
Human sedentism and use of animal resources on the prehistoric Tibetan Plateau
WANG Qing, ZHANG Ying, CHEN Shungang, GAO Yu, YANG Jishuai, RAN Jingkun, GU Zhengquan, YANG Xiaoyan
Journal of Geographical Sciences ›› 2023, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (9) : 1851-1876.
Human sedentism and use of animal resources on the prehistoric Tibetan Plateau
The transition of human societies from high mobility to sedentary lifestyles had a profound impact on subsistence, technology, and the origin of civilization. Sedentism was influenced by various factors such as climate change, population growth, resource pressure, and technological innovation. The Tibetan Plateau, due to its alpine and hypoxic conditions, is an ideal region to study human adaptation to extreme environments. However, the prehistoric process of sedentism on the Tibetan Plateau is unclear and the chronological sequence and driving mechanism of sedentism on the Tibetan Plateau are still controversial. Previous studies have focused on the diffusion of agriculture from low to high elevation areas, with little attention given to the role of animal resources in sedentism. Seasonality analysis using animal remains is crucial in determining whether a site was occupied year-round. To establish the seasonal calendar of animal resource utilization, it is recommended to create a database of skeletal morphology, whole genome, and proteome of contemporary Tibetan Plateau fauna to aid in the identification of animal remains from archaeological sites. Thus, intricate web of human-animal-environment relationship and the role of animal resources in human sedentism on the Tibetan Plateau can then be evaluated.
zooarchaeology / human adaptation / subsistence economy / seasonality analysis / bulk-bone metabarcoding {{custom_keyword}} /
Figure 1 The distribution of Paleolithic sites on the Tibetan Plateau (1. Chusang (226-169 ka BP, 4369 m a.s.l.; Zhang et al., 2021); 2. Baishiya Karst Cave (190-5 ka BP, 3200 m a.s.l.; Chen et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020); 3. Nwya Devu (Zhang et al., 2018); 4. 151 (Wang et al., 2020); 5. Jiangxigou#1; 6. Heimahe#1 (13.1 ka BP, 3200 m a.s.l.; Brantingham, 2006); 7. Xiadawu (~11 ka BP, 3988 m a.s.l.; Hou et al., 2016); 8. Xidatan#2 (Brantingham et al., 2013); 9. Shalongka (8.3-8 ka BP, 2046 m a.s.l.; Dong et al., 2013); 10. Yangchang (7.6-7 ka BP, 2440 m a.s.l.; Han et al., 2014); 11. Yeniugou (7.5 ka BP, 3800 m a.s.l.; Tang et al., 2013); 12. Layihai (~7.6 ka BP, 3125 m a.s.l.; Gai and Wang, 1983); 13. Zhongba 10-1 (6.6-2.6 ka BP, 4570 m a.s.l.; Hudson et al., 2014); 14. Jiangjunfu 01 (120-90 ka BP, 2673 m a.s.l.; Cheng et al., 2021); 15. Piluo (~130 ka BP, 3750 m a.s.l.; Zheng et al., 2022) |
Figure 2 The archaeological sites with animal remains unearthed on the Tibetan Plateau and their proportions of animals (annotation: left column gives the names and elevations of the sites in chronological order, horizontal bars show the percentage of animal types recorded for each site, and the right column gives the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP) at the sites; * is MNI the Minimum Number of Individuals at Changning site.)) |
Table 1 Primers for specific amplification in bulk-bone metabarcoding |
Name | Primer (5°-3°) | Target taxa | Target gene | Reference | Amplicon length (BP) | Annealing temper- ature (℃) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12SAH | Forward | CTGGGATTAGATACCCCACTAT | Bird | 12S rRNA | Cooper, 1994 | 229-235 | 57 |
Reverse | CCTTGACCTGTCTTGTTAGC | Bird | 12S rRNA | Cooper, 1994 | 229-235 | 57 | |
Mam16S | Forward | CGGTTGGGGTGACCTCGGA | Mammal | 16S rRNA | Taylor, 1996 | 89-115 | 57 |
Reverse | GCTGTTATCCCTAGGGTAACT | Mammal | 16S rRNA | Taylor, 1996 | 89-115 | 57 | |
12S-V5 | Forward | ACTGGGATTAGATACCCC | Fish | 12S rRNA | Riaz et al., 2011 | 106 | 58 |
Reverse | TAGAACAGGCTCCTCTAG | Fish | 12S rRNA | Riaz et al., 2011 | 106 | 58 |
Table 2 Completeness of mitochondrial DNA data of living animals on the Tibetan Plateau |
Taxa | Number of recorded species | Number of counted species | MtDNA database | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Complete | Partial | None | ||||
Mammal | ca. 190 | 149 | 119 | 15 | 13 | The animal species that lack mtDNA data are primarily Vespertilionidae, Muridae, Columbidae, and Caprimulgidae, and only Moschus fuscus in Artiodactyla has no complete mtDNA data |
Fish | 159 | 152 | 112 | 20 | 20 | Species without data are distributed in all families, but other species of the same genus always have data |
Bird | 817 | 234 | 152 | 71 | 11 | Most of the data are not available for Rallidae, Scolopacidae, Scolopacidae, and Caprimulgidae among others. |
