexuan, head of the Piluo site excavation team and director of the Paleolithic Archaeology Institute at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

"It was not merely a temporary camp but more likely a repeatedly used habitat, indicating that humans at that time had developed a relatively stable capacity to adapt to the plateau environment," Zheng said.

Excavations and multidisciplinary research at the Piluo site are still underway. Researchers are conducting chronology and environmental archaeology analysis on the unearthed remains to reconstruct a more precise scene of ancient humans' daily life in the region, according to the report.