Brute of Dragon Bone Hill

摘要

Anyone trying to imagine what life was like for our almost human ancestor, Homo erectus, will sooner or later be drawn to Dragon Bone Hill. The site, which lies 40 kilometres south-west of Beijing, was home to Peking Man. Here the fossilised bones of some fifty individuals have been found with the remains of thousands of other animals from many species. The picture researchers have built up is one of cave dwelling hominids who skillfully bagged an assortment of game, butchered it at home with simple stone tools, then cooked the meat over fires before eating it. They were reputedly the first people to master fire, using it for light and warmth in their ice age homes and to scare off predators, as well as for cooking. This is a compelling reconstruction of the first hominid to possess many traits we consider to be human, and one of the most revered and tenaciously held hypotheses in palaeoanthropology. There is just one problem - our own research at Dragon Bone Hill has convinced us it is wrong.