The hinterland of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, reputed as the "roof of the world" or the world's third pole, has been inhabited since 50,000 years ago, rather than 40,000 years as previously
Archaeologists from the Xizang Regional Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have carried out six years of excavation at the Melong Tagphug cave site in Ngari Prefecture, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
Archaeologists have unearthed more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics, including stone, bone, pottery, bronze artifacts, and plant remains dating from the Paleolithic Age to the early Metal Ages in an area of over 1,000 square meters of the cave, which is located on a massif 4,700 meters above the sea level.
Zhang Xiaoling with the IVPP said the oldest cultural remains in the cave are dated earlier than 53,000 years ago and may even be as early as 80,000 years ago. The top layer was dated 1,000 years ago.
There are rock paintings of vertical stripes and human figures painted in red ochre inside the cave.
According to the study, the cave had been deserted due to climatic factors or cave collapses, before it was inhabited again in the later period. Multi-period cultural remains were discovered in the cave, which provide important pieces of evidence of ancient humans exploring survival abilities in the extreme high-altitude environment, showing their migration patterns and social organization forms.
