page_title: Zhoukoudian
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Zhoukoudian / Excavation history / Discovery
context_page_description: Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, also romanized as Choukoutien, is a cave system in suburban Fangshan District, Beijing. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris.
  Due to differing interpretations of the evidence, proposed dates for when Peking Man inhabited this site vary greatly, with: 700,000-200,000 years ago, 670,000-470,000 years ago and no earlier than 530,000 years ago.
  The Peking Man Site was first discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth. These were later identified by Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species and extensive excavations followed. Fissures in the limestone containing middle Pleistocene deposits have yielded the remains of about 45 individuals as well as animal remains and stone flake and chopping tools.
  The oldest animal remains date from as early as 690,000 years ago and tools from 670,000 years ago while another authority dates the tools found from no earlier than 530,000 years ago.
context_section_description: Here is primitive man, now all we have to do is find him!
  — J.G. Andersson upon discovery of the Peking Man Site
  Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson first started his explorations of the region in 1918 at an area called Chicken-bone Hill by locals who had misidentified the rodent fossils that were found in abundance there, but it was not until 1921 that he and American palaeontologist Walter W. Granger were led to the site known as Dragon Bone Hill by local quarry men. Noticing some white quartz that was foreign to the area he immediately realised that this would be a good place to search for the remains of primitive man.
  Excavations were undertaken by Andersson's assistant Austrian palaeontologist Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing a great deal of material that was sent back to Uppsala University in Sweden for further analysis. In 1926 Anderson announced the discovery of two human molars amongst this material and the following year Zdansky published his finding cautiously identifying the teeth as ?Homo sp.
  Canis c.f. variabilis, commonly known as the Zhoukoudian wolf, were found at the Zhoukoudian cave system and archaeological site in 1934 and named by its discoverer, Pei Wenzhong.
caption: Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site - the Museum. At the centre: Bust of reconstructed Peking Man.
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