Figure 4 Animal bone materials used for seasonality analysis (a. Position of cementum and microstructure of cementum under polarizing microscope (Fišáková, 2013); b. fish vertebra (Ma et al., 2017); c. otolith (Van Neer et al., 1999); d. fish scale; e. opercular (Ma et al., 2017); f. cleithrum (Faust et al., 2013)) |
Table 3 Timing of the winter-summer boundary of dominant fish in the middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo |
Species | Number of ring cycles per year | Month | Analyzed material | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ptychobarbus dipogon | 1 | 3-5 | Otolith | Li et al., 2009 |
1 | 3-6 | Otolith | Yang, 2015 | |
Oxygymnocypris stewartii | 1 | 3-6 | Otolith and vertebra | Huo, 2014 |
3-5 | ||||
Schizopygopsis younghusbandi | 1 | 3-5 | Otolith | Duan, 2015 |
Glyptosternum maculatum | 1 | 4-6 | Vertebra | Ding et al., 2008 |
Schizothorax o’connori | 1 | 3-5 | Otolith | Ma et al., 2011 |
3-6 | Vertebra | |||
Schizothorax waltoni | 1 | 3-5 | Otolith and vertebra | Hao, 2005; |
Zhou, 2014 | ||||
Schizothorax macropogon | 1 | 3-6 | Otolith | Liu, 2016 |
Gymnocypris waddellii | 1 | - | Anal scale and dorsal fin ray | Yang et al., 2011 |
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The advent of farming around 12 millennia ago was a cultural as well as technological revolution, requiring a new system of property rights. Among mobile hunter-gatherers during the late Pleistocene, food was almost certainly widely shared as it was acquired. If a harvested crop or the meat of a domesticated animal were to have been distributed to other group members, a late Pleistocene would-be farmer would have had little incentive to engage in the required investments in clearing, cultivation, animal tending, and storage. However, the new property rights that farming required--secure individual claims to the products of one's labor--were infeasible because most of the mobile and dispersed resources of a forager economy could not cost-effectively be delimited and defended. The resulting chicken-and-egg puzzle might be resolved if farming had been much more productive than foraging, but initially it was not. Our model and simulations explain how, despite being an unlikely event, farming and a new system of farming-friendly property rights nonetheless jointly emerged when they did. This Holocene revolution was not sparked by a superior technology. It occurred because possession of the wealth of farmers--crops, dwellings, and animals--could be unambiguously demarcated and defended. This facilitated the spread of new property rights that were advantageous to the groups adopting them. Our results thus challenge unicausal models of historical dynamics driven by advances in technology, population pressure, or other exogenous changes. Our approach may be applied to other technological and institutional revolutions such as the 18th- and 19th-century industrial revolution and the information revolution today.
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10Be‐26Al cosmogenic surface exposure, optically stimulated luminescence, and radiocarbon dates from the site of Xidatan 2 (∼4300 m above sea level [asl] in the Kunlun Pass, northern Tibetan Plateau) suggest the site was intermittently and briefly occupied approximately 9200–6400 yr B.P. This age is substantially younger than expected given the late Upper Paleolithic character of the lithic assemblage, which is dominated by microlithic and unique discoidal prepared core technologies. Comparisons between Xidatan 2 and known surface lithic assemblages in the Kekexili and Chang Tang regions of the central high Plateau show not only that the latter are technologically similar to Xidatan 2, but also that they are demonstrably connected to Xidatan 2 through utilization of the same stone raw materials, which includes a chemically distinctive obsidian. Contrary to most accounts of Tibetan Plateau colonization, our results suggest that the earliest substantial occupations on the interior Tibetan Plateau above 4000 m asl may date to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.
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The remains of fishes are a commonly encountered item in many archaeological sites, yet a thorough utilization of all the relevant information inherent in this material is rarely made by the archaeologist. Certain salient characteristics of the growth and ecology of fishes are presented. Examples are included using archaeological fish remains to indicate or substantiate such things as seasonal dating, absolute dating, estimates of prehistoric food resource locations, and environmental change. Examples will be presented from western North America and southern France.
