The first evidence of prehistoric farming in high altitudes has been found in Tibet, showing that humans were first able to survive incredible heights thousands of years ago, growing crops and livestock on a yearly basis.
Over the years, some anthropological evidence of prehistoric farming has been found in different locations of varying altitudes in the world, but there has been little to work around with due to the fact that the findings have been scarce for quite some time now - but the new evidence found in the Tibetan Plateau could give light to the timeline of human survival in high altitudes.
According to Science Daily, the University of Cambridge's discovery regarding prehistoric farming was published earlier this week in Science magazine, and it is called "Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 BP."
The research paper talks about how prehistoric farming was the foundation of life in the high Tibetan Plateau, often called the "roof of the world." The findings of animal bones, teeth and remains of ancient plants have pointed at the fact that there were humans making sedentary life in these incredibly high places, growing crops and livestock for survival.
The findings date back approximately 3,600 years, and there was enough evidence to suggest that this prehistoric farming wasn't so much a random occurrence but rather a year-round venture from humans of the area.
The researchers found a total of 53 archeological sites over the span of 800 miles of the Tibetan Plateau, which suggests that the practice of prehistoric farming in these high altitudes was widely extended in the area, and not at all the fruit of only a few isolated human groups.
According to Heritage Daily, the archeological sites found were between 2,500 meters (which would be around 8,200ft) and 3,400 meters above sea level (in other words, 11,154ft). This would be the highest-ever traces of human farming in prehistoric civilizations.
The new findings of prehistoric farming are hardly the earliest evidence found of human life in the area, as previous studies of the region have shown human traces from as far back as 20,000 years ago, but in those cases they were indeed nomadic civilizations that would be passing through.
Semi-permanent human establishments, however, only started to happen around 5,200 years ago - but the new findings, the ones dating back around 3,600 years, are the first proof of sedentary life in these high places, showing that there had been more permanent villages in the area that would go through basic farming processes in a year-round basis, according to Science World Report.
The new findings regarding prehistoric farming show an interesting array of new questions, particularly when it comes to the type of crops found as well as about human resistance to such high altitudes - from a genetic or adaptive point of view.
Interestingly enough, the crops that were found the most were those of barley and corn - cereals that are originally from the West, which makes their appearance in Tibet quite remarkable, making scientists wonder about when was it exactly that there was enough cultural and economic exchange between the two hemispheres to allow this to happen. Scientists estimate that this must have happened between 4,000 and 3,600 years ago, leading to the diversification and later displacement of other Asian crops (North Chinese to be precise), such as foxtail millet and broomcorn.
"Our current knowledge of agricultural foods emphasizes a relatively small number of crops growing in the intensively managed lowlands," said Professor Martin Jones, one of the study's researchers. "The more we learn about the rich ecology of past and present societies, and the wider range of crops they raised in the world's more challenging environments, the more options we will have for thinking through food security issues in the future."
