See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341115053 Archaeology Zhoukoudian Chapter · January 2014 CITATIONS READS 0 76 2 authors: Xiaoling Zhang Chen Shen Chinese Academy of Sciences Royal Ontario Museum 20 PUBLICATIONS 281 CITATIONS 118 PUBLICATIONS 645 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Object of the Past: Art and Archaeology of Early China View project The Shandong Project View project All content following this page was uploaded by Chen Shen on 03 May 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Z 7958 Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of Most recently, Zhan has organized the ICOMOS Asia-Pacific Group meetings in Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of China, worked with the international and national post-disaster heritage rescue and protection mea- Xiaoling Zhang1 and Chen Shen2 sures in the wake of Wenchuan earthquake in 1Department of Palaeoanthropology, Institute of 2008, and presented at various symposia on the Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, protection and management of cultural land- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China scapes, industrial heritage, and the Grand Canal 2Department of World Cultures, Royal Ontario of China. Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada He is engaged in the conservation and moni- toring of heritage sites in China and serves as chair of the International Symposium on the Introduction Concepts and Practices of Conservation and Restoration of Historic Buildings in East Asia. Zhoukoudian is located in the Fangshan District, He participated in the revision of the Principles 55 km southwest of downtown Beijing. A hill for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China called Longgushan “Dragon Bone Hill” was and organized the translation into Chinese of known by local farmers in the early twentieth History of Architectural Conservation written century for Ordovician limestone quarrying. by Jukka Jokilehto, the ICOMOS Charter on the Zhoukoudian was first visited by the Swedish Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson as a potential Heritage Sites (ICIP), Preparing World Heritage location of quaternary mammalian fossils in 1918. Nominations (World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS, The American paleontologist Walter Granger later IUCN), and of some interesting discussion papers identified fossils at the Dragon Bone Hill in 1921. of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky then discov- on the Theory and Philosophy of Conservation ered two Homo erectus teeth from the Locality 1 and Restoration. cave in 1926, the same year Canadian anthropol- ogist Davidson Black named the hominid teeth as a new species Sinanthropus pekinensis (Black 1927). Black secured funding from the Rockefel- Cross-References ler Foundation and started the official international collaboration with the Cenozoic Research Labora- ▶ China: Cultural Heritage Management tory (today’s Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology ▶ China: Cultural Heritage Preservation and and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of World Heritage Sciences) in 1927. Both Davidson Black and ▶ China: Domestic Archaeological Heritage Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhongjian led Management Law excavations at the site, where the first skull of ▶ China: Managing Cultural Heritage and Peking man was recovered by Chinese anthropol- the World Heritage List ogist Pei Wenzhong in 1929. Since 1930, Zhoukoudian has become one of the most important paleoanthropology sites for the study Further Reading of human evolution in the world. CAO, N. 2008. China. World heritage sites. London: Compendium. Definition GAO, J. (ed.) 2008. Atlas of world heritage. China. New York: Better Link Press. Zhoukoudian (aka Choukoutien in early MURPHY, J.D., 1995. Plunder and preservation. Cultural property law and practice in the People’s Republic of publications) is a UNESCO world heritage site China. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. in China. It refers to a village whose landscape Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of 7959 Z Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of, Fig. 1 The only surviving Peking man skull, examined by one of the authors (Dr. Chen Shen) at the Institute of Vertebrate and Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in 2010 (Photo credit, author (ZXL)) includes 27 localities of hominids, fauna, and Key Issues/Current Debates/Future cultural remains. Four of these localities yielded Directions/Examples significant hominid fossils of different species. Locality 1 cave (Peking man site) unearthed 203 Locality 1 (Peking Man Site) Homo fossil fragments of Homo erectus, belong- The most focused studies at Zhoukoudian have ing to more than 40 individuals (Fig. 