scholarly journals Dating Human Settlement in the East-Central Tibetan Plateau during the Late Holocene

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
LeLe Ren ◽  
GuangHui Dong ◽  
HaiMing Li ◽  
Dave Rhode ◽  
Rowan K. Flad ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent multidisciplinary research indicates that prehistoric agriculture innovation promoted permanent human settlements of areas up to 3400 m above sea level (asl) in the northern Tibetan Plateau, but when and how ancient humans extensively occupied areas above that altitude remains uncertain. In this paper, we investigated 12 archaeological sites situated above 3600 m asl in the Yushu autonomous prefecture, east-central Tibetan Plateau, to explore this issue. We determined the ages of five sites using the radiocarbon (14C) dating method and identified animal bones sampled from three sites. The dating results show that humans occasionally occupied the Yushu area around 900 BC, and permanently inhabited the area between AD 540 and 1620. Preliminary faunal identifications indicate human-raised livestock including yak, sheep, and horse during the latter period. Stone-constructed tombs and rock painting were found at some investigated sites, suggesting humans perhaps engaged in a pastoral lifestyle during the very late Holocene in the high altitude Yushu area, where nomadic livestock production remains the current primary subsistence strategy focus.

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yandong Hou ◽  
Hao Long ◽  
Lei Gao ◽  
Ji Shen

AbstractLuminescence dating technology has been used for chronological constraints on lacustrine sediments due to the ubiquitous materials (e.g., quartz and feldspar) as dosimeters, and a relatively long dating range, compared with the commonly used radiocarbon dating method. However, quartz dating on the Tibetan Plateau may suffer from dim and unstable luminescence signals. In the current study, we investigate a lake-related outcrop from the shore of Cuoe Lake on the central Tibetan Plateau. Both coarse-grained quartz and K-feldspar fractions were extracted, and OSL and post-IR IRSL signals were measured from these fractions, respectively. Combining the stratigraphy analysis and dating results, this study shows that: (1) quartz appears to be unsuitable for dating because of very dim natural signals and even anomalous fading (average g-value: 4.30 ± 2.51 %/decade). The suitability of the applied pIRIR protocol measured at 150°C (pIRIR150) for K-feldspar samples was confirmed by a set of luminescence tests; (2) compared with the luminescence-based chronology, the 14C age of shells from the same sediment layer yielded older age by ~7 ka, which is likely attributed to hard water reservoir effect in Cuoe Lake; (3) the lake level reached its peak and maintained high-stand during the early Holocene (~9.4–7.1 ka). This study highlights the applicability of K-feldspar luminescence dating when the counterpart quartz OSL is insensitive and encounters anomalous fading.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Yao ◽  
K. Duan ◽  
B. Xu ◽  
N. Wang ◽  
X. Guo ◽  
...  

Abstract. Lack of reliable long-term precipitation record from the northern Tibetan Plateau has constrained our understanding of precipitation variations in this region. We drilled an ice core on the Puruogangri Ice Field in the central Tibetan Plateau in 2000 to reveal the precipitation variations. The well dated part of the core extends back to AD 1600, allowing us to construct a 400-year annual accumulation record. This record shows that the central Tibetan plateau experienced a drier period with an average annual precipitation of ~300 mm in the 19th century, compared to ~450 mm in the wetter periods during 1700–1780 and the 20th century. This pattern agrees with precipitation reconstructions from the Dunde and Guliya ice cores on the northern Plateau but differs from that found in the Dasuopu ice cores from the southern Plateau The north-south contrasts in precipitation reconstruction reveals difference in moisture origin between the south Tibetan Plateau dominated by the Asian monsoon and the north Tibetan Plateau dominated by the continental recycling and the westerlies.


The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1712-1719 ◽  
Author(s):  
E ChongYi ◽  
YongJuan Sun ◽  
XiangJun Liu ◽  
Guangliang Hou ◽  
ShunChang Lv ◽  
...  

Qinghai Lake is the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and in China and has been a focus of paleoenvironmental and climatic research for decades. However, limited understanding of lake 14C reservoir effects (LRE) has led to inconsistent interpretations among proxies of different sediment cores. As such, the onset of LRE variability during the Holocene is still unclear. 14C dating of archeological samples from four locations (Gangcha, Shaliuheqiaoxi, and Shinaihai sites, and Niaodao section) including naked carp ( Gymnocypris przewalskii, Kessler) fish bones, animal bones and teeth, and charcoal was employed to estimate variations in LRE over the last few thousand years. LRE offsets calculated as the difference between LRE of animal bones and fish bones are more reliable than that of charcoal and fish bones due to the ‘old wood’ effect in charcoal. LRE offsets recorded in fish bones were ~0.5, ~0.6, and ~0.7 ka during the periods of 3.0–3.4 cal ka BP, 0.58–0.60 cal ka BP, and modern lake times, respectively, which may indicate a temporal minimum LRE offset. Unlike the wide spatial variations of LRE ages obtained from surface total organic carbon (TOC) samples of the modern Qinghai Lake, LRE offsets from the three contemporaneous locations in Qinghai Lake were all ~0.5 ka, suggesting efficient carbon mixing occurred in naked carp. However, the late-Holocene (~3.1 ka BP) LRE increased slightly with increasing salinity and decreasing lake level.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 10251-10262 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Yu ◽  
L. Tian ◽  
Y. Ma ◽  
B. Xu ◽  
D. Qu

