Settlement of Karuo (Tibet, China) and problem of producing economy in highland environment

This article addresses the problem of emergence and development of producing economy in the Tibetan highlands, which has become a subject for discussion in historiography. Some scholars argued that cultivation ofmillet by the Neolithic highlanders became impossible after the end of the Holocene Climatic Optimum in about 2000 BC, since there were not enough warm days for full vegetation ofmillet crops. The settlement of Karuo located at an altitude of 3100 m is usually given as example. The discovery of carbonized mogar grains (Setaria italica) there is explained by trade contacts with the inhabitants of the lower valleys where grain was exchanged for products of hunting and possibly gathering. Accordingly, pig breeding and, more importantly, contacts with the Neolithic cultures from the upper reaches of the Yellow River which was the region from where, according to many scholars, the producing economy was introduced to the Eastern Tibet, is also denied. However, this suggestion ignores the cultural context of Karuo where permanent dwellings, including two-storey buildings with stonework, as well as storehouses and paved road were present. In addition, an important part in stone inventory of the site was occupied by reaping knives identical to those appearing on the Central Plain during the Yangshao period, which were precisely intended for harvesting millet crops. What is most important, the Karuo culture had a continuation at the Xiaoenda site also located in highlands, but already undeniably agrarian, since it was associated not only with the Qijia culture with the developed agricultural economy, but also with the proto-Tibetan Qugong culture of the Paleometal Age.