Taiwan Today

 

Peking Man is the oldest hominid whose life style is known in any detail.

He lived southwest of Peking some half a million years ago. He stood about 5 feet tall and had a brain capacity only slightly smaller than modern man.

Probably he had developed language, al­though this is not known for certain.

He used fire and tools. A cave dweller, he may have had a primitive religious sense.

 

 

The relics of Peking Man were unearthed in the period from 1921 to 1939. In 1941, the Japanese were advancing into the Chinese hinterland.

The fos­sils were to have been sent to the U.S. but disappeared and have never been seen sir ce.

Newly opened at the National Museum of History in Taipei is a diorama of what life was like in the time of Peking Man.

Life-size figures have been placed in a cave setting believed to resemble that of his ancient home.

Left from top to bottom:

Peking Man was a hunter rather than a farmer; here he fights a bear with the crude weapons at his command.

He drinks from a spring; nearness to water was one of the prime requi­sites in his choice of a living place.

A hunter returns to the cave with a deer slung over his shoulder.

Peking Man had learned that fire could keep him warm in the chill of North China's winters and presumably cooked some of his food.

He also fashioned tools and weapons from wood, bone and stone.

The figures in the permanent exhibit of the Museum of History are based on many years of studying pictures of Peking Man. Some of the fossils and stone implements came from the site of the excavation.

The bones of about 40 individ­uals were unearthed in reconstructing Peking Man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some anthropolo­gists believe the modern Chinese are descended from Peking Man or a similar hominid.

These people would have had no need of hard hats to protect their heads from injury.

The bone of their craniums was nearly twice as thick as that of the man of today.