Unique tooth reveals details of the Peking Man’s life

In 2011 a tooth from the Peking Man was found in a box at the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University. In the latest issue of Acta Anthropologica Sinica, researchers at Uppsala University and a Chinese research institute have now published their analysis of the tooth. The discovery gives us new knowledge about one of the most mythical ancestors of the modern man.

When 40 old, forgotten boxes were found and unpacked by Per Ahlberg, Martin Kundrát and curator Jan Ove Ebbestad in 2011, the tooth was one of the most interesting finds. Two Chinese paleontologists, Liu Wu and Tong Haowen from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, were invited to study the tooth. They could quickly determine that it was a canine tooth from a Peking Man.

‘It is a spectacular find’, says Per Ahlberg. ‘We can see numerous details that tell us about this individual’s life. The crown of the tooth is relatively small, which indicates that it belonged to a woman. The tooth is quite worn, so the individual must have been quite old when she died. In addition, two large chips have been knocked out of the enamel, as if hit by something, or perhaps by biting into something really hard such as a bone or a hard nut. At least one of the chips was old when the individual died, since it is partly worn down.

One of the 20th century’s great palaeontological discoveries was the fossils of the Peking Man, Homo erectus, in deposits some 500,000 years old in caves in Zhoukoudian near Beijing. The very first samples of this prehistoric man, two teeth, were found in the 1920s by Otto Zdansky from Uppsala University and can now be found at the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala together with a third tooth discovered in the 1950s among the fossils sent to Sweden. The discovery of the Peking Man became a world sensation. In 1927 the excavation by Zhoukoudian was taken over by Wenhao Weng of the Geological Survey of China and Canadian Davidson Black. Under their leadership a wealth of specimens such as crania and other bones were discovered, but this unique collection disappeared during the chaos of the second world war and has never been found since. Over the last decades, several fossils of Homo erectus have been found in other parts of the world.

‘We now know that the species is a direct ancestor to the modern man. However, the lost materials of the Peking Man remain one of palaeontology’s greatest mysteries and most tragic losses’, says Per Ahlberg. The story took an unexpected turn. The materials that arrived in Uppsala from China in the 1920s were so extensive that the researchers didn’t have time to study it all. Some boxes were never unpacked and remained so until 2011 when Martin Kundrat, Jan Ove Ebbestad and Per Ahlberg at Uppsala University began investigating their contents. Several of the boxes turned out to come from Zhoukoudian, and in one of them Martin Kundrat found a seemingly human tooth.
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Reference:

Waara, Anneli. 2015. “Unique tooth reveals details of the Peking Man’s life”. Uppsala University News. Posted: March 12, 2015. Available online: http://www.uu.se/en/media/news/article/?id=4266&area=2,5,10,16&typ=artikel&lang=en

770,000 year old Peking Man’s controlled use of fire confirmed

For decades, the so-called Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) from Zhoukoudian (south west of modern Beijing) has been considered to be a hominin that engaged in the controlled production and management of fire. This hypothesis, however likely, was never based on solid proof, until recently that is, when Chinese scientists announced that they had analysed ash from the archaeological site.

Nearly 100 years of discovery

Excavations at a site known locally as “Dragon Bone Hill” unearthed two hominin molars in the 1920s. Afterwards Canadian anatomist Davidson Black of the Peking Union Medical College, secured funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to do more excavations at Zhoukoudian. In the Autumn of 1927 a single tooth was unearthed by Swedish palaeontologist Anders Birger Bohlin.

Black published his analysis in the journal Nature, identifying the find as belonging to a new species and genus which he named Sinanthropus pekinensis, but many fellow scientists were sceptical about such an identification on the basis of a single tooth. The Rockefeller Foundation demanded more specimens before it would grant additional money.

A lower jaw, several teeth, along with some skull fragments were unearthed in 1928. Black presented these finds to the Foundation and was rewarded with an $80,000 grant.

Excavations continued at the site under the supervision of Chinese archaeologists Yang Zhongjian, Pei Wenzhong, and Jia Lanpo. This time they uncovered 200 fossils (including six nearly complete skullcaps) from more than 40 individual specimens. These excavations came to an end in 1937 with the Japanese invasion and resumed again after the war. The Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987 and new excavations were started in June 2009.