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Our understanding of when and how humans adapted to living on the Tibetan Plateau at altitudes above 2000 to 3000 meters has been constrained by a paucity of archaeological data. Here we report data sets from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau indicating that the first villages were established only by 5200 calendar years before the present (cal yr B.P.). Using these data, we tested the hypothesis that a novel agropastoral economy facilitated year-round living at higher altitudes since 3600 cal yr B.P. This successful subsistence strategy facilitated the adaptation of farmers-herders to the challenges of global temperature decline during the late Holocene. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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<p>The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most hostile areas for human permanent settlement in the current world. To study when and how prehistoric human colonized the high areas of the Tibetan Plateau, is valuable for understanding the mechanism of human adaptation to high-cold and hypoxic environments. Based on the analysis of artifacts and biological remains unearthed from prehistoric sites on the Tibetan Plateau, in comparison to dating results and paleoclimate studies, we argue that prehistoric human expanded upward to high-altitude areas of the Tibetan Plateau mainly by three steps. Foragers occasionally and seasonly occupied high areas of the Tibetan Plateau before 15 000 BP; Neolithic groups extensively settled below 2 500 m asl in the margin areas of east Tibetan Plateau during 5 200~3 600 BP; human permanently settled above 3 000 m asl post 3 600 BP. Climate change promoted human activities on the Tibetan Plateau during Paleolithic period, while agriculture development and diffusion across the Eurasia was the primary factor for human extensive and year-round settlement on the “Roof of the world” during Neolithic and Bronze Ages.</p>
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Local wild bovids have been determined to be important prey on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP), where hunting game was a major subsistence strategy until the late Neolithic, when farming lifestyles dominated in the neighboring Loess Plateau. However, the species affiliation and population ecology of these prehistoric wild bovids in the prehistoric NETP remain unknown. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis is highly informative in decoding this puzzle. Here, we applied aDNA analysis to fragmented bovid and rhinoceros specimens dating ∼5,200 y B.P. from the Neolithic site of Shannashuzha located in the marginal area of the NETP. Utilizing both whole genomes and mitochondrial DNA, our results demonstrate that the range of the present-day tropical gaur () extended as far north as the margins of the NETP during the late Neolithic from ∼29°N to ∼34°N. Furthermore, comparative analysis with zooarchaeological and paleoclimatic evidence indicated that a high summer temperature in the late Neolithic might have facilitated the northward expansion of tropical animals (at least gaur and Sumatran-like rhinoceros) to the NETP. This enriched the diversity of wildlife, thus providing abundant hunting resources for humans and facilitating the exploration of the Tibetan Plateau as one of the last habitats for hunting game in East Asia.Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.
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Ancient DNA sequences from preserved specimens are increasingly being used for the investigation of Pacific Island ecosystems prior to the large scale modification and extinction of endemic biota associated with human colonization. However, many difficulties are associated with the use of ancient DNA sequences in studies of genetically close taxa. In this paper, these difficulties are discussed as they relate to a study involving extinct and extant members of an ancient New Zealand avian family, the New Zealand wrens (Acanthisittidae). Sequences of the mitochondrial small ribosomal subunit RNA gene (12S) were obtained from museum specimens of several wren taxa in order to investigate their phylogenetic relationships and the taxonomic status of a rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris) subspecies. Limitations due to sample size and 12S sequence variability as well as the difficulties in authenticating ancient DNA sequences prevent firm conclusions but the data suggest unsuspected phylogenetic relationships exist and raise the possibility that conservation management of rock wren populations is required.
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Many archaeological models describe the development of restricted residential mobility, or sedentism, in prehistoric settings. Sedentism is often part of a suite of cultural changes, often accompanied by seed intensification, storage, population increase, environmental degradation, establishment of social hierarchy, and agriculture. Most models describe these changes as a series of events, with one precipitating the next. As a result, sedentism is interpreted as either a direct byproduct or a causative trigger of other societal changes. Results of excavations at the village site of Sunga'va (CA-INY-3806) are used to examine the timing of sedentism in relation to the development of storage and seed intensification in the Owens Valley of California. The site, which has evidence for two separate occupations from a period that has heretofore not been the subject of intensive research, suggests that sedentism developed at the same time or just before storage and some 800 years before seed intensification. Data do not support social models, such as the activity of aggrandizers or the stabilization of longdistance exchange networks, in these developments.
