The Xujiayao site, located in the western part of the Nihewan Basin, Hebei Province, northern China, has yielded 21 pieces of archaic hominin fossils in association with numerous stone artifacts and mammalian remains. The Xujiayao hominin remains were recently used to define a new species Homo juluensis, representing a series of fossils, such as the Xuchang, Xiahe, Penghu, Tam Ngu Hao 2, and Denisova remains. Different dating methods have been used to estimate the age of the Xujiayao hominin remains since the 1970s when the site was originally discovered. Unfortunately, the proposed ages vary in a wide range, from the middle Middle Pleistocene to the late Late Pleistocene. To refine the age of this site, we present a new dating study using both U-series and coupled ESR/U-series dating methods. Direct U-series dating on five of the Xujiayao hominin fossils provided minimum ages ranging from similar to 100 to 200 ka, which are further confined by the Diffusion - Adsorption - Decay (DAD) model ages of 172 +/- 3 ka and 195 +/- 5 ka, and the coupled ESR/U-series ages ranging from 144 +/- 10 to 211 +/- 12 ka, obtained on the associated faunal remains. These new dates were integrated with some of previously published dating results by a Bayesian age model, demonstrating that the Xujiayao upper cultural layer, in which were recovered the hominin fossils, can be constrained between 138 +/- 10 ka and 199 +/- 8 ka, and the lower cultural layer between 205 +/- 8 ka to 228 +/- 17 ka, placing the hominin occupation in a period covering the marine isotope stages 7 and 6.

Earth’s climate has experienced abrupt millennial-scale climate variability (MCV) at least since the early Pleistocene, yet their evolution and drivers remain elusive. A 3.5-million-year decadal-to-centennial-resolved lake sediment sequence from the monsoonal Tibetan Plateau reveals a stepped evolution of MCV that differs in detail from that of North Atlantic records. Lithological and pollen changes show precursor millennial events during the interval ~ 3.5-2.7 million years ago (Ma), with the onset of multiple events at ~ 2.8 Ma. From ~ 2.7 Ma, MCV became a permanent feature of glacial periods, intensifying after ~ 1.5 Ma and extending over both glacial and interglacial periods. The embedded astronomical frequencies of MCV and their persistent linkage with precession indicate a tropical insolation origin, driven by changes in the latitudinal temperature gradient and propagated to the Tibetan Plateau via monsoonal circulation. These findings highlight that both tropical forcing and high-latitude ice-dynamic mechanisms should be considered as “dual engines” of MCV. A 3.5-million-year lacustrine record from the Tibetan Plateau reveals a detailed evolution of millennial-scale monsoon variability that differs in detail from that of North Atlantic records, pointing to the influence of tropical insolation changes.

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most challenging environments inhabited by humans, where high elevation, rugged terrain, hypobaric hypoxia, cold temperatures, and strong seasonality impose significant constraints on human mobility and long-term settlement. We present a comprehensive study of the assemblage from Nwya Devu site to examine lithic production strategies and their implications for understanding human dispersal and occupation of the interior of the Tibetan Plateau during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3). Our results indicate that lithic production at Nwya Devu reflects a genuine Upper Paleolithic blade system with relatively low technological investment and features consistent with a lithic workshop located near local raw material sources. From a regional perspective, Nwya Devu is a rare, excavated Upper Paleolithic blade assemblage that, alongside the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) documented at Shuidonggou in North China, shows a general technological affinity with the blade-based industries widespread across the cold habitats of the Eurasian Steppe. However, the Nwya Devu blade assemblage lacks the major diagnostic features characteristic of the IUP industries at Shuidonggou and other typical northern IUP sites. This divergence may represent a regionally modified IUP variant, resulting from long-distance transmission and/or incomplete preservation of the full technological repertoire at a workshop site. Alternatively, Nwya Devu may reflect a separate dispersal of blade technology and its associated human populations from northern Asia into East Asia. Overall, these findings contribute new archaeological evidence regarding technological dispersal and human expansion, potentially by Homo sapiens, into the high-altitude environments of the Tibetan Plateau during MIS 3.

