Response to Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

M C Meyer; D L Hoffmann; M S Aldenderfer; W R Haas; J A Dahl; Z Wang; D Degering; F Schlütz

doi:10.1126/science.aan8575

Response to Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

Science. 2017 Aug 11;357(6351):eaan8575. doi: 10.1126/science.aan8575.

Authors

M C Meyer¹, D L Hoffmann², M S Aldenderfer³, W R Haas⁴, J A Dahl⁵, Z Wang⁶, D Degering⁷, F Schlütz⁸

Affiliations

¹ University of Innsbruck, Institute for Geology, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. michael.meyer@uibk.ac.at.
² Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
³ School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA.
⁴ Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
⁵ National Isotope Centre, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science), Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand.
⁶ University of Innsbruck, Institute for Geology, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
⁷ ADD Ideas Albrecht and Detlev Degering, zum Erzengel Michael 19, D-01723 Mohorn, Germany.
⁸ Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research, D-26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

PMID: 28798103
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan8575

Abstract

We show that Zhang and Li's sedimentological model for the Chusang travertine neglects the three-dimensional information from multiple outcrops and that their optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age of about 20,000 years for the human imprints is untenable. We highlight the robustness of our chronology and explore reasons why Zhang and Li's OSL age is a gross overestimation of the real depositional age of the imprinted travertine.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Humans
Luminescence*
Occupations*
Tibet