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Cleithra are thought to accurately record age information and produce the most reliable age estimates relative to other calcified structures (e.g., scales) for long-lived species of Esocidae such as muskellunge Esox masquinongy and northern pike E. lucius. Sagittal otoliths provide the most accurate and precise age estimates for other fish species, yet sagittal otoliths have never been evaluated for age estimation of any species of Esocidae. Our objectives were to determine if: 1) sagittal otoliths provided more precise age estimates than cleithra for northern pike from two populations, and 2) sagittal otolith age estimates differed systematically from cleithrum age estimates for two populations of northern pike. Ages were estimated by three independent individuals with different experience levels from sagittal otoliths and cleithra collected from 66 northern pike (32–101 cm total length) from Devils Lake, North Dakota and 45 northern pike (27–52 cm total length) from Cable Lake, Wisconsin. Cleithrum age estimates were more precise than those from sagittal otoliths for northern pike from Devils Lake, and were similar to sagittal otolith age estimates for northern pike from Cable Lake. Sagittal otolith age estimates were similar to cleithrum age estimates for northern pike from Devils Lake, but were dissimilar for northern pike from Cable Lake. We recommend using cleithra for estimating age of northern pike given that no specialized equipment is required for processing and age estimation. However, other studies are needed to further investigate the use of sagittal otoliths to estimate age of northern pike.
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Lake Donggi Cona is a key area for the exploration of the prehistoric settlement of the inner Tibetan Plateau because of its location in the joint of the higher inner Tibetan Plateau and the upper Yellow River valley. Here, we carried out archeological investigation on the lake basin, and a total of 256 pieces of stone artifacts were collected from the surface of the DJCN 3-2-2 site on the northern shore terraces of the lake. In addition, AMS14C and OSL dating were performed on hearths and section (DJCN 3-2-2), respectively; meanwhile environmental proxies, including grain size, charcoal, magnetic susceptibility, fungal spore, and pollen, were analyzed. The results indicate that the AMS14C ages of the charcoal range between ~5.4 and 5.0 cal. ka BP, consistent with OSL dating from the charcoal layers in the DJCN 3-2-2 section (~5.5 ka BP). The functional analysis of the stone artifacts and dating results showed that the site was a seasonal, relative long-term, and central camp which was used for processing of stone artifacts, cutting and consuming food and the production of daily necessities. Charcoal, magnetic susceptibility, and fungal spores from the DJCN 3-2-2 section revealed that prehistoric human activities began at ~5.8 ka BP and significantly intensified during the period of ~5.6–5.5 ka BP and then gradually weakened. Pollen assemblages indicated that the vegetation was dominated by alpine steppe during the period of ~5.8–5.0 ka BP, indicative of a relatively warmer and wetter climatic condition during this period. Taken together, we infer that under the impact of the Neolithic culture in lower altitude of upper Yellow River valley and Microlithic culture in the higher altitude inner Plateau, a Neolithic-Zongri culture had emerged in the transitional region between these two cultures during middle Holocene.
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Although there is a long history of research into the fossil deposits of the Naracoorte Caves (South Australia), ancient DNA (aDNA) has not been integrated into any palaeontological study from this World Heritage site. Here, we provide the first evidence of aDNA preservation in Holocene‐ and Pleistocene‐aged fossil bone from a deposit inside Robertson Cave. Using a combination of metabarcoding and shotgun next‐generation sequencing approaches, we demonstrate that aDNA from diverse taxa can be retrieved from bulk bone as old as 18 600 cal a BP. However, the DNA is highly degraded and contains a lower relative proportion of endogenous sequences in bone older than 8400 cal a BP. Furthermore, modelling of DNA degradation suggests that the decay rate is rapid, and predicts a very low probability of obtaining informative aDNA sequences from extinct megafaunal bones from Naracoorte (ca. 50 000 cal a BP). We also provide new information regarding the past faunal biodiversity of Robertson Cave, including families that have not been formerly described in the fossil record from here before. Collectively, these data demonstrate the potential for future aDNA studies to be conducted on material from Naracoorte, which will aid in the understanding of faunal turnover in southern Australia.
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The Sannai Maruyama site (3900-2300 BC) is one of the largest known from Japan's Jomon period (14000-300 BC). This study shows that over 1500 years the number of dwellings, their size, the type of stone tools and the fondness for figurines varied greatly. Nor was it a story of gradual increase in complexity: the settlement grew in intensity up to a peak associated with numerous grinding stones, and then declined to a smaller settlement containing larger buildings, many arrowheads and virtually no figurines. Using a bundle of ingenious analyses, the author explains what happened.
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The routes and timing of human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are crucial for understanding the evolution of Tibetan populations and associated paleoclimatic conditions. Many archeological sites have been found in/around the Tarim Basin, on the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Unfortunately, most of these sites are surface sites and cannot be directly dated. Their ages can only be estimated based on imprecise artifact comparisons. We recently found and dated an archeological site on a terrace along the Keriya River. Our ages indicate that the site was occupied at ~7.0–7.6 ka, making it the earliest well-dated archeological site yet identified in the Tarim Basin. This suggests that early human foragers migrated into this region prior to ~7.0–7.6 ka during the early to mid-Holocene climatic optimum, which may have provided the impetus for populating the region. We hypothesize that the Keriya River, together with the other rivers originating from the TP, may have served as access routes onto the TP for early human foragers. These rivers may also have served as stepping stones for migration further west into the now hyper-arid regions of the Tarim Basin, leading ultimately to the development of the Silk Road.
