YORK, ENGLAND—Hayley Saul, an archaeologist at the University of York, will soon be leading a team of five that will investigate the prehistory of the Nepalese Himalayas. The researchers plan to recover artifacts and study features such as caves and rock shelters that date back more than 2,000 years. The Himalayan Exploration and Archaeological Research Team (HEART) will spend four weeks in the Annapurna region using 3-D imaging techniques to survey the previously unrecorded parts of the terrain and hopefully begin to piece together a narrative of the high Himalayas that includes its role in the spread of Buddhism and rice cultivation. “There is potential that these remains could contribute hugely to our understanding of significant prehistoric events," Saul says. “Despite the fact that a lot of important processes, such as the domestication and movements of many plants, converge on this area very little is known about its pre-history.”