Peking man Site

The Peking Man cave-site was discovered in 1921 on the northern side of Dragon Bone Hill| at Zhoukoudian  Town in Fangshan District southwest of Beijing. It is the most abundant and systematic in cultural deposition among the dwelling remains of the lower Paleolithic man recorded so far in the world.

A World-Astonishing Discovery in Archaeology The discovery of three human fossil teeth at the cave-site in l921, l923 and 1927 gave birth to the name"Sinanthropus pekinensis" in archaeology. In l929,a fossil skullcap of Peking Man was brought to light again from the site along with man-made stone implements and remains of fires-an important discovery that caused a sensation globewide.

The cultural deposits in the cave,amounting to over 40 m in thickness and going back roughly to700～230 thousand years BP, suggest that Peking Man lived there for nearly 500 millennia of that period. His skull is quite primitive,but possesses evident features characteristic of the modern Mongoloid. Peking Man subsisted mainly by hunting and gathering and already knew fire using and food cooking.Fire was got from nature, and live cinders were kept for re-kindling.The use of fire considerably contributed to the perfection of man's characteristics.The discovevry of Peking Man laid foundations for palaeoanthropological and palaeoculturological studies in China.

Loss of the Valuable Fossils and Successive Discoveries of New Ones In l937,as the Japanese imperialists launched a full-scale war of agression against China,excavation at the Peking Man cave-site was constrained to stop.Around l94l when the Pacific War broke out,all the fossil samples of Peking Man and Upper Cave Man collcted from l927 fell into the hands of a few Americans and their whereabouts remain unknown. After the founding of New China,work at the Zhoukoudian cave-site of Peking Man was restaned, and a large amount of fossil material was successively uneanhed in excavations. By l966, there had been discovered Peking Man fossils representing about 40 individuals, more than l00,000 stone tools,plentiful bone and antler artifacts,and remains of fires.