A cave site containing fragile stone tools and pottery¹ shards² believed to be at least 4,000 years old was recently unearthed³ in Ngari Prefecture, Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous⁴ Region.

最近，一个洞穴遗址在中国西南部西藏自治区的阿里地区被发现，洞穴里面发现一些碎石器和陶器碎片，据考证至少有4000年的历史。

The Melong Tagphug cave site, with two caves of 1,000 square meters and 250 square meters, is situated⁵ about 4,600 meters above sea level.

梅龙达普洞穴遗址位于海拔约4600米处，两处洞穴面积分别为1000平方米和250平方米。

It is the first prehistoric⁶ cave site found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

这是在青藏高原上发现的第一个史前洞穴遗址。

"Besides abundant cultural relics⁷ and animal bones, ochre rock paintings with geometric patterns, human figurines, palms and the sun were also found," said He Wei, an archaeologist from Tibet's institute of cultural relics protection.

西藏文物保护研究所考古学家贺伟表示：“洞穴里除了有丰富的文物和动物骨骼外，还发现了绘有几何图案、人像、手掌和太阳的矿石岩画。”

The excavation⁸, which will continue in 2019, was carried out by a joint archaeological⁹ team from the regional cultural relics conservation institute and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

洞穴的发掘工作将在2019年由中国科学院区域文物保护研究所和脊椎动物古生物学及古人类研究所的一个考古联合小组继续进行。

The discovery sheds light on human activities, environment change, origins of agriculture and animal husbandry and prehistoric art on the plateau, archaeologists said.

考古学家表示，这一发现揭示了人类活动、环境变化、农业和畜牧业的起源，以及高原地区的史前艺术。

In November, archaeologists found thousands of stone artifacts at a paleolithic site in Tibet, indicating that humans might have conquered one of the highest and most ecologically-challenging places on the globe at least 30,000 years ago.

去年11月，考古学家在西藏的一个旧石器时代的遗址发现了数千件石制品，这表明人类可能在至少3万年前就曾征服了全球最高、最具生态挑战的地区。