The scarcity of paleoclimate records during MIS 3-2 in NE China limits the understanding of hydroclimate history on the orbital timescale in EAM region. This study presents new phytolith and grain size evidence from the Dadong area spanning the MIS 3-2 period, which shows the typical climate change pattern of “warm-humid/cold-dry” in EAM region. Combined with multiple records from NE China, it is found that the MIS 3 was wetter than MIS 2, with the MIS 3c and 3a being wetter than 3b. The LGM has the driest environment, while the subsequent Last Deglaciation witnessed an increase in regional humidity. Meanwhile, exceptional wet conditions emerged in some areas during MIS 3b and 3a, and the spatial extent of these areas during the latter was larger than the former. The coupling of NHSI and high-latitude ice sheets was responsible for the orbital-scale humidity variations. The exceptional wet conditions during MIS 3b and 3a may mainly result from strong ice-albedo feedback, which caused the precipitation being less offset by evaporation; the further ice sheet enlargement during MIS 3a amplified temperature gradients, causing the area with exceptionally wet conditions to expand markedly. During the other periods, however, the evaporation played a limited role and the humidity variations conformed to the typical climate pattern. This study provides new insights into the hydroclimate variability in NE China and its relationship with the global forcings, which is beneficial for the explanation of mechanisms behind climate evolution in this region.

At the Lushan Xianrendong (XRD-I) cave site in Henan Province, Central China, the discovery of an early modern human cranium, along with faunal remains and lithic tools, has been reported. Uranium-series dating and radiocarbon results place the fossils at approximately 40,000–30,000 cal BP. In this study, we collected sequential sediment samples and micromorphological blocks to investigate the formation processes of the cave. Our analysis suggests that the cave was too wet to inhabit during the initial stages of its formation. Animals began to appear in the cave only during drier periods, starting around 100 ka BP. By approximately 70 ka BP, the presence of lithic debris suggests early human activities. Although strata 1 and 2 was disturbed by pedogenesis and bioturbation, the lower layer (stratum 5) may have preserved in-situ evidence of early modern human activities around 70 ka BP.

Drylands, the most climate-sensitive terrestrial regions, currently support more than 38% of the world's population. Understanding long-term population responses to climate change in and around these areas provides critical insights for anticipating future societal challenges. We integrate radiocarbon-dated archaeological records, simulated climatic data, the Minimum Terrestrial Resource Model (MTRM), and pollen-based vegetation reconstructions to examine spatiotemporal variations in dryland boundary, population distribution, potential hunter-gatherer density, and plant and animal resource densities in East Asia at four key periods since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (20-19 ka, 15-14 ka, 10-9 ka, and 6-5 ka). From 20-19 ka to 15-14 ka, continued warming and humidification drove a northwestward retreat of the dryland boundary, sustained steppe ecosystems, and increased wild animal food resource richness, fostering population growth and expansion. From 15-14 ka to 6-5 ka, continued climatic amelioration promoted a vegetation transition from steppe to forest in marginal areas of the dryland, decreasing wild animal resource availability and shifting population centers toward more humid regions in the southeast. This ecological transformation coincided with the emergence and intensification of agriculture. These results demonstrate a cascading mechanism in which climate change reshaped vegetation cover and food resource distribution, driving human adaptation and long-term shifts in population geography.

Evidence of Early and Middle Pleistocene wooden implements is exceptionally rare, and existing evidence has been found only in Africa and western Eurasia. We report an assemblage of 35 wooden implements from the site of Gantangqing in southwestern China, which was found associated with stone tools, antler billets (soft hammers), and cut-marked bones and is dated from ~361,000 to ~250,000 years at a 95% confidence interval. The wooden implements include digging sticks and small, complete, hand-held pointed tools. The sophistication of many of these tools offsets the seemingly "primitive" aspects of stone tool assemblages in the East Asian Early Paleolithic. This discovery suggests that wooden implements might have played an important role in hominin survival and adaptation in Middle Pleistocene East Asia.

