Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [380]
While still in Paris, Teilhard de Chardin presented, at the Institute of Human Paleontology, a paper that was published the following year in L’Anthropologie. In this paper, Teilhard de Chardin (1931) cautiously suggested that the use of fire by Sinanthropus might be established after further study of blackened bones and antlers recovered from the site. Nevertheless, he still made no mention of any beds of ashes or hearths at the Choukoutien cave.
As requested by Teilhard de Chardin, Breuil visited Choukoutien in the fall of 1931 and encountered extensive signs of fire as well as stone and bone tools, many of advanced type. He reported his findings on November 3 at a meeting of the Geological Society of China in Peking, and published essentially the same material in an article for L’Anthropologie the following year.
Teilhard de Chardin himself had also begun to cautiously mention fire and implements in his writings, but Breuil’s exceedingly direct and thorough report was explosive in its impact. Concerning the Quartz 2 level in the Kotzetang cave section, Breuil (1932, p. 3) said: “I observed the black layer indicated by Pei was a veritable hearth, or rather a hearth covered by very light-colored ash, doubtlessly mixed with clay. Soot-covered stones and burned bones were both brought out in my presence.” Breuil here used the French word foyer, which can be variously translated as hearth, fireplace, or furnace.
Describing level 4 of the main cave, Breuil (1932, p 5) stated: “I first observed, in scraping away the surface from top to bottom, a succession of a number of ribbonlike layers of bright colors—-grey, yellow, and occasionally violet, which constitute level 4. The appearance of this uncompacted deposit is exactly that of a mass of ash derived from vegetal matter, comparable, for example, to the ash deposit, called ‘ribbons’ by E. Piette, in the Azilian levels of Mas d’Azil. In these masses one can observe numbers of particles of carbon, stones, occasionally in heaps, covered in soot, and fragments of burned bone. I did not encounter anything else, but I did observe between layers of ash numerous nodules and slabs of a bubbly concretion that appeared to be composed of phosphates derived from the alteration of bone. At the base of the great mass of ash, almost 7 meters [about 23 feet] in depth, one finds an ink-black layer, which, according to analysis by the Geological Survey and its color, shows itself to be composed of wood carbon reduced to particles. Worked quartz and other stones belong to this layer.”
Breuil (1932, p. 5) further stated: “The layer of breccia covered by the mass of cinders is actually inaccessible, but I have examined a great heap of blocks that have been removed and broken apart for examination. These blocks are literally pastes of chipped quartz (horizon 1) and bone burned to various degrees.”
In some final remarks on the evidence for fire, Breuil (1932, pp. 6 –7) said: “As a result of these facts, confirmed by chemical analysis of the burned bones in Paris and Peking, it can be concluded that fire was used on a large scale at Chou Kou Tien. Perhaps the fact that such a mass of ash corresponds with a single black, carbonaceous basal level could enable one to deduce that the fire, ignited just once, was constantly maintained for a considerable period, enough to have produced the enormous accumulation of almost 7 meters that I have mentioned. This amount would actually correspond to a much greater accumulation at the time.”
About the presence of stone implements, Breuil (1932, p. 7) wrote: “I might add that I collected some chipped quartz in the great mass of ash at that place. . . . at the base of that mass, lying on the stalagmitic floor . . . I extracted, along with M. Pei and Pierre Licent, a series of decomposed pieces of very compact volcanic rock. . . . It was the residue, unfortunately very much decomposed, of a great collection of