Abstract: Nyade site is located in Xainza County in the north Tibetan Plateau (Qinghai-Xizang Plateau). The site was firstly discovered by a joint archaeological team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP, CAS), the Institute of cultural relics preservation of Xizang Autonomy Region, and the Bureau of Cultural Relics of Naqu in the summer of 2013. The site is about 400~500m in width (from east to west), and is about 2km in length (from north to south). There are a large number of lithic artifacts scattered on the surface, showing that it is a large-scale Paleolithic open-air site. Nine Acheulean-like hand-axes and two cleavers had been collected from more than tens of thousands surface lithic artifacts in the archaeological survey. This article has analyzed these two kinds of lithic artifacts from the site, and re-analyzed similar lithic artifacts in the other areas in the Tibetan Plateau. We propose that these kinds of stone artifacts actually belong to the Upper Paleolithic Levallois cores and the artifacts just look like Acheulean hand-axe and cleaver in shape occasional, but they are not the real hand-axes and cleavers. We believe that the Acheulean lithic industrial does not expand to the hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau in the late Upper Paleolithic stage. In the last stage of Upper Pleistocene, the early occupiers, which came from the Indian subcontinent, along with the passages between the Himalayas, Gangdise and Kunlun mountains, started to expand to the northeastern hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau. In the mean time, the Acheulean complexity has already disappeared in Africa and Eurasia. The hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau does not have conditions to resuscitate this lithic technology.

Key words: Tibetan Plateau; Xainza County; Nyade site; Late Pleistocene; Paleolithic site; Hand-axes & cleavers