Abstract. This study investigated daily δ18O variations of water vapour (δ18Ov) and precipitation (δ18Op) simultaneously at Nagqu on the central Tibetan Plateau for the first time. Data show that the δ18O tendencies of water vapour coincide strongly with those of associated precipitation. The δ18O values of precipitation affect those of water vapour not only on the same day, but also for the following several days. In comparison, the δ18O values of local water vapour may only partly contribute to those of precipitation. During the entire sampling period, the variations of δ18Ov and δ18Op at Nagqu did not appear dependent on temperature, but did seem significantly dependent on the joint contributions of relative humidity, pressure, and precipitation amount. In addition, the δ18O changes in water vapour and precipitation can be used to diagnose different moisture sources, especially the influences of the Indian monsoon and convection. Moreover, intense activities of the Indian monsoon and convection may cause the relative enrichment of δ18Op relative to δ18Ov at Nagqu (on the central Tibetan Plateau) to differ from that at other stations on the northern Tibetan Plateau. These results indicate that the effects of different moisture sources, including the Indian monsoon and convection currents, need be considered when attempting to interpret paleoclimatic records on the central Tibetan Plateau.


2013 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxin He ◽  
Cheng Zhao ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Huanye Wang ◽  
Mu Song ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 333 ◽  
pp. 40-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Ching Cheung ◽  
Yongqiang Zong ◽  
Zhuo Zheng ◽  
Kangyou Huang ◽  
Jonathan C. Aitchison

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Luo ◽  
Zhongping Lai ◽  
Wenhao Zheng ◽  
Yantian Xu ◽  
Lupeng Yu ◽  
...  

When and how was the Tibetan Plateau (TP), one of the least habitable regions on Earth, occupied by humans are important questions in the research of human evolution. Among tens of Paleolithic archaeological sites discovered over the past decades, only five are considered coeval with or older than the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ∼27–19 ka). As one of them, the Siling Co site in the central TP was previously announced to be ∼40–30 ka based on radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic correlation. Given the loose chronological constraint in previous studies, we here re-examined the chronology of the Siling Co site with the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating technique. Four sections from the paleo-shoreline at an elevation of ∼4,600 m in southeastern Siling Co were investigated, with stone artifacts found from the ground surface. Dating results of nine samples delineated the age of ∼4,600 m paleo-shoreline to be ∼10–7 ka (∼8.54 ± 0.21 ka in average). This age indicates that the Siling Co site is not earlier than the early Holocene, much younger than the former age. The revised age of the Siling Co site is consistent with the wet and humid climate conditions on the TP during the early Holocene.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Yao ◽  
K. Duan ◽  
B. Xu ◽  
N. Wang ◽  
X. Guo ◽  
...  

Abstract. Lack of reliable long-term precipitation record from northern Tibetan Plateau has constrained the understanding of precipitation variation in this region. An ice core drilled from the Puruogangri Ice Field on central Tibetan Plateau in the year 2000 helped reveal the precipitation variations since AD 1600. Analysis of the annual accumulation data presented precipitation changes from AD 1600, indicative of wet and dry periods in the past 400 year in the central Tibetan Plateau. Accordingly, the 18th and 20th centuries experienced high precipitation period, whilst the 19th century experienced low precipitation period. Such a feature was consistent with precipitation recorded in ice cores from Dunde and Guliya Glaciers, northern Tibetan Plateau. Besides, the results also pointed to consistency in precipitation-temperature correlation on the northern Tibetan Plateau, in a way that temperature and precipitation were positively correlated. But this feature was contrary to the relationship revealed from Dasuopu ice cores, southern Tibetan Plateau, where temperature and precipitation were negatively correlated. The north-south contrast in precipitation amount and its relationship with temperature may shed light on the reconstruction of Asian monsoon since AD 1600.


2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 1053-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
YuXin He ◽  
WeiGuo Liu ◽  
Cheng Zhao ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
HuanYe Wang ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document