The earliest microblade site 6800 years ago reveals broader social dimension than previous thought at the central high altitude Tibetan plateau

The Tibetan Plateau is the world's largest high-elevation ecosystem. Here, we present evidence of stone artefacts from an in-situ stratigraphic sequence with the accelerator mass spectrometry 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates to show that the sophisticated microlithic technologies emerged on the central Tibetan Plateau (CTP) as early as 6800 years ago. The "high-valued" and rarely seen obsidian artefacts at the study site may have come from the perimeter Tibetan Plateau (PTP). We found that cultures exchanged frequently between the CTP and PTP populations and their social networks and information sharing systems were more organised than previously thought among early TP populations.