Choukoutien

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Location	China
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, vi
Reference	449
UNESCO region	Asia-Pacific
Coordinates	39°41′21″N 115°55′26″E / 39.689167°N 115.923889°E / 39.689167; 115.923889Coordinates: 39°41′21″N 115°55′26″E / 39.689167°N 115.923889°E / 39.689167; 115.923889
Inscription history
Inscription	1987 (11th Session)
Chinese name
Chinese	周口店
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōukǒudiàn
Location of Zhoukoudian in China.

Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien (周口店) is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris.

Dates of when Peking Man inhabited this site vary greatly: 700,000-200,000 years ago, 670,000-470,000 years ago and no earlier than 530,000 years ago.

The Peking Man Site was first discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth. These were later identified by Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species and extensive excavations followed. Fissures in the limestone containing middle deposits have yielded the remains of about 45 individuals as well as animal remains and stone flake and chopping tools.

The oldest animal remains date from as early as 690,000 years ago and tools from 670,000 years ago while another authority dates the tools found from no earlier than 530,000 years ago. During the Upper Palaeolithic, the site was re-occupied and remains of Homo sapiens and its stone and bone tools have also been recovered from the Upper Cave.

The crater Choukoutien on asteroid 243 Ida was named after the location. The caves are located in Fangshan District, southwest of central Beijing.

Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson first started his explorations of the region in 1918 at an area called Chicken-bone Hill by locals who had misidentified the rodent fossils that were found in abundance there, but it was not until 1921 that he and American palaeontologist Walter W. Granger were led to the site known as Dragon Bone Hill by local quarry men. Noticing some white quartz that was foreign to the area he immediately realised that this would be a good place to search for the remains of primitive man.