PRESERVED FROM THE JAPANESE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 14050, 3 May 1946, Page 5

PRESERVED FROM THE JAPANESE

PEKING MAN AND HIS FAMILY

DESPOILERS SEARCH IN VAIN The Chinese are justly proud of having preserved from the Japanese the oldest-known of their ancestors —Peking Man and his family, states an English exchange. The ancient benes were found in 1929, at Choukoutien, 35 miles from Peking, where they had lain perhaps for a million years in one of a number of caves that had been filled up with gravel and earth that had become almost solid rock. Excavations were carried out over successive. years, and revealed remains of men, women, and children, and with them evidence that Peking Man, Sinanthropus Pekinensis, as the scientists called him, was not only (he most ancient human being ever discovered, but a hunter, a traveller, and a worker of tools from quartz that ho had brought from afar, and, moreover, one that knew the use of fire and employed it for warmth and for cooking his fcod.

The discovery was undoubtedly one of the most important as yet made in the unfolding of the story of man kind.

When the Japanese captured Peking and the surrounding country they possessed themselves of the Peking Man’s caves. They discovered there some of the tools he had made and used, some of the personal ornaments he had . fashioned, and even a tooth that he had elaborately carved. These things they earned, off. But the remains of Peking Man himself and of his kindred, the invaders. despite a three years’ search, could not find. The Chinese had hidden them in safety and secrecy, and the despoilers sought them in vain. Now the relics taken to Tokio have been recovered, and in due course,, no doubt, the fossilised remnants of Peking Man and his family will once more come to light.