Lesson 1 The representative of early human in China -- Peking man （618words） ...

Early humans in our country

China is one of the countries with the largest number of ancient human sites in the world.

Archaeologists have discovered many ancient human sites of different periods in Yunnan, Beijing, Chongqing, Shanxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Liaoning, Hebei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Guangdong provinces.

Archaeologists in Yuanmou County, Yunnan province, unearthed two ancient human incisors, as well as some rough stone tools, and found charcoal and burned bones.

Yuanmou man is about 1.7 million years old, which is the earliest hominid in China.

From the study of Yuanmou's remains, we can see that they were already able to make tools and knew how to use fire.

The Discovery of Peking Man

The site of Homo beijingensis is located on the LongGuShan Mountain in Zhoukoudian, southwest of Beijing, and the accumulation layer of the site is more than 40 meters thick. The site was first discovered in 1921, and later anthropologists named the ancient humans who lived here "Peking Homo erectus" or "Peking Man" based on the three fossilized teeth found there. In 1929, Pei Wenzhong, a young Chinese scholar, discovered the first skull of Peking Man, and in the same year, he also found the remains of fire. Since then, four Pekinese skulls have been excavated and more than 40 individual Homo erectus fossils have been unearthed, as well as nearly 100000 stone tools and a large number of animal fossils. The discovery of these fossils and stone tools has provided important evidence for the recovery of the characteristics and living conditions of Peking Man. It has been determined that Peking Man lived from about 700000 to 200000 years ago.

Characteristics of Beijingers

The skull of Beijingers has a low forehead, large brow bones, prominent cheekbones, flat nasal bones, and a protruding mouth, with a smaller brain capacity than modern people. Their height was 157 cm on average, and their upper limbs were similar to those of modern humans, while their lower limbs were slightly longer than their upper limbs, and they were able to walk upright.

At that time, Beijing people lived in an area with large forests and water, and the climate was warm and humid. Animals such as deer and wild horses were often found here, and there was also abundant water and grass. The Beijing people made all kinds of tools from stones, animal bones and antlers. They were more sophisticated in making stone tools, using different beating methods to make different types of tools, such as pointed tools, scrapers, stone hammers and stone anvils. The era when such beaten stone tools were used is called the Paleolithic. The Pekingese used these tools to hunt animals and collect plant fruits. They lived in groups and performed joint labor to obtain food.

Ashes, burnt stones, and burnt bones have been found at Peking Man sites, reflecting that the Peking Man had learned to use fire and also to preserve it for a long time. The Pekingese used fire to grill food, protect against the cold, illuminate, and repel animals, thus improving their living conditions. Learning to use fire is a milestone in the history of human evolution.

Peking Man is one of the most important primitive humans in the world, and this discovery is of great significance to the study of the history of ancient human evolution. The site of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian is the richest and most complete Homo erectus site in the world to date. Through the study of Peking Man, the pattern of evolution and developmental changes from early apes to modern humans can be discovered, providing reliable evidence for the study of human origins.