The Tibetan Plateau supports the largest alpine meadow ecosystem globally. It is considered extremely vulnerable to global warming. Knowledge of past vegetation dynamics under similarly warm climates could shed insights into where the tipping point for regime shifts may lie. We report a continuous multicentennial-resolved pollen record for the last 3.5 Myr from a lake sediment core retrieved from the Zoige Basin (~3,350-3,450 m above sea level) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. It reveals a detailed picture of the vegetation dynamics across several timescales using the approaches of biomization, numerical analysis, statistical modelling and vegetation simulations. These lines of evidence show that vegetation underwent transformation from stable forest in the mid-late Pliocene Period (3.5-2.73 million years ago (Ma)) to codominance of forest and steppe in the early Quaternary Period (2.73-1.54 Ma) and to a meadow-dominated ecosystem after ~1.54 Ma, along with glacial-interglacial and millennial-scale grassland-forest shifts. These vegetational changes were largely controlled by temperature change. A global warming of ~2-3 °C is the most important threshold for the forest expansion and meadow resilience loss on the Tibetan Plateau. By analogy to the past, we suggest that, without major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the current Tibetan Plateau meadow is at risk of major transformation.

Seismogenic structures and sequences preserved in sediments are important archives of paleo-seismic events and regional tectonism. However, investigations of such features have been limited in pre-Quaternary aeolian deposits. Here sedimentological analysis of the 8.3–7.0 Ma interval in Neogene aeolian deposits in the Xihe Basin, western Qinling Mountains, identified multiple layers characterized by abrupt inputs of sandy gravels. These gravel clasts were derived from bedrock in piedmont zones and exhibit subaerial depositional features without significant involvement of flowing water, suggesting earthquake-triggered collapse and landslide due to active tectonism. At least eight paleo-seismic events were identified in the section, which can be clustered into six seismic episodes that occurred predominantly in two stages (8.3–8.0 and 7.6–7.0 Ma). This paleo-seismic record indicates that the western Qinling Mountains experienced a tectonically active phase during 8.3–7.0 Ma in response to the expansion and uplift of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, which occurred in a two-stage, multiepisode deformation process. The well-preserved aeolian sequences with minimal erosion and deformation imply that there were no significant changes in topography due to uplift in the western Qinling Mountains during this period. Our findings highlight the significance of aeolian deposits in reconstructing paleo-seismic activities and deciphering intricate regional tectonism.

Microblade assemblages are among the most common prehistoric archaeological materials found on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and are thought to indicate large scale migration to and settlement of the TP. Few microblade sites, however, have been systematically excavated, especially in the remotest, highest-elevation regions of the TP. The timing of the large-scale arrival, spread, and permanent settlement of people on the TP therefore remains controversial. In this paper, we report on a recently excavated site, Locality 3 of the Nwya Devu Site (ND3), located at 4600 meters above sea level (masl), near the shore of Ngoin Lake, on the interior TP. Our analyses reveal a fairly typical microblade technological orientation and two types of microblade cores: wedge-shaped and semi-conical, which are similar to those found throughout North China. Using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating and AMS 14C dating, the age of ND3 ranges from 11 to 10 ka. This date range indicates ND3 is the oldest microblade site yet recorded in the remote, high-elevation regions of the TP and thus provides important information about when and how hunter-gatherers using microblades began exploiting the higher altitudes of the TP. Taken together, studies at ND3 and throughout the TP suggest that a microblade adaptation is associated with the first prolonged human occupation of the plateau and that microblades played a significant role in mediating the risks and facilitating the mobility necessary to permanently inhabit the TP.

Lithic artifacts from the lower layers of the Helong Dadong site (27-24 Ka cal BP) in the Changbai Mountains were examined to elucidate the technological organization of prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The results show: (1) there are no LGM remains due to an occupational gap between the upper and lower layers; (2) burins were maintainably designed, and burin detachments may have had multiple purposes; (3) many artifacts show evidence of recycling and/or redesign; (4) artifacts were efficiently used, none were specialized tools for a single task. This study concludes that the lithic technological organization of the Dadong site's lower layer is associated with highly mobile foragers of the LGM. However, with the development of the LGM, the climate became colder. Foraging patterns had to change, possibly causing the chronological hiatus in habitation.

