Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice-Age Saga of Homo erectus

[...]... Swan sculpting “Nellie,” a soft-part reconstruction of Homo erectus, under the scientific direction of Franz Weidenreich Page 145: Javan Homo erectus skull, Sangiran 17 xvi List of Illustrations Page 146: Recently discovered fossil skull (left) of Homo erectus from the site of Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, compared with Homo habilis skull ER 1813 (right) from east of Lake Turkana, Kenya Page 150: Clinal... University of Iowa Foundation Authors’ royalties from the sale of this volume will be donated to the Zhoukoudian Museum at Dragon Bone Hill, a United Nations World Heri­ tage site Noel T Boaz Russell L Ciochon This page intentionally left blank List of Illustrations Page 2: (top) Map of Dragon Bone Hill (“Longgushan”) and Beijing (middle) Map of Longgushan and the town of Zhoukoudian (bottom) A plan view of. .. Final reconstruction of Javan Homo erectus with volcanos in the background by artist Jay Matternes This page intentionally left blank DRAGON BONE HILL This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 The Bones of Dragon Hill In the 1920s, when the excavations started at Dragon Bone Hill, the understanding of human evolution was in a confused state Eugene Dubois, the discoverer of Pithecanthropus from Java,... he could arrange it, Andersson visited the village of Zhoukoudian Locals took him to an outcropping of red clay-like rock standing as an isolated pillar in the middle of an old 6 Dragon Bone Hill limestone quarry Much of the limestone from which the buildings of Beijing were built came from Zhoukoudian quarries such as this Andersson saw many small bones protruding from the sediment The translator told... page Top: Dragon Bone Hill (“Longgushan”) is located 50 kilometers southwest of Beijing, near the town of Zhoukoudian Located strategically at the point where the Western Hills meet the North Chinese Plain and near the Zhoukou River, Longgushan offered shelter, nearby water, and a vantage point for prey for Pleistocene carnivores, and at times, Homo erectus Middle: The location of ancient dragon bone quarrying... Portland State Univer­ sity, the Portland (Oregon) Public Library, the University of California at Berkeley, Georgetown University (Walter Granger and Lucille Swan Col­ lections), and the Smithsonian Institution (Frank Webb Collection) John Olsen, Milford Wolpoff, and Robert Franciscus critically read the manuscript and we thank them for many valuable comments and sugges­ tions Rubén Uribe, Nathan Totten,... Paleontologist Walter Granger of the American Museum of Natural His­ tory had been in on Andersson and Zdansky’s discovery of the Longgushan site in 1921 News of this discovery was added to Granger’s report back to New York to museum director and paleontological czar, Henry Fairfield Osborn Osborn, friend of Teddy Roosevelt and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, sat in... Preface xi analysis Sandy Martin and Lynette Nearn are thanked for their significant contributions to our cranial pachyostosis studies Christopher Janus, Lucian Pye, and Martin Taschdjian provided valuable insights into historical as­ pects of the disappearance and search for the Peking Man fossils We thank the following for their help in archival and library research for the project: Paula Willey of the... 64: Homo erectus molar compared to Gigantopithecus molar Page 66: Weidenreich’s trellis of multiregional evolution in the hominid family proposed in 1945 Page 69: Olduvai Hominid 9, a Homo erectus skullcap from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Page 75: Skull III, showing the pronounced cranial thickness of the skull of Homo erectus Page 78: Cranial capacity of Homo erectus compared with other hominids and apes... direction Lanpo Jia Pigeon Hall Cave (“Gezitang” in Chinese) was originally dug out by generations of dragon bone quarriers Dragon Bone Hill was designated a United Nations World Heritage site in 1987 4 Dragon Bone Hill shops sold vertebrate fossils under the names of “long gu” ( dragon bones”) and “long ya” ( dragon teeth”) Traditional Chinese believe that the fossil­ ized bones are the remains of dragons—mythical . alt="" Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice-Age Saga of Homo erectus NOEL T. BOAZ RUSSELL L. CIOCHON OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS DRAGON BONE HILL This page intentionally left blank DRAGON BONE HILL An. Chardin (left) at Dragon Bone Hill in 1935. Page 110: (top) Geological sketch of Dragon Bone Hill localities and sedi- ments by Teilhard de Chardin. (bottom) View of Dragon Bone Hill from the. at Dragon Bone Hill, a United Nations World Heri- tage site. Noel T. Boaz Russell L. Ciochon This page intentionally left blank List of Illustrations Page 2: (top) Map of Dragon Bone Hill