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Nwya Devu
Wikipedia data hasn't been reviewed for accuracy by the Gignos Research Team
- Lat/Long:
- 31.46, 88.8
- Country:
- China
Nwya Devu (Chinese: 尼阿底; pinyin: Ní'ādǐ; Tibetan: ཉ་དེའུ་གནའ་ཤུལ།, Wylie: Nya-de'u gNa-shul) is a high-altitude archaeological site on the Tibetan Plateau located in the eastern Changtang region of Tibet. At around 4,600 m (15,092 ft) above sea level, Nwya Devu is the highest known archaeological site from the Paleolithic and provides evidence for one of the earliest known presences of humans at a high-altitude site, at around 40,000-30,000 BP.
Archaeologists identified three stratigraphic layers at the site and excavated around 170 cm (6 ft) worth of deposits in depth. Layer 1 is OSL dated from around 13,000 to 4,000 BP. Mollusk shells taken from the lowest part of Layer 1 yielded AMS date ranges from around 12,700 to 12,400 BP, which shows concurrence with the OSL dating. Layer 2 is OSL dated from around 25,000 to 18,000 BP and corresponds with the Last Glacial Maximum. The earliest layer, Layer 3, is OSL dated to around 45,000 to 30,000 BP. While artefacts were found outside of Layer 3, the archaeologists who worked the site believe that all of the artefacts come from the assemblage associated with Layer 3. Paleo-environmental evidence suggests that the local climate was milder during the time of Layer 3 when compared to the present.