(TibetanReview.net, Mar17’25) – Recent findings have belied scientific assumptions thus far that humans could not have survived on the Tibetan Plateau during the globe’s last glacial maximum, reported the ndtv.com Mar 17, citing the New Scientist. The report said researchers have unearthed 427 artefacts, including stone tools and the first ochre pieces – the red-coloured rock used in ancient art – ever discovered in Tibet.
Ancient humans survived on the plateau – the highest on Earth – during the coldest period of the past 2.5 million years, showcasing their remarkable resilience and adaptability, the report said.
The last glacial maximum, which lasted from 26,500 to 19,000 years ago, was the most severe phase of the Late Pleistocene ice age. During this period, massive ice sheets and polar ice caps covered large portions of the Earth, while global temperatures remained approximately 4 degrees Celsius to 5 degrees Celsius lower than today’s average, the New Scientist report was cited as saying.
“The Tibetan Plateau was previously thought to be uninhabitable during the last glacial maximum,” Wenli Li, from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, has said. “Extreme cold, sparse vegetation and low oxygen levels at high altitudes made survival incredibly difficult.”
The report said that while evidence had shown that humans lived on the plateau before and after the last glacial maximum, no signs of occupation during this period had been found – until now. In 2019, Li and her team uncovered a site 3,800 meters above sea level in the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley on the southern Tibetan Plateau. The site contained numerous artefacts indicating human habitation.
Radiocarbon dating of ancient bones and charcoal from the site was stated to have revealed three distinct periods of human occupation between 29,200 and 23,100 years ago. Two of these periods, around 25,000 and 23,000 years ago, coincide with the last glacial maximum.
“No archaeological site had previously been dated to this period,” Feng He of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the study, has said. “This discovery reinforces the idea that early humans were highly resilient and adaptable to extreme conditions.”
To better understand the environment during these occupations, researchers were stated to have analyzed nearby stalagmites (thin piece of rocks pointing upwards from the floor of a cave) and lake cores, which provide climate data through their chemical composition. Their findings suggest that the river valley had more moisture than expected for the harshly dry ice age in Tibet, allowing cold-tolerant plants and herbivores to persist.
“The valley likely provided essential resources – water, vegetation, and game needed for survival,” Li has said.
Stone tools found at the site resemble those from older sites farther north in the plateau’s interior, suggesting that as the climate became colder and drier, people migrated into the river valley, Li has explained.
Previous research proposed that river valleys on the southern Tibetan Plateau may have served as refuges for Tibetans escaping the intensifying cold of the last glacial maximum, He has said. “It’s satisfying to see that this discovery supports that hypothesis.”
Li and her team plan to further investigate how climatic shifts during the last glacial maximum influenced human occupation and migration at the site, which they have named Pengbuwuqing after a nearby hill, the report said.