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By Root 1109 0

Peking and Choukoutien, and in the later part of the chapter we use Beijing and Zhoukoudian. As far as names of scientists are concerned, what Westerners regard as the last name comes first in the Chinese name. For example, Wu Rukang will be listed in our bibliography as Wu, R. Complicating the matter are variant spellings, such as Woo Jukang. In our text and citations, we will use the modern spellings of most authors. In the bibliography, we will also give the modern spelling with the older variant in brackets: Wu, R. [Woo, J.].

9.1 Discoveries at Choukoutien

The ancient Chinese called fossils dragon bones. Believing dragon bones to possess curative powers, Chinese druggists have for centuries powdered them for use in remedies and potions. For early Western paleontologists, Chinese drug shops therefore provided an unexpected hunting ground.

In 1900, Dr. K. A. Haberer collected mammalian fossils from Chinese druggists and sent them to the University of Munich, where they were studied and catalogued by Max Schlosser in The Fossil Mammals of China (1903). Among the specimens, Schlosser found a tooth from the Peking area that appeared to be a “left upper third molar, either of a man or hitherto unknown anthropoid ape” (Goodman 1983, p. 63). Schlosser suggested China would be a good place to search for primitive man.

Among those who agreed with Schlosser was Gunnar Andersson, a Swedish geologist employed by the Geological Survey of China. Andersson, a keen hunter of dragon bones, traced out their sources from druggists and other informants. He then carried out excavations for fossils. Andersson was particularly interested in discoveries that might increase the evidence for the theory of human evolution. In his paleoanthropological research, Andersson enjoyed the support of the Swedish government, members of the Swedish royal family, and wealthy patrons such as Ivar Kreuger, who monopolized match-manufacturing in several countries.

In 1918, Andersson visited a place called Chikushan, or Chicken Bone Hill, near the village of Choukoutien, 25 miles southwest of Peking. There, on the working face of an old limestone quarry, he saw a fissure of red clay filled with fossil bones.

In 1921, Andersson again visited the Chikushan site. He was accompanied by Otto Zdansky, an Austrian paleontologist who had been sent to assist him, and Walter M. Granger, of the American Museum of Natural History. Their first excavations were not very productive, resulting only in the discovery of some fairly recent fossils.

Then some of the local villagers told Zdansky about a nearby place with bigger dragon bones, near the small Choukoutien railway station. Here Zdansky found another limestone quarry, the walls of which, like the first, had fissures filled with red clay and broken bones. Andersson visited the site and discovered some broken pieces of quartz, which he thought might be very primitive tools. The mineral quartz did not occur naturally at the site, so Andersson reasoned that the quartz pieces must have been brought there by a hominid. Zdansky, who did not get along very well with Andersson, disagreed with this interpretation.

Andersson, however, remained convinced. Looking at the limestone wall, he said, “I have a feeling that there lies here the remains of one of our ancestors and it’s only a question of finding him” (Hood 1964, p. 65). He asked Zdansky to keep searching a filled-in cave, saying, “Take your time and stick to it until the cave is emptied if need be” (Goodman 1983, p. 65).

9.1.1 The First Teeth

In 1921 and 1923, Zdansky, somewhat reluctantly, conducted brief excavations. He uncovered signs of an early human precursor—first one tooth and then a second, tentatively dated to the Early Pleistocene. Of the first tooth Zdansky said: “I recognized it at once, but said nothing” (Goodman 1983, p. 65).

Even after finding the second tooth, Zdansky kept both secret. The teeth, a lower premolar and an upper molar, were crated up with other fossils and shipped to Sweden for further study (Hood 1964, p. 66). Back in Sweden,