The Environmental Archaeology Team of Lanzhou University (EAT) has made important achievements in the study of the coexisting patterns of different late neolithic populations on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. This research was jointly completed by Lanzhou University, University of California, San Diego, Harvard University, Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the past decade, important advances have been made in the study of the process and dynamics of prehistoric human dispersal to the Tibetan Plateau.Research by the EAT showed that the earliest human activities on the Tibetan Plateau can be traced back to about 160,000 years ago. Based on a comprehensive analysis of numerous evidence, this study concluded that millet crops consumed by the ancestors of the Zongri were mainly obtained through barter exchange with the Majiayao Culture in the adjacent region, andthe "protein-carbohydrate" exchange pattern ensured the coexistence between the hunter-based ancestors of the Zongri and the millet agriculture-based ancestors of the Majiayao Culture in the late neolithic age.
On March 30, the EAT published their latest research result entitled “Foraging and farming: archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence for Neolithic exchange on the Tibetan Plateau” in the international archaeological periodical Antiquity. Dr. Ren Lele, a young teacher from the School of History and Culture of Lanzhou University, is the first author of the article and Prof. Dong Guanghui of the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Dr. Jade d’Alpoim-Guedes of the University of California, San Diego, USA, are co-corresponding authors.
This research is advanced by in-depth international cooperation promoted by academic debate. The EAT published the research result of “Agricultural technology innovation to promote the permanent settlement of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by human beings 3,600 years ago in the journal Science in 2015. Dr. Jade d’Alpoim-Guedes raised doubted with different views and the EAT responded to that. The academic debate brought the two parties closer in this study and substantial scientific research cooperation was carried out thereafter.The research result published in the journal Antiquity, Prof. Dong Guanghui and Dr. Jade d'Alpoim-Guedes as co-corresponding authors, showed that the cooperation between the two sides is continuously achieving positive results.
