Recently, the journal Archaeology in America, selected the top ten worldwide archeological discoveries in 2019, one of which is the study of Denisovanson Tibetan Plateau led by the scholars of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou University, and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and participated by many domestic andforeign research institutes. Among the top ten worldwide archeological discoveries in 2019, the study of Denisovans is both the only paleolithic research and the only research result from China, which demonstrates the international leading level of the environmental archeology team from Lanzhou University.

Archaeology is a bimonthly archeological journal for the public, sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, which has a history of over 70 years andreadership of more than 250 thousand. Since 2006, it selects the top ten worldwide archeological discoveries in each December, which has a great influence in the world. In 2019 selection, the tombs of the ancient kingdom of Egypt, the Mayan underground world of Mexico, the Hungarian feast of England in the Neolithic Age, the origin of apples in Kazakhstan, the female scribe in medieval Germany, the new room in the Italian golden house, the sacrifice of massacre in Peru, the Xiahe Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau, the Tomb of the Silver Dragon in Mongolia, and the coin storage of England in the age of Norman Conquest were selected.

Karstcave of White Rock Cliff shot by Zhang Dongju

The mandible of a Xiahe Denisovan shot by Zhang Dongju

3D model (the gray color represents the mirrored part of the virtual reconstruction)