‘Modern Man’ from Choukoutien, China

Abstract

SKELETAL remains of ‘modern man’ of Upper Palaeolithic age have at last been found in material from the Choukoutien caves, near Peking, the now world-famous site of discovery of Peking man. This latest find is no more than was to be anticipated from the discovery here some few years ago of relics of palaeolithic man; and indeed it is overdue. The new material, it is stated in a dispatch from the Peking correspondent of The Times in the issue of February 21, is from the Upper Cave, and consists of the remains of seven individuals, who, it would appear, had belonged to one family-an old man, estimated to be more than sixty years of age, a younger man, two relatively young women, an adolescent, a child of five, and a new-born baby. Such a varied assemblage should in the ordinary course provide adequate material for arriving at a fairly close approximation to the racial character of the group; but it would appear that these skeletal remains are remarkably, and indeed unusually, diverse in character for so closely associated a group.