CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF HOMOERECTUS AND AGES OF PEKING MAN AND HEXIAN MAN IN CHINA

摘要

Attempts to dating age the Peking Man, Loc. 1, Zhoukoudian Site, Beijing, China have been made by paleoantnropologists, Quaternary geologists and Archaeologists since the discovery of the first skull of Peking Man. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the dating results on fossils from and deposits in Layer 13 to Layer 1 of the Peking Man, Loc. 1, Zhoukoudian Site were reported in the multidisciplinary study by Wu et al. (1985). The Cave of Peking Man was filled with sediments of about 48 m thickness which may be subdivied into 17 layers.The first skull of Peking Man was excavated from Layer 11 in 1929. ESR dates were determined for animal tooth enamel contemporary with Peking Man from Layer 11 and the ESR age of the tooth is about 600 ka (585 ± 101 ka). This means that the age of Early Peking Man is between 500-600 ka BP. Skulls X, XI and XII (LI, LII and LIII) of Peking Man were excavated at Locus L in Layer 8-9 in 1936. The ESR age of teeth from Layer 8-9 is 423 ± 80 ka. Therefore, the age of Middle Peking Man is between 400-450 ka BP. The fragments of skull V (HIII) of Peking Man at Locus H from Layer 3 were discovered in 1934-1936 and 1966, respectively, and all pieces fit together form a complete skull (V) of Late Peking Man. U-series dates on fossils from Layer 3 produced ages of 249 ± 51 ka and 256 ± 50 ka. ESR dates were obtained from fossil tooth enamel from Layer 3 and the ESR age is 282 ± 26 ka. Therefore, the age of Late Peking Man is between 250-300 ka BP.