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Human activities during the early stage in Tibetan Plateau are crucial to improve the knowledge about how human beings react and respond to extreme environmental conditions, especially those in the area with elevation > 4000 m asl, which is considered as the key of the migration and diffusion of human from plain to hinterland. Ash layer dated as 11290±69 cal. a BP and stoneworks such as micro-blade and fine flake mainly occurring at ca.11.2 cal ka BP were found in the archaeological site XDW1, which can be considered as the first evidence to show the human activities above 4000 m asl in the Tibetan Plateau. This study indicates that human beings have migrated to hinterland in the early Holocene, and evaluated the spacial and temporary population diffusion patterns in northeastern Tibetan Plateau: (1) human beings dominated the marginal regions with 3000-4000 m asl in northeastern Tibetan Platean, such as Qinghai Lake Basin and Gonghe Basin during the Last Deglaciation. (2) They expanded to the regions above 4000 m asl during the Early Holocene. (3) People diffused toward hinterland with higher elevation during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. The three stages of human migration and diffusion in the Tibetan Plateau are closely related to the improving climate conditions from the Last Deglaciation until the Holocene Climatic Optimum. {{custom_citation.content}}
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The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has become a valuable site for investigation of adaptive regimes of prehistoric humans to extreme environments. At present most studies have focused solely on a single site. Using a more integrated approach that covers the complete scope of the plateau is needed to better understand the expansion logic of prehistoric humans moving towards the plateau. Here, we conducted accelerator mass spectrometry C dating of two microlithic sites. Canxiongashuo (CXGS) and Shalongka (SLK), which are located at the inner and marginal areas of the QTP, respectively. By using geographic information system, literature, and natural environmental factors, we constructed a model for the relationship between traveling distance and time, and we also used these factors to construct a plateau environmental index. The results indicated that the ages of the CXGS and SLK sites are 8.4-7.5 cal. ka BP and 8.4-6.2 cal. ka BP, respectively. Combining the archaeological evidence and literature, hunter-gatherers may have seasonal migration activities at low altitude in winter and high altitude in summer in order to make full use of natural resources. Our model of relationship between traveling distance and time shows that hunter-gatherers in CXGS site was active on the plateau all year-round at approximately 8.3 cal. ka BP. According to EI and archaeological remains, we propose that SLK site was a winter camp of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Taken together, we determined 8.4-6.0 cal. ka BP as a transitional period from the Paleolithic to Neolithic Ages, and winter camps of hunter-gatherers evolved into settlements in the Neolithic Age.
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Microlithic artifacts, some found in situ, are abundant in the Zhongba archaeological site in southwestern Tibet. The site environment consists of extant wetlands and paleo‐wetland deposits found in depressions between sand dunes derived from the Yarlung Tsangpo floodplain. Constraining 14C dates from wetland vegetation and shell from one site fall between ca. 6600–2600 cal. yr B.P., while a second site is dated 3400–1200 cal. yr B.P. A significant and variable 14C reservoir effect—up to 1400 14C yr—limits these ranges to terminus post quem constraints. The in situ artifacts are supplemented by surface collections fully characterizing raw material and typological variability for each site. Raw material found at Zhongba is chert and chalcedony likely sourced from Cretaceous bedrock near the site. Typologically, microblades are nongeometric and are derived from conical and wedge‐shaped cores similar to those identified in the Qinghai Lake Basin and the Chang Tang Nature Reserve of similar or greater age. The later occupation period at Zhongba is broadly contemporaneous with sites on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau containing bronze and iron artifacts, indicating microlithic technology remained an important tool‐making strategy in western Tibet late into the protohistoric period.
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[78] |
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Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences IACASS, 1999. Qugong Site in Lhasa. Beijing: Encyclopedia of China Publishing House. (in Chinese)
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[81] |
A newly discovered site at Shangshan in the Lower Yangzi River region has revealed the oldest open-air sedentary village and domesticated rice in south China.
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[82] |
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[93] |
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[94] |
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[95] |
The permanent human settlement of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been suggested to have been facilitated by the introduction of barley agriculture ∼3.6 kilo-years ago (ka). However, how barley agriculture spread onto the TP remains unknown. Given that the lower altitudes in the northeastern TP were occupied by millet cultivators from 5.2 ka, who also adopted barley farming ∼4 ka, it is highly possible that it was millet farmers who brought barley agriculture onto the TP ∼3.6 ka. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 8277 Tibetans and 58 514 individuals from surrounding populations, including 682 newly sequenced whole mitogenomes. Multiple lines of evidence, together with radiocarbon dating of cereal remains at different elevations, supports the scenario that two haplogroups (M9a1a1c1b1a and A11a1a), which are common in contemporary Tibetans (20.9%) and were probably even more common (40–50%) in early Tibetans prior to historical immigrations to the TP, represent the genetic legacy of the Neolithic millet farmers. Both haplogroups originated in northern China between 10.0–6.0 ka and differentiated in the ancestors of modern Tibetans ∼5.2–4.0 ka, matching the dispersal history of millet farming. By showing that substantial genetic components in contemporary Tibetans can trace their ancestry back to the Neolithic millet farmers, our study reveals that millet farmers adopted and brought barley agriculture to the TP ∼3.6–3.3 ka, and made an important contribution to the Tibetan gene pool.
