Middle Stone Age foragers resided in high elevations of the glaciated Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Studies of early human settlementin alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocenehuman presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlementin high elevations. Here, we report the earliest evidence of a prehistoric high-altitude residential site. Located in Africa’s largest alpine ecosystem, the repeated occupation of Fincha Habera rock shelteris dated to 47 to 31 thousand years ago. The available resources in cold and glaciated environments included the exploitation of an endemic rodent as a key food source, and this played a pivotal role in facilitating the occupation of this site by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.