Once a forlorn village fifty kilometers south of Beijing, Zhoukoudian (formerly Choukoutien) is today a virtual shrine to archaeology, a bustling community with its own highway extension, a major exhibit hall which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, and one of the world's most famous fossil sites. Still active today, this site in seven decades has contributed immeasurably to our knowledge of prehistoric life. It boasts one of the richest fossil deposits found anywhere, ranging from the Early Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, a span of three million years. It has provided some of the earliest evidence of fire usage ever uncovered. And most important, it is the home of Peking Man, whose discovery ranks as one of the great events in modern archaeology. Now, in The Story of Peking Man, one of China's foremost archaeologists, Jia Lanpo, offers a profusely illustrated history of Zhoukoudian, tracing its earliest discoveries and greatest moments, recounting the tragic events of World War II (Japanese soldiers murdered three archaeologists and the Peking Man fossils vanished under mysterious circumstances), and evaluating its overall importance. Lanpo spent over half a century at Zhoukoudian and he provides many fascinating, first-hand accounts of scientists at work, including such figures as Davidson Black, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Yang Zhongjian, Pei Wenzhong, and of course Lanpo himself. He describes how the abundance of "dragon bones"(fossils sold in herbal medicine shops) in Zhoukoudian first attracted Johan Gunnar Andersson, who began excavations there in 1918; the first major discovery, a human skullcap, found by Pei Wenzhong while digging by candlelight in a tiny cave; and Jia Lanpo's own discovery of a beautifully preserved skullcap in 1936. He vividly conveys the great excitement of an important find as well as the pressure to make major discoveries as funding runs low. And he reviews many of the theories and controversies surrounding Peking Man--Were they cannibals? Did they use bones as tools? Did humanity originate in Asia or Africa? Based on numerous unpublished sources, including field reports, personal letters and photographs, and Lanpo's own remembrances, The Story of Peking Man provides an inside look at a major archaeological site, one that will fascinate anyone interested in the origins of humanity.
