The archaeology of human permanency on the Tibetan plateau: a critical review and assessment of current models

Abstract

High-elevation (>2500 m a.s.l.) environments pose severe challenges for human adaptation, and the timing and catalysts of their sustained year-round occupation remain a matter of debate. This article reviews recent archaeological and genetic research on the peopling of the Tibetan Plateau, and presents the results of new least cost path modeling. It is argued that permanent occupation by foragers before the Holocene was possible and that the concept of “permanency” needs clarification. Evidence for the persistence of indigenous populations and traditional foraging economies after the introduction of domesticates further suggests that diffusionist views treating the Plateau's indigenous societies as passive recipients of memes and genes should be abandoned. The diverse topographies, ecosystems, and cultural traditions found within and surrounding the Plateau hold potential for having offered multiple pathways to food production and attendant societal interactions. Recent discoveries from the Gebusailu Cemetery suggest that such potential is particularly high for the western Plateau given its biographic extremity and pivotal position between complex polities in Central and northeast South Asia. Through comparison with archaeological materials from the Ethiopian Highlands and Andean Altiplano, it is further suggested that hunter-gatherers sustained year-round occupations in the Plateau's interior during the Pleistocene and early Holocene, and that the emergence of domestication played a significant role in promoting the large-scale peopling of high-altitudes. Long-term interactions between indigenous peoples and newcomers contributed to the formation of Plateau civilizations.