Page 42 - Archaeology - October 2017

igh-altitude landscapes are some of ldenderfer began his research in the 1970s as a
the most inhospitable places on Earth. graduate student on the Ethiopian Plateau, one of the
They are cold, dry, and oxygen-poor. They Ahighest in the world, where he studied the remains of
were the last places humans settled—yet the Iron Age trading empire of Aksum. Political turmoil cut his
people did it and they survived. But how? research short, and it became impossible to go back. A short
HFor archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer of while later, he took a research position high in the Peruvian
the University of California, Merced, a fundamental trait of Andes, studying early hunter-gatherers. Aldenderfer realized he
humanity is our ability to adapt, especially to extreme envi- had stumbled into a niche of untapped archaeological research
ronments. From the Himalayas to the Andes to the Ethiopian on early human adaptation to high-elevation environments.
Plateau, people have evolved in ways that allow them to live at Working at such heights can be excruciating. A throbbing
high altitude. “They’ve all converged on a solution,” he says. head, aching lungs, sleeplessness, fatigue, wheezing, coughing,
“They’ve all found a way to live at high elevation.” confusion, and rapid pulse are all associated with hypoxia, a
Aldenderfer has assembled a team of experts in disciplines condition where tissues can’t get enough oxygen. It occurs
ranging from bioarchaeology to ethnography, paleoclimatol- when people accustomed to living at lower altitudes climb
ogy, geochronology, genetics, evolutionary medicine, and even above 8,000 feet, and it can be dangerous and lead to pul-
mountaineering to augment archaeological research in order monary edema, stroke, and even death. Women who aren’t
to understand what has clearly come about by way of evolu- adapted to high elevations can have a much harder time bear-
tion. He says, “You need the story of the people who lived at ing children and risk having low-birth-weight babies. Nev-
that time to tell you how these things actually worked. It’s ertheless, people have successfully settled at these altitudes
about the whole process by which people adapt culturally, for millennia—perhaps 7,000 years or more. The question
biologically, and genetically.” is, how does such an adaptation come about? Jacqueline Eng,

Many populations such as these traders in central Tibet, who live above 8,000 feet, are now known to have genetic characteristics
that enable them to survive in environments where lowlanders would have trouble breathing.

40 ARCHAEOLOGY • September/October 2017