Chinese Don't Dig Peking man

ZHOUKOUDIAN -- China is being urged by international experts to excavate for fossils and artifacts of the 500,000 year-old Peking Man. UNESCO and Electricite de France (EDF) has handed China results of a subsoil study on the Zhoukoudian caves area about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Beijing, where fossils of the Peking Man were first discovered. Three-quarters of the area has never been explored and experts are trying to convince the Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct excavations. But "there is a very likely fear of international cooperation on the part of Chinese officials," a source close to the project said.

UNESCO needs to raise $2.5 million to conduct the project but China does not appear eager to launch an appeal for international cooperation, the source said. EDF, which has put in 1.0 million francs ($200,000) in the subsoil study, is ready to conduct drillings to confirm results of the initial research "but the document should not stay on the shelves," said EDF project head Marc Albouy. "We need a commitment that the excavation will follow," he said.

UNESCO Director Azedine Beschaouch said the exploration on the Zhoukoudian caves where the Peking man was found, is a must "not only for the country which has the privilege of having such a major site on its soil but also for the rest of humanity." The exact location where the first skull was found in 1921 is above 20 meters (66 feet) of sediment which were never excavated. Some 14 prehistoric skulls as well as 147 teeth samples were later found in the 1920's and 30's.

The discovery revolutionized science as it showed that the Peking Man, which lived some 500,000 years ago, could at that time make fire, use tools, and organize funeral rituals. But fossils found at the time of discovery disappeared during the Sino-Japanese war when being transferred to the United States.

EDF experts have selected five zones in the Zhoukoudian area where excavations would have the most chances of yielding fossils. The French company is equipped with the same technology used for detecting cavities underground when it wants to build nuclear reactors or hydroelectric dams. Eight experts have taken 4,000 electromagnetic and microgravimetric measurements for detecting crevices in hard rock. "Thanks to this study, we can tell the Chinese, 'if you want to excavate, this is where you should do it,'" said Marc Albouy, who heads the EDF project. Experts hope to find tools, bones and remains of meals in the caverns, which although they might have been filled up during the past 500,000 years, could have served as lodgings for contemporaries of Peking Man.

The Peking Man is "younger" than other prehistoric fossils, which were found in Africa, said French paleontologist Yves Coppens. But "it is in China that man became modern, well before other regions in the world and it was from there that he left and conquered the Pacific, from America to Australia," Coppens said. The caves were classified in 1987 as a world heritage site. China has also asked UNESCO to conduct a project for more research, reservation and the building of a museum on the site.