Wesleyan University Archaeology & Anthropology Collections Hominin Fossil Casts
Species Designation: Homo erectus (Sinanthropus pekinensis) Name/ Nickname: Peking Man, Beijing Man Date:  250,000-400,000 years ago Catalog #: 2004-11-39 a and b Description: cranium and mandible

Context of Discovery:

Discovered at Choukoutien near Beijing, China during excavations that began in 1921. The remains of about 15 prehistoric individuals were uncovered. The first fragments were exposed in 1923. The pre-war work was directed by Otto Zdansky, then Davidson Black and later by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Franz Weidenreich.

Facts about "Peking Man":

The original Peking man reconstruction was done by Dr. F. Weidenreich and Mrs. Lucile Swan in 1937 from the fossil remains of a few different individuals. The skull has a rare metopic ridge along the mid-line of the frontal bone. The re-creation shown here is based on a more recent reconstruction by Sawyer and Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History. In this reconstruction, the jaw is more massive because it is based on a male, while the original was based on a female. The original fossils disappeared in 1941 while being shipped to the United States for safety during World War II, but very good casts and descriptions remain. Since the war, other H. erectus fossils have been found at this site.

Important Publications:

Weidenreich, F. 1943. "The skull of Sinanthropus pekinesis." Palaeontologia Sinica (New Series D) 10:1-292.