细石叶技术产品是青藏高原发现最丰富的史前人类文化遗物,代表了早期人类在高原的大规模迁徙.然而,经过系统发掘、具有可靠年代数据的细石叶技术遗址在青藏高原发现较少,高原腹地更为缺乏,这对理解细石叶技术人群在高原大规模迁徙扩散的时间和过程带来了诸多障碍.本文研究报道了青藏高原腹地海拔4600m处新发现的细石叶技术遗址——尼阿底遗址第3地点.技术-类型学分析结果显示,尼阿底遗址第3地点细石叶的生产主要包括楔形石核和半锥形石核两种技术,与旧石器时代晚期中国华北地区的细石叶技术特征接近.光释光测年（OSL）和碳十四测年( 14 C)的结果表明,尼阿底遗址第3地点的年代为11000～10000a BP.尼阿底遗址第3地点作为目前青藏高原腹地发现的最早的细石叶技术遗址,为了解拥有细石叶技术的狩猎采集者到达高原腹地的时间及其可能的扩散路线提供了重要信息.另外,通过对整个高原细石叶技术发展的分析,结合分子生物学的成果对比显示,细石叶技术人群迁移进入高原可能与人类对高原的长期占领以及现代藏族人的形成有密切联系.

Past intervals of warming provide the unique opportunity to observe how the East Asia monsoon precipitation response happened in a warming world. However, the available evaluations are primarily limited to the last glacial-to-interglacial warming, which has fundamental differences from the current interglacial warming, particularly in changes in ice volume. Comparative paleoclimate studies of earlier warm interglacial periods can provide more realistic analogs. Here, we present high-resolution quantitative reconstructions of temperature and precipitation from north-central China over the past 800 thousand years. We found that the average precipitation increase, estimated by the interglacial data, was only around one-half of that estimated for the glacial-to-interglacial data, which is attributed to the amplification of climate change by ice volume variations. Analysis of the interglacial data suggests an increase in monsoon precipitation of ~100 mm for a warming level of 2°C on the Chinese Loess Plateau.

Lithic artifacts are crucial for elucidation of the temporal and spatial patterns of prehistoric human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau. Core-and-flake technology is particularly noteworthy, as it is distinguished by its broad temporal span and widespread distribution across the plateau. In this study, we present the results of a reassessment of the lithic assemblage from the Su-re site in Tingri County, Shigatse City, Xizang Autonomous Region, China. Its resemblance to lithic assemblages from Southwestern China implies a close relationship between the plateau and its southeastern vicinity, contributing to the diversification of technology and prehistoric humans on the Tibetan Plateau. Moreover, gneissic pebbles transported by glacial meltwater in the Tingri Graben—the most suitable raw material available in the vicinity—explains the presence of prehistoric humans in the inhospitable Qomolangma region.

The co-evolution of climate-environment and ancient vertebrates fossil human are core topics in the theory of biological evolution. At the micro level, we hope to understand the feeding habits of some important groups of organisms in ancient ecosystems, such as dinosaurs, birds, and mammals, as well as their related feeding behaviors, migration patterns, and ecological niches. This requires a comprehensive analysis of key global climate processes during critical periods, the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems, and their relationship with the origin, evolution, and extinction of ancient fossil fauna. Similarly, changes in global climate and ancient monsoon systems have played important roles in the origin, migration, diffusion and behavioral patterns of ancient human being. The domestication of animals and plants and the origin of agriculture are the most representative examples of the co-evolution of human and ecosystem. The early agricultural society not only adapted to most of the area of the terrestrial ecosystem, but also transformed it into the human ecosystem to a large extent.

