The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records

Despite its seemingly impossible topography, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays host to some of the highest known settlements anywhere in the world today. Yet, impressively, archaeological records indicate that Tibetans have long dwelt amidst the hypoxia-inducing elevations atop the TP. The early peopl...

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Main Author: Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani
Other Authors: Ivy Yeh
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174345
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author Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani
author2 Ivy Yeh
author_facet Ivy Yeh
Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani
author_sort Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani
collection NTU
description Despite its seemingly impossible topography, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays host to some of the highest known settlements anywhere in the world today. Yet, impressively, archaeological records indicate that Tibetans have long dwelt amidst the hypoxia-inducing elevations atop the TP. The early peopling of the TP therefore stands to contribute much towards our understanding of prehistoric human migrations and hence constitutes an exciting frontier for historical research. This interdisciplinary study argues that while Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) may have first reached the TP sometime preceding the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), it is more so likely that permanent colonisation of the high-altitude regions of the TP was only achieved after the fact -- possibly during the time of the Tibetan-Han population divergence between 15,000 years and 9,000 years B.P. This would likely be enabled by an amalgamation of instrumental factors such as the general increase in temperature within the higher reaches of the TP following the end of the LGM, the subsequent spread of agriculture across the plateau and possible gene introgression events between extant archaic hominins based in the TP and AMH that granted the latter the necessary genetic prerequisites to code for vital high-altitude and hypoxia-resistant adaptations.
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spelling ntu-10356/1743452024-03-30T16:56:00Z The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani Ivy Yeh School of Humanities hyyeh@ntu.edu.sg Arts and Humanities History Prehistory Tibet Tibetan Plateau Archaeology Despite its seemingly impossible topography, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays host to some of the highest known settlements anywhere in the world today. Yet, impressively, archaeological records indicate that Tibetans have long dwelt amidst the hypoxia-inducing elevations atop the TP. The early peopling of the TP therefore stands to contribute much towards our understanding of prehistoric human migrations and hence constitutes an exciting frontier for historical research. This interdisciplinary study argues that while Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) may have first reached the TP sometime preceding the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), it is more so likely that permanent colonisation of the high-altitude regions of the TP was only achieved after the fact -- possibly during the time of the Tibetan-Han population divergence between 15,000 years and 9,000 years B.P. This would likely be enabled by an amalgamation of instrumental factors such as the general increase in temperature within the higher reaches of the TP following the end of the LGM, the subsequent spread of agriculture across the plateau and possible gene introgression events between extant archaic hominins based in the TP and AMH that granted the latter the necessary genetic prerequisites to code for vital high-altitude and hypoxia-resistant adaptations. Bachelor's degree 2024-03-27T01:02:04Z 2024-03-27T01:02:04Z 2024 Final Year Project (FYP) Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani (2024). The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174345 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174345 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
spellingShingle Arts and Humanities
History
Prehistory
Tibet
Tibetan Plateau
Archaeology
Jegateesh S/O Gynasigamani
The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title_full The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title_fullStr The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title_full_unstemmed The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title_short The history of the peopling of the "Roof of the World": understanding the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau through archaeological records
title_sort history of the peopling of the roof of the world understanding the early occupation of the tibetan plateau through archaeological records
topic Arts and Humanities
History
Prehistory
Tibet
Tibetan Plateau
Archaeology
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174345
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