Abstract:
The high-altitude regions of African tropical environments are among the least studied areas regarding the dispersal and colonization of anatomically modern humans across and out of Africa. Human colonization of high altitude regions is considered a relatively recent process, not least as high-altitude environments are usually perceived as unfavorable for human subsistence and are believed to have functioned as a migration barrier due to their physiological and ecological challenges, including high-altitude hypoxia, cold stress and lack of sufficient resources. Although it is not yet clear when and how human population dispersed into the high-altitude mountains of tropical Africa, our new findings suggest that specialized hunter-gatherer successfully colonized and exploited a wide range of ‘harsh’ landscapes of the Bale Mountains (>3800m asl) in the southeastern Ethiopian Highlands during the Late and Terminal Pleistocene up to Middle and Late Holocene. Moreover, ongoing archaeological research in the northwestern part of the Bale Mountains provides new perspectives on human colonization of high-altitude tropical environments and the relationship between human adaptation and climate changes at least during three separate time periods between 31,000 cal. BP and 4,000 cal BP.
