85 years ago, a group of hominid fossils, including 5
late-mysteriously-missing skulls, were named the “Peking Man” by the Toronto
anthropologist Davidson Black. Since the 1920s, the Peking Man has been included
in the history of anthropology and archaeology, and has been mentioned
throughout numerous classrooms as part of the theories associated with the
origins of human beings. When I started
digging at the Zhoukoudian site along with colleagues and students from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences on a hot summer day in 2009, the Toronto connection
to the Peking Man would once again be reinstated. So after nearly a century,
what do we know about the Peking Man?
In the 1920s - 1930s the excavation of the cave of the Peking
Man centred around uncovering remains of Homo
erectus including fossils, animal bones, and stone tools. Based on Davidson
Black’s research and subsequent studies, the Peking Man was proudly presented
to the World as a missing link of human evolution according to Darwin’s theory
of natural selection. Growing up in China, I learnt in elementary school a few
decades ago that all Chinese peoples were descendants of the Peking Man. But,
twenty years ago, the startling news was uncovered, through extensive DNA
studies, that we had nothing to with the Peking Man, we were descendants of an
African woman who led a bunch of her sons and daughters, carrying the gene of Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human), to
East Asia nearly 50,000 years ago. These newcomers wiped out the sons and
daughters of the Peking Man, making the latter extinct. The people of the Peking
Man, whom inhabited the area around today’s Beijing, probably started their
lives some 700,000 thousand years ago, and had come to a dramatic end!!!
If this theory is true, then we should be able to find
evidence of cultural materials that were brought in by the Africans or West-incomers. But, we have not found any sudden changes or
interruptions in cultural materials in any of the archaeological sites in China
during that time span. We did not find traces of ‘faber’ or tool-workers, no artefacts
were uncovered that were used to make any kind of tools nor were there any
evidence of patterns of livings. We also couldn’t find any tool making kits
that were similar to those known to have once prevailed in the west side of the
Old World. What is also fascinating is
that modern East Asians have features that physically resemble those of the Peking
Man. What we do know is that it is pretty
much an acceptable notion that modern humans originated in East Africa and eventually
migrated out of Africa. It is impossible, or physically irrational, that modern
humans had multiple-origins in different places independently. So what was
going on here in East Asia during some 100,000 – 50,000 years ago?
Our guess is that the Peking Man and the African modern
human species crossbred during their encounters in the area of today’s China.
Physically, gene exchanges occurred eventually leading to the mutation of
mitochondrial DNA that was inherited through the female. However, in order to prove
this, we need more genetic studies. But at least, recent research in Central
Asian have indicated that interbreeding between two Homo species, Neanderthal and unknown Asian Archaic Homo sapiens, did happen. This theory, allegedly called “continuity
with hybridization” for the East Asian origin of modern humans, needs further
testing. Specimens coming out of the re-excavations at the Zhoukoudian site may
help us with further testing, or produce comparative research toward understanding
the life and habits of the Peking Man. The question we have to ask is how smart
was the Peking Man and what were his abilities to cope with the invasions of
the Africans? Today some scholars insist that Peking Man could not even produce
and/or control fire, so how could they handle the pressure or influence of modern
African humans?
During our excavation of the Peking Man site last year the site
revealed startling evidence of fire floors, something that would unlikely be
featured as a natural fire dump; rather this represented the possibility of intentional
management of fire. Once this is established, and through further scientific
testing, the story of the Peking Man will be re-told again.
Dr. Chen Shen examined the only remaining piece of Peking
Man skull fossil specimen in 2010 (the other was lost during the WWII), at the Institute of Vertebrate
Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy
of Science. The IVPP is responsible for the multi-year national project of
re-excavation at the Peking Man site.
Dr. Chen Shen participated in 2009 excavation of the Peking
Man site at Zhoukoudian.
[From Friends of East Asian Newsletter of the Bishop White Committee; Royal Ontario Museum, Fall 2013]
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