Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

Dongju Zhang; Naimeng Zhang; Jian Wang; Bibu Ha; Guanghui Dong; Fahu Chen

doi:10.1126/science.aam8273

Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

Science. 2017 Aug 11;357(6351):eaam8273. doi: 10.1126/science.aam8273.

Authors

Dongju Zhang¹, Naimeng Zhang², Jian Wang², Bibu Ha³, Guanghui Dong², Fahu Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China. djzhang@lzu.edu.cn fhchen@lzu.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
³ Tibetan Cultural Relic Conservation Institute, Lhasa 850000, China.

PMID: 28798102
DOI: 10.1126/science.aam8273

Abstract

Meyer et al (Reports, 6 January 2017, p. 64) claim that permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau started in the early Holocene without the support of an agropastoral economy. By careful examination, we find that neither the archaeological evidence nor the travel cost modeling provided by Meyer et al could support the permanent human occupation assertion.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Archaeology*
Humans
Occupations*
Tibet