Post by L Roebuck on Oct 11, 2005 8:16:43 GMT -5
Archaeology: Peking Man, still missing and missed
By Sheila Melvin International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005
ZHOUKOUDIAN, China On a sunny morning last month, the normally tranquil Paleoanthropological Research Center at Dragon Bone Hill in the outskirts of Beijing was abuzz with journalists. They were gathered outdoors before a festive red and gold banner that announced the purpose of the gathering: the official establishment of the Working Committee to Search for the Lost Skullcaps of Peking Man.
Beneath the banner were poster-size photos of six skullcaps of the 500,000- year-old human ancestor known as Sinanthropus pekinensis, or Peking Man, now called Homo erectus pekinensis. The bones were discovered at Dragon Bone Hill in the Fangshan District in the 1920s and 1930s but were inexplicably lost in 1941 while being transported to the United States for safekeeping during the Japanese occupation of China.
As microphones were thrust forward and cameras rolled, the Working Committee members - paleontologists, government officials and retired intellectuals - filed onto a red carpet. A local official stepped forward to explain his government's determination to find the missing bones.
A hot line has been established, he announced. Call 86-10-6930-1287 if you have information about the missing hominids - and 63 clues had been received to date. He then read off a list of the missing bones and concluded pep-rally style by proclaiming, "We hope Peking Man will come home soon!"
If the official's hopefulness seemed misplaced - scientists, swashbucklers and swindlers have been searching for the bones for more than 60 years - he can hardly be blamed. The discovery of the skullcaps and other bone fragments in a limestone cave in Dragon Bone Hill between 1929 and 1936 was one of the most important paleoanthropological finds of the 20th century.
Rest of the article:
www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/10/features/melvin.php
Source: International Herald Tribune
By Sheila Melvin International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005
ZHOUKOUDIAN, China On a sunny morning last month, the normally tranquil Paleoanthropological Research Center at Dragon Bone Hill in the outskirts of Beijing was abuzz with journalists. They were gathered outdoors before a festive red and gold banner that announced the purpose of the gathering: the official establishment of the Working Committee to Search for the Lost Skullcaps of Peking Man.
Beneath the banner were poster-size photos of six skullcaps of the 500,000- year-old human ancestor known as Sinanthropus pekinensis, or Peking Man, now called Homo erectus pekinensis. The bones were discovered at Dragon Bone Hill in the Fangshan District in the 1920s and 1930s but were inexplicably lost in 1941 while being transported to the United States for safekeeping during the Japanese occupation of China.
As microphones were thrust forward and cameras rolled, the Working Committee members - paleontologists, government officials and retired intellectuals - filed onto a red carpet. A local official stepped forward to explain his government's determination to find the missing bones.
A hot line has been established, he announced. Call 86-10-6930-1287 if you have information about the missing hominids - and 63 clues had been received to date. He then read off a list of the missing bones and concluded pep-rally style by proclaiming, "We hope Peking Man will come home soon!"
If the official's hopefulness seemed misplaced - scientists, swashbucklers and swindlers have been searching for the bones for more than 60 years - he can hardly be blamed. The discovery of the skullcaps and other bone fragments in a limestone cave in Dragon Bone Hill between 1929 and 1936 was one of the most important paleoanthropological finds of the 20th century.
Rest of the article:
www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/10/features/melvin.php
Source: International Herald Tribune