A camping site that dates to 8500 BC, unearthed recently by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), could lead to a peep into human migration in the Neolithic Age. A release issued by the culture ministry on Tuesday said that the site, located on the way to Saser La near the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh, was chanced upon by a team exploring the Nubra Valley in 2015-16.

The area, described as "a small flat area with snow-covered peaks on one extreme, dry barren land with loose rocks all around and gushing stream within the deep western gorges, an ideal place for camping in a picturesque setting", was discovered by a team headed by ASI joint director general SB Ota.

The ASI team found a section on the serpentine road leading to the Saser stream, exposed due to construction, which showed layers comprising residue of burnt items. The team collected a sample of charcoal found on the site and sent it to a lab in Florida to determine the radiocarbon date, and found that the samples dated to 8500 BC.

A successive ASI team revisited the site and collected bones and charcoal from the area. These samples from lower and upper deposits were found to belong to 8500 BC and 7300 BC, notably 10,500 and 9,300 years old.

Bio-archaeologist Pramod Joglekar of Deccan College, Pune, has found the presence of "gorel and yak" on a sample of charred bones, said the release.

The organic samples, of charred bones and charcoal, were put to test under the carbon-14 dating process, where radioactive carbon isotopes reveal the age of a sample, said Ota. Every 5,730 years, the isotope's regular reduction lead to its halving, he said.

"The discovery is significant because the site is known as a 'dry snow desert', an area where temperatures sway between -30 to -40 degree Celsius. There's barely any vegetation and survival is difficult. The discovery is historical because it proves that man could negotiate such a difficult terrain, while we thought otherwise," said Ota.

The discovery now leads to the questions of who were the people and where did they come from. Ota reveals that ASI plans further archaeological excavations and explorations in the area.

Anindya Sarkar, head of the department of geology and geophysics at IIT Kharagpur, says that the discovery is significant, as it will open a new chapter on human migration. "There seems to be, at the outset, no proof of organised housing. This could mean that the people belonged to the Neolithic Age – a transitory phase from hunting-gathering to basic farming," said Sarkar.

Ladakh has an abundance of petroglyphs belonging to the Neolithic Age. Burjuman in Kashmir, too, has similar petroglyphs, said Sarkar adding that "The direction of the migration must be studied."