Merungdap Cave site presents prehistoric human activities in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Discovered in 2018, the Merungdap Cave site in Ge’gyai county, Xizang autonomous region is located on the left bank of the Shiquan River at an altitude of 4,700 meters.

It marks the first prehistoric human cave in the heart of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the highest-altitude large-scale prehistoric cave site globally. It is comprised of three individual caves from which over 10,000 relics from the first and second caves alone have been unearthed. The artifacts span from the Paleolithic Age to the early Metal Ages.

These cultural relics offer significant insights into ancient human survival skills, evolution, and forms of social structure in extreme high-altitude environments.