All,
Most, if not all the existing models that are used to explain/describe early and not-so-early human dispersals across Eurasia and into the New World are, in many ways amazingly, biogeographically parsimonious [understatement mine] in that they systematically favour both low latitudes and altitudes environments. Fortunately, such scientifically simplistic, "looking-for-the-keys-where-the-proper-kind-of-light-happens-to-fall" approaches are now being seriously challenged and, hopefully, soon to be disposed of, thanks to an increasingly large number of data points that are steadily emerging from the high latitude regions of Europe and Asia and, now, as shown by the following summary of a recent paper by Branthingham & al. (see below) that deals with large and rather elevated areas of Central Asia.
High-Altitude Archaeology - Colonization of the Tibetan PlateauAnthropological Currents - CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 45(3), June 2004.
Living at high elevations confronts human populations with unique challenges such as severe cold and wind, lower oxygen levels, limited resources, and physiological risks including increased nutritional needs, diminished work capacity, and reduced fertility. How prehistoric populations adapted to extreme conditions is addressed by P. Jeffrey Brantingham and colleagues (Chinese Science Bulletin 48 [2003]) in their work on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. With a mean elevation of 4,000 m above sea level, this harsh, barren landscape is the largest continuous high-elevation environment in the world, covering 1.25 km2 of China and Tibet. Although the area is currently inhabited primarily by nomadic pastoralists, this work suggests that other adaptive strategies are possible. The authors posit that Plateau migration developed in steps coinciding with major paleoclimatic shifts. Previous to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 22,000–18,000 years ago, the surrounding lowlands were inhabited by highly mobile hunter-gatherers who ventured into mid elevations. During the LGM conditions became cooler and more arid and resources patchier, and survival was impossible without a fundamental shift in foraging strategy. High elevations were exploited first seasonally and then permanently, and organized seasonal resource exploitation occurred at varying elevations. This pattern persisted after the LGM: two stratified sites with AMS-dated hearths include evidence of longer-term occupations. This work has great significance for the study of the pacing of human adaptations to extreme environments.
S. TUSHINGHAM
Here is the info on the actual paper as well as the accompanying list of references cited:
Brantingham, P. J., MA Haizhou, J. W. Olsen, GAO Xing,
D. B. Madsen, and D. E. Rhode. 2003. Speculation on the timing and nature of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer colonization of the Tibetan Plateau. Chinese Science Bulletin 48(14): 1510-1516.
Abstract:
Hunter-gatherer populations in greater northeast Asia experienced dramatic range expansions during the early Upper Paleolithic (45—22 ka) and the late Upper Paleolithic (18—10 ka), both of which led to intensive occupations of cold desert environments including the Mongolian Gobi and northwest China. Range contractions under the cold, arid extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 22—18 ka) may have entailed widespread population extirpations. The high elevation Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is significantly more extreme in both climate and environment than either the Gobi or the Siberian taiga forests, and provides an ideal setting to test fundamental models of human biogeography in the context of regional population fluctuations. The area is presently occupied primarily by nomadic pastoralists, but it is clear that these complex middle Holocene (<6 ka) economic adaptations were not a necessary prerequisite for successful colonization of the high elevation Plateau. Exploratory field-work in 2000—2001 has established that Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were present on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by at least 12 ka and possibly much earlier. A speculative model for the colonization process is developed and preliminary archaeological data in support of the model are presented.
Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, late Pleistocene, climate change, China.
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Jacques Cinq-Mars
