New evidence for human occupation of the northern Tibetan Plateau, China during the Late Pleistocene

Abstract

The described stone artifacts are recovered from the 70 m-high terrace (4600 m a.s.l.) at the southeastern shore of the Siling Co on the northern Tibetan Plateau. The terrace was formed during the Interstadial period before the LGM, ca. 40–30 ka B.P. based on paleoenvironmental research. The Paleoliths from the Siling Co provide evidence for early human occupation of the northern Tibetan Plateau. They show technological and typological affinities with the European Middle Paleolithic suggesting that the early human occupation here might relate to migratory waves during the Late Pleistocene that dispersed humans across the Old World.