Use of fire called into question

Recent age determinations for the Zhoukoudian sequence have shown that Homo erectus pekinensis seems to have first occupied Locality 1 some 770,000 years ago, when climatic conditions in North China were relatively cold. In order to survive the harsh weather Homo erectus pekinensis would have needed to be able to create and manage fire. By the 1930s the presence and control of fire had become a widely accepted concept for the site because several ash deposits had been found there. However, more recently this evidence had been called into question, as siliceous aggregate (an insoluble phase of burned ash) was not found to be present in the remains recovered.

New evidence

Study co-author, Dr. GAO Xing, an archaeologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented new evidence in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin 59(3) that can now confirm the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus pekinensis. Through analyses of four soil samples obtained in 2009 from Layers 4 and 6 at Zhoukoudian Locality 1., the scientists demonstrated that all four specimens contain siliceous aggregates as well as elemental carbon, and the potassium content of the insoluble residues of these specimens ranges between 1.21 % and 2.94 %. This analyses provides very strong evidence for the in situ use of fire by Homo erectus pekinensis.
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References:

Past Horizons. 2014. “770,000 year old Peking Man’s controlled use of fire confirmed”. Past Horizons. Posted: March 12, 2014. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2014/770000-year-old-peking-mans-controlled-use-of-fire-confirmed

'Peking Man' Was a Fashion Plate

"Peking Man," a human ancestor who lived in China between roughly 200,000 and 750,000 years ago, was a wood-working, fire-using, spear-hafting hominid who, mysteriously, liked to drill holes into objects for unknown reasons.

And, yes, these hominids, a form of Homo erectus, appear to have been quite meticulous about their clothing, using stone tools to soften and depress animal hides.

The new discoveries paint a picture of a human ancestor who was more sophisticated than previously believed.

Peking Man was first discovered in 1923 in a cave near the village of Zhoukoudian, close to Beijing (at that time called Peking). During 1941, at the height of World War II, fossils of Peking Man went missing, depriving scientists of valuable information.

Recently, researchers have embarked on a re-excavation of the cave site searching for artifacts and answers as to how the Peking Man lived. Just as importantly, they engaged in new lab work that includes using powerful microscopes to look at artifacts made by Peking Man to determine how they were used, a process archaeologists called "use-wear" analysis.

On Dec. 15, four of these scientists gathered at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum to give an update on their most recent findings. Three of the scientists, Xing Gao, Yue Zhang and Shuangquan Zhang are with the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology. The fourth, Chen Shen, is a curator at the Toronto museum and a special member of the academy.

Among their archaeological findings is a 300,000-year-old "activity floor" (as the scientists call it) containing what may be a hearth and fireplace, akin to a prehistoric living room. Analysis is ongoing and Yue Zhang noted that 3D scanners are being used to map it. If the results hold up, it may prove once and for all that Peking Man was able to control fire, an important skill given the chilly weather at times in northern China.

Spear discovery

The use-wear analysis of Peking Man's tools yielded several interesting finds. Chen Shen said that analysis of the base of Peking Man's stone tools reveal that the hominid "likely" attached stone points to sticks creating a sort of spear. It's an important step in human development as it involves putting two materials, the stone tip and stick, together to form a composite tool.

Scientists are still trying to determine the details. For instance, Shen said it is possible that Peking Man was making spears with short sticks. While not as useful for hunting, the short stick would act as "an extension of the tool," and "you can hold it while you are scrapping or engraving," Shen said in an interview with LiveScience. Researchers are also trying to determine whether Peking Man used some form of sticky organic material to aid in the process of hafting a spear.

Another question is how this fits, chronologically, with other recent prehistoric findings. Just last month, scientists working in South Africa reported in the journal Science that another hominid named Homo heidelbergensis was making spears500,000 years ago (in its case likely to hunt animals). This leaves researchers with the question whether Peking Man, a different hominid, started making spears at around the same time.

More mysteries

The team also found evidence through the use-wear analysis that Peking Man was working wood (which didn't preserve in the cave) with their stone tools, possibly to turn it into wooden tools.

Perhaps the strangest finding was evidence for "drilling." Shen explained they don't know what the hominids were drilling into, or why, but they were certainly engaging in it with their stone tools. There is no evidence so far that Peking Man made ornaments or what we would consider art.

Finally, the analysis shows that Peking Man had an interest in clothes. "A certain proportion of tools were being used for the working and scraping of hides," Shen said in the interview..

"If they are depressing the hides, if they are softening hides, they can use the hides for their clothes," something no sophisticated hominids would dare live without.
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References:

Jarus, Owen. 2013. “'Peking Man' Was a Fashion Plate”. Live Science. Posted: December 31, 2012. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/25887-peking-man-hominid-fashion.html