EARLY HUMANS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12804, 7 March 1936, Page 9

EARLY HUMANS

REMAINS OF “PEKING MAN.”

RACE OF A MILLION YEARS AGO

''pIIE announcement, that further rcmains of a Peking man have been discovered in China has coincided with, the receipt-in England of the first complete report on all the remains which have been hitherto found of this million-years-old race of men (states a London correspondent writing early this year). T.n place of the two skulls and odd bones and- teeth with which anthropologists have previously had to be content, a classified description is given of the recovered remains of 21 individuals, ranging in age from five years to more than 50. The theory is advanced that- the cave-dwellers of early China were cannibals with a “weakness” for children, the remains discovered representing head-hunters’ trophies.

The conclusion is reached that- Peking man may have been the direct forerunner of the “low-brow” Neanderthal race, which lived in Europe between 50,000 and 20,000 B.C.

In spite, of his bloodthirsty habits, in certain peculiarities of his jaw Peking man shows definite resemblances to tHo modern Mongolian racegroup. and particularly to the Eski-

Tho report- represents the first work iri this field of Dr. Franz Wiedenreich, the new director of Peking man investigations fnr the Geological Survey of China. Further finds have since boon announced. Remains of Peking man have all come from the limestone eaves ol Chon Ron Tien, south-east of Peking, where a tooth, the first, proof of human occupation, was found in 1927. ft. is remarkable (hat from this single find Professor Davidson Black. Dr. Wcidenreidi’s predecessor at I <>- king, was aide to draw the correct conclusion that, he was dealing with a hitherto unknown race of man.

Prehistoric Cannibals. The catalogue, as now completed liv Dr. Weidenreiek, comprises 10 children, two adolescents, and 12 adults, Ihe sexes being evenly represented in each ease. Practically every stage of childhood growth seems to have fallen victim to these prehistoric cannibals. According to Dr. Wcidenroich’s classification, there is one child of five years of age, one of d-6. one of 7-R, four of £-f>, one of 0-10, one of 11. one of 101 I, and two adolescents of 1.4-IP. In addition to a man of over .00. two others, both women, are described as “surely old.” Dr. Weidenroioh’s most serious doubt is whether his method of “sex determination” may not have, led hint to overestimate the number of females. TTis conclusion that flic remains are cannibalistic is based on the fact that they consist almost exclusively of jaws, teeth, and fragments of brain eases, and were in most eases crushed or broken before (ossilisnlion

began. “ft is impossible.” he comnienis. “{hat the bodies of at least 21 individuals could have been so completely smashed that nothing else remains.” Preyed on Own Race. I)r. Weidenreich also concludes that- there is no evidence of the simultaneons existence of any more developed race, who might lie supposed to have preyed on the race whose remains have now been discovered, and, therefore, that Peking man, although civilised enough to have the use of fire, was also capable of preying' on members of his own race. “There is nothing comparable anywhere with this numerous collection of individuals of such an early race,” Sir Grafton Klliot-Smith has stated. “Piltdown man in England, and also Java man, are represented by the remains of only single individuals. “It is of extraordinary value to have a group of people to study instead of only one. The great problem is always to determine how far the characteristics of any one individual can be taken as those of the race. One man, for all we can fell, might have been abnormal. “This report should also help to restore confidence in the work of anthropologists. From one tooth, Professor Davidson Black postulated a new race. His conclusion was supported by the finding of the original Poking skull and subsequent remains. Now this fuller report on a larger number of individuals comes to hear out our main picture of Poking man.”