Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian

Zhoukoudian site is a national key cultural relic protection unit, located in the north of Longgu mountain, Zhoukoudian Town, Fangshan District, southwest of Beijing. It is the most abundant, systematic and valuable early Paleolithic human site in the world. From 1921 to 1927, archaeologists successively discovered three human teeth fossils outside the "Peking Man" cave site three times. In 1929, they also discovered the Peking man's skull bone fossils, as well as the artificial tools and fire relics, which became a major archaeological discovery that shocked the world.

Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian

synonym

Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site generally refers to Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site

Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, located in Longgu mountain, Zhoukoudian Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, is about 50 kilometers away from Beijing city. It is an important site of Paleolithic age in China

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Zhoukoudian site is a treasure house of human fossils and a comprehensive research base of Paleoanthropology, archaeology, paleontology, stratigraphy, geochronology, environmental science and karstification

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On March 4, 1961, Zhoukoudian site was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units

In 1987, it was listed in the world cultural heritage list

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Historical evolution

The age of Zhoukoudian site ranges from 5 million years ago to more than 10000 years ago. Among them, Homo erectus (Peking man), early Homo sapiens (xindongman), and late Homo sapiens (tianyuandongman, 38500-42000 years ago and shandingdongman, 30000 years ago) were found

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In February 1918, chemist Gibb (J.M.) discovered a fragment of bone cemented with red clay from jigushan, Zhoukoudian. On March 22, Swedish geologist and archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson visited jigushan and discovered the accumulation of fossil animals in Zhoukoudian area

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In 1921, Austrian paleontologist zdansky (o.) went to jigushan of Zhoukoudian to excavate fossils of paleontology. In August of the same year, Andersen and American paleontologist Granger (W.) discovered fossils of Paleontology and quartzite products accumulated in Longgushan site during their investigation in Zhoukoudian site area, and numbered it as site 53, namely Peking ape man site One human molar was found in the collected fossils. In the same year, the second site of Zhoukoudian was also found

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In 1923, shidansky came to Zhoukoudian site again for excavation. The excavation layer is equivalent to the lower part of the fourth and fifth layers. A fossil human tooth was found in the accumulation

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In 1926, the unearthed materials in 1923 were sorted out, and two human teeth fossils found in Peking Man Site were named Peking man

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From March 27 to October 18, 1927, a large-scale archaeological excavation of Zhoukoudian site was conducted by B. Bulin, a Swedish Paleovertebrate zoologist, and Li Jie, a Chinese geologist

On October 16 of the same year, another well preserved human tooth fossil was found; in the same year, sites 3 and 4 were found on Longgu mountain

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In the spring of 1929, from September 26 to December 31, Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation, and adapted "Zhoukoudian cave 1" into "Zhoukoudian site 1"; in the same year, at 16:00 p.m. on December 2, Pei Wenzhong found the first skull of Peking man; in the same year, he also found sites 5, 7, 8 and 9

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In 1930, archaeologists found the cave man site at the top of the Zhoukoudian site, and excavated site 9. In the same year, a Chinese ape skull was repaired from the accumulation during the indoor arrangement process. In the same year, the burned broken bones and antlers were also found, which were regarded as the evidence left by ancient humans using fire

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In 1931, the pigeon hall cave at Zhoukoudian site was excavated, and a layer rich in quartz products and fossils and a human living surface containing fire remains were found. In addition, a large number of burnt bones, stones, burnt seeds of celadon and Bauhinia charcoal were also found

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In 1932, Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation of the shandingdongren site of Zhoukoudian site. The excavation method of Zhoukoudian site was reformed to archaeological excavation method, and the 15th site of Zhoukoudian was discovered

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In 1933, Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation of the shandingdongren site at Zhoukoudian site, and discovered the sites of Zhoukoudian No.13 and No.14, and the shandingdong site

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From 1933 to 1934, Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation of the peak cave site and the 13th site of Zhoukoudian

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In 1934, Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation of the southern part of the 1927 and 1928 excavation area of Zhoukoudian site 1. A large number of stone products, rich traces of fire and many mammal fossils were found. In addition, a number of Chinese ape man fossils were also found, including skull fragments, mandible and teeth

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In 1935, Wei dunrui, Bian meinian and Jia Lanpo began to take charge of the excavation of the first site of Zhoukoudian site, and found abundant stone products and artificial fire relics

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From 1935 to 1937, Wei dunrui, Bian meinian and Jia Lanpo began to conduct the excavation of site 15 of Zhoukoudian site, and found a large number of stone products and mammal fossils

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From April 7 to July 6 and from September 16 to the end of 1936, Jia Lanpo presided over the excavation of the first site of Zhoukoudian site. On November 15 of the same year, two complete ape skulls were found; on November 26 of the same year, the third ape skulls were found

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From late April to the end of June 1937, Wei dunrui, Bian meinian, and Jia Lanpo began to preside over the discovery of a Chinese ape man's eyebrow spine at Zhoukoudian site. After matching, it belongs to the second skull found in 1936. In addition, some skull fragments, five teeth, a remnant femur, a Chinese ape man's maxilla, and some stone artifacts were also found. In the same year, the investigation of sites 4 and 15 was continued The excavation was carried out

After the July 7th incident in the same year, the excavation of Zhoukoudian site was interrupted

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In 1941, the Pearl Harbor Incident broke out. From 1927 to 1937, the fossils of Chinese ape man and shandingdongman unearthed at Zhoukoudian site were lost in the war

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In 1949, after the founding of new China, the excavation of Zhoukoudian site was resumed

From September 27 to October 15 of the same year, Jia Lanpo and Liu Xianting presided over the first site of Zhoukoudian site, cleaned up the collapsed and backfilled deposits in 1937, and found three Chinese ape teeth; on October 16 of the same year, the official excavation began

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In 1951, Jia Lanpo presided over the excavation of sites 1 and 20-23 of Zhoukoudian site. The work in site 1 focused on layers 11-13 and found some stone artifacts and mammalian fossils

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In 1958, under the leadership of Jia Lanpo, the first site of Zhoukoudian site was excavated again, mainly including the East cave, the excavation area in 1951 and the west of pigeon hall

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In 1959, Zhao Zikui and Li Yanxian presided over the excavation of Zhoukoudian site. The excavation area is in the west of pigeon hall cave. Stone products, traces of fire, mammal fossils and a complete mandible of Chinese ape man were found

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From May 15 to October 16, 1960, Zhao Zikui and Li Yanxian continued the excavation in 1959

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From March 15 to July 4, 1966, the excavation of site 1 of Zhoukoudian site was resumed under the leadership of Pei Wenzhong. The excavation area is the top of the South fissure. Two skulls and one tooth of Chinese ape man were found. Two skulls were combined with two skulls found in 1934 to form a complete skull, which is called No. 5 skull. In addition, abundant traces of fire, more than 100 stone products and some mammal fossils were also found

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From 1978 to 1983, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences continued to excavate the "ape man cave" at Zhoukoudian site and the east side of the cave, and found some mammalian fossils.

From 1977 to 1979, a multidisciplinary study was carried out on the Zhoukoudian site and its surrounding areas

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In June 2001, the staff of Beijing Rural Forest Farm found Tianyuan cave, the 27th site of Zhoukoudian site, in the forest farm contracted by them

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From 2003 to 2004, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences officially excavated the Tianyuan cave, site 27 of Zhoukoudian site

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On June 24, 2009, the Institute of paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Kou Dian Bei Jing Yuan Ren Yi Zhi