Lake-centred sedentary lifestyle of early Tibetan Plateau Indigenous populations at high elevation 4,400 years ago

Xiaoyan Yang; Yu Gao; Shargan Wangdue; Jingkun Ran; Qing Wang; Songtao Chen; Jishuai Yang; Tianyi Wang; Zhengquan Gu; Ying Zhang; Peng Cao; Qingyan Dai; Shungang Chen; Yan Tong; Nihanxue Jia; Qingli Sun; Yunzhe Huang; Linda Perry; Jade d'Alpoim Guedes; Xu Han; Feng Liu; Xiaotian Feng; Qi Yang; Yunming Wang; Shihua Hu; Yaofei Tian; Jianglong Guo; Xinwei Liang; Ting You; Yazhong Li; Yunan Zhang; Zhenhua Deng; Ling Qin; Xiaohong Wu; Yijie Zhuang; Yichen Liu; Qiaomei Fu; Fahu Chen

doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02539-w

Lake-centred sedentary lifestyle of early Tibetan Plateau Indigenous populations at high elevation 4,400 years ago

Nat Ecol Evol. 2024 Dec;8(12):2297-2308. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02539-w. Epub 2024 Sep 16.

Authors

Xiaoyan Yang^#^{1

2}, Yu Gao^#³, Shargan Wangdue^#⁴, Jingkun Ran^#^{3

5

6}, Qing Wang^#^{3

6}, Songtao Chen^#^{3

7}, Jishuai Yang^#^{8

3}, Tianyi Wang^#^{5

6}, Zhengquan Gu³, Ying Zhang^{3

7}, Peng Cao⁵, Qingyan Dai⁵, Shungang Chen^{3

6}, Yan Tong⁹, Nihanxue Jia¹⁰, Qingli Sun^{3

11}, Yunzhe Huang^{3

6}, Linda Perry¹², Jade d'Alpoim Guedes¹³, Xu Han^{3

6}, Feng Liu⁵, Xiaotian Feng⁵, Qi Yang^{3

6}, Yunming Wang^{3

6}, Shihua Hu^{3

6}, Yaofei Tian⁸, Jianglong Guo⁸, Xinwei Liang^{3

6}, Ting You⁸, Yazhong Li⁹, Yunan Zhang^{3

10}, Zhenhua Deng¹⁰, Ling Qin¹⁰, Xiaohong Wu¹⁰, Yijie Zhuang¹⁴, Yichen Liu¹⁵, Qiaomei Fu¹⁶, Fahu Chen^{17

18

19}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Key Scientific Research Base of Bioarchaeology in Cold and Arid Regions (National Cultural Heritage Administration), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. [email protected].
² Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. [email protected].
³ Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Tibetan Institute of the Preservation of Cultural Relics, Lhasa, China. [email protected].
⁵ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁶ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁷ National Centre for Archaeology, Beijing, China.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Key Scientific Research Base of Bioarchaeology in Cold and Arid Regions (National Cultural Heritage Administration), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁹ Tibetan Institute of the Preservation of Cultural Relics, Lhasa, China.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Archaeological Science (Ministry of Education), School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
¹¹ Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hangzhou, China.
¹² The Foundation for Archaeobotanical Research in Microfossils, Fairfax, VA, USA.
¹³ Department, of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁴ Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK.
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. [email protected].
¹⁶ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. [email protected].
¹⁷ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Key Scientific Research Base of Bioarchaeology in Cold and Arid Regions (National Cultural Heritage Administration), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. [email protected].
¹⁸ Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. [email protected].
¹⁹ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39284921
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02539-w

Abstract

The onset of sedentism on the Tibetan Plateau is often presumed to be associated with the dispersal of agriculture or farmers from archaeological sites located in the low elevation margins of the plateau. Previous studies of the plateau assumed that all foragers were probably mobile, but few systematic excavations at forager sites have been conducted to inform us about their settlement patterns. Here we report the world's highest elevation sedentary way of living exhibited by the Mabu Co site at 4,446 metres above sea level, deep in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau 4,400-4,000 years ago. Our interdisciplinary study indicates that the site was occupied by Indigenous inhabitants of the plateau, representing the earliest known DNA evidence of foragers who predominantly harbour the southern plateau ancestry. The evidence shows that they had a sedentary lifestyle primarily supported by fishing at nearby lakes, supplemented by mammal and bird hunting, as well as small-scale exchanges of millet and rice crops.

Publication types

Historical Article

MeSH terms

Altitude
Animals
Archaeology*
History, Ancient
Humans
Indigenous Peoples
Lakes
Sedentary Behavior*
Tibet