Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site

Listen for a moment. Away from Beijing's traffic, this hillside is quiet. You may hear wind in the pines, a few birds, perhaps the scrape of a shoe on loose limestone. The rock here is pale grey and broken, and in the cooler months it feels damp and cold to the touch. You are standing at Zhoukoudian, southwest of the capital in the Fangshan district. Inside these hills, scientists found some of the most important evidence of early human life anywhere in Asia.

The hill above you has an old local name — Dragon Bone Hill. That name points to a real and slightly strange history. For generations, people in this region dug fossilised bones out of the limestone. They sold them as "dragon bones", an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Ground into powder, these ancient bones were believed to treat many illnesses. Without knowing it, local diggers and apothecaries were trading in the remains of animals that lived hundreds of thousands of years ago.

In the early twentieth century, foreign and Chinese scientists began to follow the trail of these dragon bones. Where were they coming from? The answer led them here, to the quarries and caves of Zhoukoudian. In the early 1920s, excavators found fossil teeth that did not look like animal teeth. They looked human — or nearly human. That small discovery opened a much larger question. Could ancestors of modern people have lived on this hillside?

In 1927, the Canadian anatomist Davidson Black studied a single tooth from the site. He argued that it came from a new kind of early human. He gave it a scientific name, Sinanthropus pekinensis, which means the Chinese man of Peking. Today scientists place these people within Homo erectus, an early human species that walked upright and spread across Africa and Asia long before our own species appeared.

Then came the moment that made this site famous. In December 1929, the Chinese archaeologist Pei Wenzhong was working deep inside the main cave. As the winter light faded, he uncovered an almost complete skullcap. It was the first skull of its kind ever found. Here was proof — not only a tooth, but the shape of a head, the curve of a heavy brow. The discovery brought Zhoukoudian to the attention of scientists around the world.

Over the following years, excavations at the main cave produced a remarkable collection. Teams found several more skulls, along with jaws, teeth, and other bones. Together they came from many different individuals — men, women, and children. Thousands of stone tools came out of the same layers, as well as the bones of animals. This main cave is known simply as Locality One. As you walk the paths, you will see it as a deep open cut in the hillside.

Now for one of the great mysteries of modern science. The original Peking Man fossils are missing. In 1941, as war spread across the Pacific, the fossils were packed into crates. The plan was to send them to the United States for safekeeping. Somewhere along the way, they disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to them. Many searches have taken place over the decades, and many theories exist, but the crates have never been found.

Luckily, not everything was lost. Before the war, the German anatomist Franz Weidenreich had studied the fossils in great detail. He made careful descriptions, photographs, and high-quality plaster casts. Much of what we know about Peking Man today comes from that work. So when you see skulls in the museum displays here, remember that many of them are casts. They are copies of bones that may still lie hidden in some forgotten box, somewhere in the world.

How old are these remains? Scientists still debate the exact dates. Most agree that people lived in and around the main cave over a very long span of time, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Newer dating studies have pushed some estimates even further back. The age matters because it helps researchers understand when early humans reached East Asia, and how they survived the cold northern winters in a land of hyenas, big cats, and deer.

That raises a question visitors often ask. Did Peking Man use fire? For many years, burnt layers in the cave were read as ancient campfires. Later researchers looked again and were less certain. Some of the ash and charred bone may have other explanations. Others still see signs of controlled fire. This is a living debate, not a settled fact. Standing here, you are looking at a place where scientists are still asking questions.

The story at Zhoukoudian does not end with Homo erectus. Higher up the hill, in a site called the Upper Cave, excavators found remains of much later people. These were members of our own species, Homo sapiens. Alongside them were small personal objects, such as pierced beads and ornaments. Unlike the stone tools below, these show a concern with decoration and perhaps with identity. So this one hill holds layers from very different chapters of the human story.

In 1987, the site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. That is the international list of places judged important to all of humanity. Today you can walk between the excavated localities and visit the on-site museum. The museum explains the discoveries with fossils, casts, tools, and models. Take your time with the paths. The terrain is uneven, and the steps can be steep, but each turn shows you a different cut into the rock.

Before you leave, stand still once more beside the open cave. Look at the layers in the limestone wall — bands of rock, earth, and rubble, one on top of another. Each layer is a page of time. Somewhere in those bands, early people sheltered from the wind, made tools, and raised children. As you walk back down the hill, listen again to the birds and the pines. The same hills, the same sky... and you, another visitor, passing through.