Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [404]
Palaeoloxodon namadicus also occurs at Hoshantung cave near Kunming in Yunnan province (Aigner 1981, p. 293). This cave is thought to belong to the Holstein interglacial, which would make it the equivalent of Zhoukoudian Locality 1 (Aigner 1981, p. 286).
According to V. J. Maglio, an authority on elephants, Palaeoloxodon na madicus appears at the onset of the Middle Pleistocene, about 1 million years ago ( Nilsson 1983, p. 488). In some lists, Palaeoloxodon namadicus also occurs in Early Pleistocene contexts (Han and Xu 1985, p. 279). The Early Pleistocene could thus be taken as a maximum age for the Maba site.
Stegodon, another extinct elephant discovered at the Maba site in China, provides an age range similar to that of Palaeoloxodon namadicus (Aigner 1981, p. 289). So although Maba might be as recent as the early Late Pleistocene, the faunal evidence is also consistent with an age anywhere in the Middle Pleistocene, or even the Early Pleistocene. The principal justification for fixing the date of the Maba cave in the very latest part of the late Middle Pleistocene or in the early Late Pleistocene seems to be the morphology of the hominid remains.
W. W. Howells (1977, p. 72) stated: “The phylogenetic position of Ma-pa suggested by Woo [Neanderthal] would accord best with the date presently assigned, i.e. early late Pleistocene at latest. Viewed as a really Neanderthal-like fossil (far removed in space from any other known), an early date would seem anomalous.” Maba provides another instance of morphological dating in order to preserve an evolutionary sequence. An early Late Pleistocene date was favored.
Figure 9.6. Age of Homo sapiens cf. neanderthalensis at Maba, South China. Most of the mammalian fossils from Maba were identifiable only in terms of their genus, and these genera are present throughout the Pleistocene, from Early to Late. The fauna includes Hyaena, Felis tigris, Mustelidae, Ailuropoda, Ursus, Rhinoceros, Tapirus, Sus, Cervus, Bos, Hystrix, and Lepus. The extinct elephants Stegodon and Palaeoloxodon namadicus provide boundaries for the age range. Both Stegodon and Palaeoloxodon namadicus are known from Early Pleistocene sites in China (Han and Xu 1985, p. 279). But according to Aigner (1981, p. 289), Stegodon probably became extinct in the late Middle Pleistocene, possibly surviving into the Late Pleistocene (gray part of bar). Palaeoloxodon namadicus apparently became extinct during the last interglacial, in the late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene (Nilsson 1983, p. 487). The probable age range for the Homo sa piens skull from Maba, which is said to have Neanderthaloid features, thus extends from the early Late Pleistocene to the early Early Pleistocene.
This is certainly within the realm of possibility, but a middle Middle Pleistocene date (equivalent to Zhoukoudian Locality 1) or even an Early Pleistocene date of 2 million years are also within the realm of possibility.
What conclusion may here be drawn? It would appear that at Maba we have Homo sapiens, with some Neanderthaloid features, existing within a possible date range that completely overlaps the Homo erectus presence at Zhoukoudian Locality 1. Updating our list, we now find overlapping date ranges in the middle Middle Pleistocene for: (1) primitive Homo erectus ( Lantian); (2) Homo erectus (Zhoukoudian); (3) Homo sapiens (Tongzi); and (4) Homo sapiens with Neanderthaloid features (Maba).
The possibility that Homo erectus and more advanced hominids may have coexisted in China adds new fuel to the controversy about who was really responsible for the broken brain cases of Beijing man and the presence of advanced stone tools at Zhoukoudian Locality 1. Did several hominids, of various grades of advancement, really coexist in the middle Middle Pleistocene? We do not assert this categorically, but it is definitely within the range of possibilities suggested by the available data. In our study of the scientific literature, we have come upon no clear reason for ruling out coexistence