Chou Kou Tien dates around 400,000 B.P. and is located southwest of Beijing, China. This site is one of the important Home erectus sites because of evidence of fire having been used there. Davidson Black named those Homo erectus found at Chou Kou Tien Sinanthropus pekinensis the so-called ‘Peking Man.’
Johan Gunnar Andersson, Swedish geologist, and Davidson Black, the Canadian archeologist, are very famous for having found Peking Man at Chou Kou Tien. However, the person who made the first finding is neither Andersson nor Black. Otto Zdansky assisted Andersson’s project at Chou Kou Tien in 1921 and made the first descovery of two teeth of Peking Man and kept it secret until 1926 because he wanted to give his own version after finishing the planned monograph on Chou Kou Tien. He published a “preliminary notice” which mentioned his scientific description and analysis of his findings. More than 40 hominids and 100,000 stone tools, animal bones, and fire hearths were found at Chou Kou Tien. From these findings, it is assumed that Peking Man lived in caves and had the use of fire.
“China Town On Line”http://www.chinatown-online.co.uk/pages/culture/history/early.html 11/13/00
“Historien om Peking-människan” http://www.vethist.idehist.uu.se/forskning/stella/abstracts/nr12.html 11/13/00
Written by, Kaori Kon