1). These been dating, climatic context, lithic technology, included six nearly complete skulls, five of which and hominid and carnivore remains of the cave. were lost during WWII. The Peking man skulls Recent dating studies have changed the old are the most important study subjects for Asian perspectives about when Peking man lived, Homo erectus and have been published exten- suggesting the hominid appeared at Zhoukoudian sively. A human premolar unearthed from Local- as early as 780,000 years ago (Shen et al. 2009), ity 4 in 1973 was unknown to the world, which when the world was in extreme cold and dry probably belongs to Asian Archaic Homo sapi- climate. With cultural material deposits ens. Locality 26 (aka the Upper Cave) yielded 10 measuring 40 m deep, it is possible to show the individual fossil remains belonging to modern occupation of early hominids may have lasted human Homo sapiens sapiens, which are also half a million years at Zhoukoudian. Lithic well-studied specimens in paleoanthropology. artifacts were recovered from deposits of three The latest discovery of human fossils at cultural phases (early layers 8–10, middle layers Zhoukoudian was from the Tianyuan Cave 6–7 and QII, and late layers 3–5), accounting for where 34 fragments were found, including more than 17,000. These were catalogued into a mandible, teeth, and postcranial bones, which ten classes with 40 types of stone tools, which present a nearly complete individual (Shang & suggest a gradual transition from simple use to Trinkaus 2010). Direct AMS 14 C dating from a more complicated tool manufacturing process a limb fragment produced the most reliable and at the site. earliest date for China’s Homo sapiens sapiens at Zhoukoudian, ranging from 42,000 to 38,500 Locality 15 years ago. In addition, six localities (Locality 1, The lithic artifacts from Locality 15 (dated to 4, 13, 15, 22, and 26) yielded a large assemblage the late Middle Pleistocene and early Late of lithic artifacts and other cultural relics such as Pleistocene Periods) reveal evidence suggesting Z fire remains and ornaments. that lithic technology at the site was more Z 7960 Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of developed than that of their predecessors at the Locality 1 (Gao 2000). The Zhoukoudian Locality 15 hominid (most likely East Asian Homo heidelbergensis although no fossil found yet) effectively mastered sophisticated core reduction modes, represented by multi-directional flaking and alternate flaking, which were not evident at the Locality 1. Fire Use One of the issues debated about Zhoukoudian’s cultural contents is the use of fire. Although there is no structurally defined hearth at the Locality 1 site, burnt ashes, charcoals, burnt bones, and even stone tools were often identified in situ. Whether or not these fire-related activities were the result of intentional human control and manipulation or of natural causes and hydratic force is the subject of further studies. Since 2009, full-scale excavations at the Locality 1 have been carried out by Chinese scientists and have revealed pos- sible fire floors at the layer 4 (Fig. 2). An interdis- ciplinary research team is taking samples for all Zhoukoudian, Archaeology of, Fig. 2 Ongoing relevant scientific laboratory testings, and hope- excavation at Zhoukoudian Locality 1 by scientists from Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2009 (Photo credit: fully the results will advance our knowledge about the author (SC)) the human use of fire in the Middle Pleistocene at Zhoukoudian. Hunters or Hunted carnivore activities over hominids were all Since 1980s, a number of studies related to based on analyses of limited samples of fauna Peking man behaviors have challenged old and sediment. thoughts suggesting that Locality 1 was primar- Concerning all the discoveries and debates, ily a den of the giant hyena. Lewis Binford new systematic excavations and multi-disciplinary argued the deposition of fossil remains were research will bring the solutions. The comprehen- likely the results of carnivores’ activities sive study of lithics including both technology (Binford & Ho 1985). Later Steve Weiner (Wei- and function will reveal the behavioral capabi- ner et al. 1998) and Paul Goldberg (Goldberg lity. Further taphonomic and zoo-archaeological et al. 2001) cautioned early reported evidences research, physical anthropology, chronology dat- of fire use and proposed the fire-ash and burned ing, and paleoenvironmental study should be all bones at the cave probably were natural process involved. of the formations. A study by Noel Boaz (Boaz et al. 2004) on spatial distribution of hominid fossils further dismissed the idea that the Cross-References Zhoukoudian Locality 1 cave was a home base for Peking man. Instead, the cave was more ▶ Archaic Homo sapiens likely used by carnivores scavenging