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[96] |
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[97] |
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[99] |
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[100] |
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[101] |
Archaeological research demonstrates that an agropastoral economy was established in Tibet during the second millennium BC, aided by the cultivation of barley introduced from South-western Asia. The exact cultural contexts of the emergence and development of agropastoralism in Tibet, however, remain obscure. Recent excavations at the site of Bangga provide new evidence for settled agropastoralism in central Tibet, demonstrating a material divergence from earlier archaeological cultures, possibly corresponding to the intensification of agropastoralism in the first millennium BC. The authors’ results depict a more dynamic system of subsistence in the first millennium BC, as the populations moved readily between distinct economic modes and combined them in a variety of innovative ways.
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[102] |
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[109] |
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[110] |
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[111] |
Current models of the peopling of the higher-elevation zones of the Tibetan Plateau postulate that permanent occupation could only have been facilitated by an agricultural lifeway at ~3.6 thousand calibrated carbon-14 years before present. Here we report a reanalysis of the chronology of the Chusang site, located on the central Tibetan Plateau at an elevation of ~4270 meters above sea level. The minimum age of the site is fixed at ~7.4 thousand years (thorium-230/uranium dating), with a maximum age between ~8.20 and 12.67 thousand calibrated carbon-14 years before present (carbon-14 assays). Travel cost modeling and archaeological data suggest that the site was part of an annual, permanent, preagricultural occupation of the central plateau. These findings challenge current models of the occupation of the Tibetan Plateau.Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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[112] |
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[113] |
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[114] |
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[115] |
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[116] |
Tibetans live on the highest plateau in the world, their current population size is approximately 5 million, and most of them live at an altitude exceeding 3,500 m. Therefore, the Tibetan Plateau is a remarkable area for cultural and biological studies of human population history. However, the chronological profile of the Tibetan Plateau's colonization remains an unsolved question of human prehistory. To reconstruct the prehistoric colonization and demographic history of modern humans on the Tibetan Plateau, we systematically sampled 6,109 Tibetan individuals from 41 geographic populations across the entire region of the Tibetan Plateau and analyzed the phylogeographic patterns of both paternal (n = 2,354) and maternal (n = 6,109) lineages as well as genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers (n = 50) in Tibetan populations. We found that there have been two distinct, major prehistoric migrations of modern humans into the Tibetan Plateau. The first migration was marked by ancient Tibetan genetic signatures dated to approximately 30,000 years ago, indicating that the initial peopling of the Tibetan Plateau by modern humans occurred during the Upper Paleolithic rather than Neolithic. We also found evidences for relatively young (only 7-10 thousand years old) shared Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplotypes between Tibetans and Han Chinese, suggesting a second wave of migration during the early Neolithic. Collectively, the genetic data indicate that Tibetans have been adapted to a high altitude environment since initial colonization of the Tibetan Plateau in the early Upper Paleolithic, before the last glacial maximum, followed by a rapid population expansion that coincided with the establishment of farming and yak pastoralism on the Plateau in the early Neolithic.
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[117] |
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[118] |
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[124] |
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[125] |
New Zealand's geographic isolation, lack of native terrestrial mammals, and Gondwanan origins make it an ideal location to study evolutionary processes. However, since the archipelago was first settled by humans 750 y ago, its unique biodiversity has been under pressure, and today an estimated 49% of the terrestrial avifauna is extinct. Current efforts to conserve the remaining fauna rely on a better understanding of the composition of past ecosystems, as well as the causes and timing of past extinctions. The exact temporal and spatial dynamics of New Zealand's extinct fauna, however, can be difficult to interpret, as only a small proportion of animals are preserved as morphologically identifiable fossils. Here, we conduct a large-scale genetic survey of subfossil bone assemblages to elucidate the impact of humans on the environment in New Zealand. By genetically identifying more than 5,000 nondiagnostic bone fragments from archaeological and paleontological sites, we reconstruct a rich faunal record of 110 species of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and marine mammals. We report evidence of five whale species rarely reported from New Zealand archaeological middens and characterize extinct lineages of leiopelmatid frog ( sp.) and kākāpō () haplotypes lost from the gene pool. Taken together, this molecular audit of New Zealand's subfossil record not only contributes to our understanding of past biodiversity and precontact Māori subsistence practices but also provides a more nuanced snapshot of anthropogenic impacts on native fauna after first human arrival.Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.
