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Peiking Man Site

Introduction | Discover Process | Localities | Signifinance

Zhoukoudian is a small village some 50 kilometres southwest of Beijing and it was here that startling discoveries of Peiking Man, who lived in the Middle Pleistocene and remains of Homo sapiens sapiens dating as far back as 18,000–11,000 B.C.

Peiking Man Site in Zhoukoudian was among the first sites in China to enter UNESCO's World Heritage List. It is also the only site in the world to yield evidence of human activity and mankind's earliest use of fire 500,000 to 600,000 years ago. Scientists have excavated 26 previous sites of academic value here since the 1920s.

Scientific significance
The discovery of Peking Man enabled one to solve the long-lasting polemics that had continued since the discovery of Java man in the 19th century and proved that Homo erectus evolved from the ape. It has established the erect man stage which occupies the intermediate stage in human evolution. More information...

Process of discover
The early finds were no more than three teeth. On December 2nd 1929 a complete skullcap was discovered. This initial find was to lead to other discoveries of skeletal remains. More information...

About Peiking Man and Peiking Man Site
Like other erect man who appeared in Middle Pleistocene, the skeletal morphology of Peking Man, excluding the skull, is rather similar to that of modern man. The only difference is that the perichondrial bone of the appendicular is thicker and the endochondral cavity smaller in Peking Man than in modern man. More information...

Diffierent localities of Peiking Man Site
Since the systematic excavation of the Peking Man Site in 1927, more than 20 valuable localities have been discovered and excavated.
1. The Peking Man Cave or Locality 1:
2. Locality 4 or New Cave;
3. Locality 15;
4. Upper Cave; Detail information...