关键词: 周口店;北京猿人;用火证据;考古发掘;地化分析

Abstract: Evidences for “controlled use of fire” by the Peking Man(Homo erectus pekinensis) from Zhoukoudian (ZKD) Locality 1 is one of the most important discoveries at the site during its early excavations. It was widely accepted for a long period of time that ZKD provided the earliest such record in human evolutionary history. However, since the mid-1980s, this notion has been repeatedly challenged and early evidences were questioned. Following limited taphonomic and geochemical studies that were conducted in the 1990s debates over controlled use of fire at ZKD locality 1 increased given their negative conclusions. ZKD is a very complicated site with intricate cave deposits, the remaining Western Section may hardly represent its original structure and taphonomic condition of the cave occupied by the Peking Man in the Middle Pleistocene, and contemporary researchers may never have the same opportunity with investigators who worked at the site in the 1920s-1930s so as to observe first-handed remains and features fresh and intact left by the Peking Man in various horizons. Thus, result of limited sampling and analysis on the surface of extant section can hardly refute the conclusions reached in the past which was based on a series of systematic investigations. In particular, some faults of negations in debates were largely based on hypothetical and speculative assumptions stemming from a theoretical shift concerning conceptions of early hominin subsistence capabilities, including hunting big game and using fire. A thorough review of original ZKD field notes, excavation reports and research papers leads to the conclusion that the unearthed fossil and cultural materials and traces of fire-use activities in certain horizons at the site are abundant, unambiguous and adequately supportive. A new set of field investigations and laboratory analyses initiated at the site in 2009 have yielded new and solid evidences to support the early establishment of in situ use of fire by the Peking Man. Our current knowledge indicates that Layer 4 at ZKD Locality 1 contains unambiguous evidences for in situ use of fire, including hearth structures. Future excavation and research conducted on the lower horizons may likely reveal similar evidence.

Key words: Zhoukoudian; Homo erectus pekinensis; fire-use evidence; excavation; geochemical analysis