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[126] |
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[127] |
The Lund collection is one of the oldest subfossil collections in the world. The vast assemblage of subfossils was collected in the 1830s and 1840s by Peter Wilhelm Lund in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, and was shipped to Copenhagen in 1848, where it was stored in various locations around the city with little attention for the future preservation of the collection. So far, successful genetic research on the material collected by Lund has been limited to two samples of human petrous bone. However, less is known about the preservation conditions of the vast amounts of small and fragmentary bones stored in the collection. To address this, we studied ancient DNA from bulk bone samples of approximately 100 bone fragments from the P.W. Lund collection from boxes with varying degrees of physical preservation conditions. Using bulk bone metabarcoding, we found a high species diversity in all samples. In total, we identified 17 species, representing 11 mammals, two birds, one fish, and three frogs. Of these, two species are new to the collection. Collectively, these results exhibit the potential of future genetic studies on the famous P.W. Lund collection and suggest that the effects of poor storage conditions are probably negligible compared with the long-term in situ degradation that specimens undergo before excavation.© 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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[128] |
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Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, Administration of Cultural Relics of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Administration of Cultural Relics of Jinchuan County Archaeology, 2021. 2011 Excavation of Liujiazhai Site in Jinchuan County, Sichuan. Archaeology, (3): 16. (in Chinese)
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[132] |
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[133] |
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[134] |
Virtually all empirical ecological studies require species identification during data collection. DNA metabarcoding refers to the automated identification of multiple species from a single bulk sample containing entire organisms or from a single environmental sample containing degraded DNA (soil, water, faeces, etc.). It can be implemented for both modern and ancient environmental samples. The availability of next-generation sequencing platforms and the ecologists' need for high-throughput taxon identification have facilitated the emergence of DNA metabarcoding. The potential power of DNA metabarcoding as it is implemented today is limited mainly by its dependency on PCR and by the considerable investment needed to build comprehensive taxonomic reference libraries. Further developments associated with the impressive progress in DNA sequencing will eliminate the currently required DNA amplification step, and comprehensive taxonomic reference libraries composed of whole organellar genomes and repetitive ribosomal nuclear DNA can be built based on the well-curated DNA extract collections maintained by standardized barcoding initiatives. The near-term future of DNA metabarcoding has an enormous potential to boost data acquisition in biodiversity research.© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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[135] |
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[136] |
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Tibet Institute for Conservation and Research of Cultural Relics TICRCR, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Zada County Bureau of Culture, 2022. Brief report of 2017 annual archaeological excavation in Gebuseru Cemetery, Alizada County, Tibet. In: Li L H. Archaeological Research on Tibetan Cultural Relics (Series 4). Beijing: Science Press: 1-27.
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Tibetan Zoology Compilation Leading Group TZCLG, 2005. The Chorography of Tibet Autonomous Region:Fauna. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, 588. (in Chinese)
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[140] |
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[141] |
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[142] |
Seasonality determinations by growth ring analysis are provided for 112 marine fish vertebrae excavated from late Holocene archaeological sites in coastal south-east Queensland. These indicate that fishing was undertaken throughout the year. It is concluded that models of Late Holocene subsistence and settlement in this region which rely on an assumption of winter dominance in marine fish harvesting must be rejected. This has implications for models which relate seasonal resource gluts to forms of social complexity.
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[146] |
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[147] |
In this paper I seek to show how cultural niche construction theory offers the potential to extend the human evolutionary story beyond the Pleistocene, through the Neolithic, towards the kind of very large-scale societies in which we live today. The study of the human past has been compartmentalised, each compartment using different analytical vocabularies, so that their accounts are written in mutually incompatible languages. In recent years social, cognitive and cultural evolutionary theories, building on a growing body of archaeological evidence, have made substantial sense of the social and cultural evolution of the genus Homo. However, specialists in this field of studies have found it difficult to extend their kind of analysis into the Holocene human world. Within southwest Asia the three or four millennia of the Neolithic period at the beginning of the Holocene represents a pivotal point, which saw the transformation of human society in the emergence of the first large-scale, permanent communities, the domestication of plants and animals, and the establishment of effective farming economies. Following the Neolithic, the pace of human social, economic and cultural evolution continued to increase. By 5000 years ago, in parts of southwest Asia and northeast Africa there were very large-scale urban societies, and the first large-scale states (kingdoms). An extension of cultural niche construction theory enables us to extend the evolutionary narrative of the Pleistocene into the Holocene, opening the way to developing a single, long-term, evolutionary account of human history.
