Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau

c. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago·Exploration & colonisation·Tibetan Plateau (China)·

c. 40,000 – 30,000 years agoDate

Exploration & colonisationCategory

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Date: c. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago
Category: Exploration & colonisation
Region: Tibetan Plateau (China)
Era: Prehistory
Significance

The open-air site of Nwya Devu, located about 4,600 metres above sea level on the central Tibetan Plateau, documents the earliest secure human presence in such an extreme high-altitude environment.

Dated to between roughly 40,000 and 30,000 years ago, it is the highest known Palaeolithic site in the world and has yielded more than 3,600 stone artefacts, including a distinctive blade-based toolkit. Surviving at this elevation meant coping with intense cold, low oxygen and a short growing season, demonstrating the remarkable adaptive flexibility of early modern humans. The plateau is also central to the story of archaic-modern human interaction: Denisovans occupied Baishiya Karst Cave at lower elevations as early as 160,000 years ago, and present-day Tibetans carry an EPAS1 gene variant inherited from Denisovans that aids high-altitude breathing. Nwya Devu thus links the deep Denisovan past of the region with the eventual permanent human colonisation of the 'roof of the world'.

See the world map in c. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago →More exploration & colonisation The Prehistory era

Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau

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Further reading

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present

Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau

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Further reading

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present