Middle Stone Age foragers resided in high elevations of the glaciated Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Ossendorf, Götz; Groos, Alexander R.; Bromm, Tobias; Tekelemariam, Minassie Girma; Glaser, Bruno; Lesur, Joséphine; Schmidt, Joachim; Akçar, Naki; Bekele, Tamrat; Beldados, Alemseged; Demissew, Sebsebe; Kahsay, Trhas Hadush; Nash, Barbara P.; Nauss, Thomas; Negash, Agazi; Nemomissa, Sileshi; Veit, Heinz; Vogelsang, Ralf; Woldu, Zerihun; Zech, Wolfgang; ... (2019). Middle Stone Age foragers resided in high elevations of the glaciated Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. Science, 365(6453), pp. 583-587. American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.1126/science.aaw8942

Text 583.full.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. http://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuseThis is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License. Download (2MB) | Request a copy

Studies of early human settlement in alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocene human presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlement in high elevations. Here, we report the earliest evidence of a prehistoric high-altitude residential site. Located in Africa’s largest alpine ecosystem, the repeated occupation of Fincha Habera rock shelter is dated to 47 to 31 thousand years ago. The available resources in cold and glaciated environments included the exploitation of an endemic rodent as a key food source, and this played a pivotal role in facilitating the occupation of this site by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

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