Local millet farming and permanent occupation on the Tibetan Plateau

The timing and location of the first humans on the high altitudes of the Tibetan Plateau(above 2500 m)and eventual permanent settlement at this altitude is the focus of current debate in Tibetan archaeology.Previous studies have argued that although prehistoric humans settled in the low altitude valleys of the Tibetan Plateau at 5200 a BP(Chen et al.,2022),it was not until 3600 a BP that the introduction of wheat cultivation enabled people at high altitudes on the Plateau to have stable food resources which enabled them to settle permanently at high altitudes(Chen et al.,2015).