The Site of Peking Man
The Site of Peking Man is situated at Zhoukoudian Village. It is 48 kilometres southwest of Beijing being screened by mountains on the northwest with productive land lying to the southeast. The Dragon Bone Hill is towards the west of the village, famed for its large measures of Chinese medicine dragon bone. The Hill formed by limestone in the Ordovician period, rises 70 meters above the river. It is in this place that the fossils of the Chinese ape-man and their caves were discovered.
The Chinese ape-man or the Peking Man, lived 690,000 years ago, in the mid-period of Pleistocene epoch. Peking Mans’ first complete skull was discovered in December, 1929 by Pei Wenzhong, a Chinese paleoanthropologist. Large-scale excavations were done on various occasions, resulting in 25,000 cubic meters of earthwork. Fossils of vertebrates and men were found. A total of 152 pieces of skulls, facial bones, fragments of skulls, teeth and lower jawbones belonging to over 40 persons of different sexes and ages were found at The Site of Peking Man.
With the findings of 100,000 pieces of charred bones, stone implements and ashes it was proved that Peking Man knew the use of fire and was able to make production tools. The Site of Peking Man provides us with valuable scientific base to study the origin and development of mankind as well as research in the ancestry of human species. Fossils of the Upper Cave Man were found in the cave above the Peking Man. Upper Cave Man who lived more than 10,000 years ago.
The findings of the first skull of Peking Man evoked the whole world. In 1987, The Site of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian was included in the UNESCO world cultural heritages list. If you are planning for a tour of China, then you may visit Zhoukoudian which is 50 kilometers towards the southwest of Beijing, to get a deep inside the mysterious origins of human beings.
|