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[148] |
It is suggested that archaeologists would benefit by conceiving organizational variation in hunter-gatherer societies to be the result of both organization around resources and organization around other persons in social relations of production. This approach allows for predictions to be made about the patterning of material remains which are the products of intergroup and intragroup interaction, such as internal site structure, profiles of exchange, stylistic variation in artifacts, etc. To illustrate this point, I outline a number of social strategies for reducing risk in social and natural resources and derive hypotheses about their material correlates. While I emphasize the importance of understanding these strategies within a framework of adaptation, I question whether it is possible to predict strategies of organization from environmental variables alone.
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[157] |
At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children. We interpret this event as a deliberate artistic act that created a work of parietal art. The travertine unit on which the traces were imprinted dates to between ∼169 and 226 ka BP. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of parietal art in the world and would also provide the earliest evidence discovered to date for hominins on the High Tibetan Plateau (above 4000 m a.s.l.). This remarkable discovery adds to the body of research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists within the genus Homo.Copyright © 2021 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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[158] |
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[159] |
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[160] |
A late Middle Pleistocene mandible from Baishiya Karst Cave (BKC) on the Tibetan Plateau has been inferred to be from a Denisovan, an Asian hominin related to Neanderthals, on the basis of an amino acid substitution in its collagen. Here we describe the stratigraphy, chronology, and mitochondrial DNA extracted from the sediments in BKC. We recover Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from sediments deposited ~100 thousand and ~60 thousand years ago (ka) and possibly as recently as ~45 ka. The long-term occupation of BKC by Denisovans suggests that they may have adapted to life at high altitudes and may have contributed such adaptations to modern humans on the Tibetan Plateau.Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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[161] |
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[162] |
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[163] |
The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and one of the most demanding environments ever inhabited by humans. We investigated the timing and mechanisms of its initial colonization at the Nwya Devu site, located nearly 4600 meters above sea level. This site, dating from 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, is the highest Paleolithic archaeological site yet identified globally. Nwya Devu has yielded an abundant blade tool assemblage, indicating hitherto-unknown capacities for the survival of modern humans who camped in this environment. This site deepens the history of the peopling of the "roof of the world" and the antiquity of human high-altitude occupations more generally.Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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[164] |
With the advances in research of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the deep understanding of multi-disciplinary research, coupled with the progress of geographic big-data, earth observation science and technology, this research systematically discussed the principles, methods and basis for determining the boundaries of the TP. It analyzed the macro landform structures (plateau surface, low basin and deep-cut valley lowland on the edge of the TP) within the TP and the fundamental characteristics of the geographic units' composition in TP's surrounding areas. Based on the high resolution remote sensing images, DEM data and geomorphologic maps etc., the boundary of TP with a 1:1000000 scale is defined through a comparative study of geomorphological features with the support of Arcmap 10.5. The results show that the Tibetan Plateau stretches from the foot of the Himalayas in the south to the foot of the Kunlun Mountains and the Qilian Mountains in the north, with a total length of 1560 km. While it spans about 3360 km from the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Pamir Plateau in the west, to the eastern foot of Hengduan Mountains in the east. The TP, lying between 25°59′26″N-40°1′6″N and 67°40′37″E-104°40′43″E, covers a total area of 3083.44 × 103 km2, with an average altitude of 4320 m. Geographically, the TP is located in Southwest China and eight other countries including India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan. The TP in Chinese section has an area of 2580.90 × 10 3 km2, accounting for around 83.7% of the total area, with an average altitude of 4400 m. In China's part, the TP spans in six provincial-level regions: Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai province, Gansu province, Sichuan province, Yunnan province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Among them, the main parts of TAR and Qinghai are the major section of the TP, which accounted for 60.6% of the total area of the plateau. {{custom_citation.content}}
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[165] |
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[167] |
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[168] |
Due to its numerous environmental extremes, the Tibetan Plateau--the world's highest plateau--is one of the most challenging areas of modern human settlement. Archaeological evidence dates the earliest settlement on the plateau to the Late Paleolithic, while previous genetic studies have traced the colonization event(s) to no earlier than the Neolithic. To explore whether the genetic continuity on the plateau has an exclusively Neolithic time depth, we studied mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome variation within 6 regional Tibetan populations sampled from Tibet and neighboring areas. Our results confirm that the vast majority of Tibetan matrilineal components can trace their ancestry to Epipaleolithic and Neolithic immigrants from northern China during the mid-Holocene. Significantly, we also identified an infrequent novel haplogroup, M16, that branched off directly from the Eurasian M founder type. Its nearly exclusive distribution in Tibetan populations and ancient age (>21 kya) suggest that M16 may represent the genetic relics of the Late Paleolithic inhabitants on the plateau. This partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and the contemporary Tibetan populations bridges the results and inferences from archaeology, history, and genetics.
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