As an important way of maximizing land productivity by growing more than one crop type in the same field, mixed cropping has been an effective option for sustaining population growth under different climatic conditions since prehistoric period. We used a combination of archaeological data and an improved prehistoric land use model (PLUM) to quantitatively reconstruct spatiotemporal changes in cropland types and areas in the Huai River Valley of China, a core region of mixed cropping during the Holocene. The total cropland area increased more than 25 times during 8-2 ka BP, with northward expansion of rice-dominated cultivation during 5-4 ka BP and southward expansion of dry-dominated cultivation after 4 ka BP. Temperature and precipitation determined cropland types distribution, while that of cropland area was controlled by cultural development. The interplay between past climate, culture, and cultivation potentially provides useful insights into mitigating future population pressures with climate change.

AbstractThe emergence of Homo sapiens in Eastern Asia is a topic of significant research interest. However, well-preserved human fossils in secure, dateable contexts in this region are extremely rare, and often the subject of intense debate owing to stratigraphic and geochronological problems. Tongtianyan cave, in Liujiang District of Liuzhou City, southern China is one of the most important fossils finds of H. sapiens, though its age has been debated, with chronometric dates ranging from the late Middle Pleistocene to the early Late Pleistocene. Here we provide new age estimates and revised provenience information for the Liujiang human fossils, which represent one of the most complete fossil skeletons of H. sapiens in China. U-series dating on the human fossils and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating on the fossil-bearing sediments provided ages ranging from ~33,000 to 23,000 years ago (ka). The revised age estimates correspond with the dates of other human fossils in northern China, at Tianyuan Cave (~40.8–38.1 ka) and Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (39.0–36.3 ka), indicating the geographically widespread presence of H. sapiens across Eastern Asia in the Late Pleistocene, which is significant for better understanding human dispersals and adaptations in the region.

Characterised by the extensive use of obsidian, a blade-based tool inventory and microblade technology, the late Upper Palaeolithic lithic assemblages of the Changbaishan Mountains are associated with the increasingly cold climatic conditions of Marine Isotope Stage 2, yet most remain poorly dated. Here, the authors present new radiocarbon dates associated with evolving blade and microblade toolkits at Helong Dadong, north-east China. At 27 300-24 100 BP, the lower cultural layers contain some of the earliest microblade technology in north-east Asia and highlight the importance of the Changbaishan Mountains in understanding changing hunter-gatherer lifeways in this region during MIS 2.

The Greater Khingan and Yanshan mountain ranges in northern China not only constitute a significant physical obstacle to the northward movement of monsoon circulation, but also represent a natural barrier for human migration and cultural interactions between in-migrating Paleolithic populations and those indigenous to East Asia during the Late Pleistocene. We dated two Paleolithic sites, Yangzhuangxishan and Taiziling, located in the southern piedmont of the Yanshan Mountains with artifacts typified by simple core and flake technology associated with foraging populations, to -39-29 ka and - 52-47 ka respectively, using the optically stimulated luminescence dating method. Our results indicate that northern China as far south as the Yanshan Mountains was occupied mainly by autochthonous East Asian Paleolithic populations using a core and flake lithic technology, although during this period Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) modern humans and Mousterian populations dispersed into East Asia. By synthesizing and integrating the ages of Northeast Asian Paleolithic sequences during the last glacial period (ca. 70-10 ka), we analyzed spatio-temporal variations in Late Pleistocene human populations during relatively cold stadial events (MIS 4 & 2) and warmer interstadials (e.g., MIS 3), revealing an "ebb and flow" pattern for migrations of Western IUP/Mousterian populations and indigenous core and flake technology populations in East Asia corresponding to the advance and retreat of the East Asian monsoon regime. The subsequent extremely cold climate phase engendered a major population shift during the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 26.5-19 ka) which drove the reduction of both these Paleolithic populations, but afterward facilitated the emergence and rapid dispersal of microlithic technologies in East Asia. The peoples associated with microlithic technologies achieved their maximum geographical extent after the Bolling-Allerod Late Glacial interstadial event (ca. 14.7-12.9 ka) and then gradually decreased, perhaps due to the development of agriculture after -13 ka with concomitant increasing settlement stability.