北京人
Peking Man lived in a cool, predominantly steppe, partially forested environment, alongside deer, rhinos, elephants, bison, buffalo, bears, wolves, big cats, and a menagerie of other creatures. Peking Man intermittently inhabited the cave, but the exact chronology is unclear, with estimates as far back as 800,000 years ago and as recent as 230,000 years ago. This spans several cold glacial and warm interglacial periods. The cultural complexity of Peking Man is fiercely debated. If the inhabitants were capable of hunting (as opposed to predominantly scavenging), making clothes, and controlling fire, they would have been well-equipped to survive frigid glacial periods. If not, they would have had to retreat southward and return later. It is further disputed how the Peking Man fossils were predominantly deposited in the cave, either because they lived and died there, or they were killed by giant hyenas ("Pachycrocuta") and dumped there, in addition to other natural process. Over 100,000 pieces of stone tools were recovered, mainly small and inconsistently shaped flakes no more than long, but they were sometimes refined into scrapers, choppers, and, towards the later end of occupation, points, burins, and awls.