New analyses verify the use of fire by Peking Man

Zhoukoudian Locality 1 in northern China has been widely known for the discovery of the Middle Pleistocene human ancestor Homo erectus pekinensis ( known as Peking Man ) since the 1920s. By 1931, the suggestion that the Zhoukoudian hominins could use and control fire had become widely accepted. However, some analyses have cast doubt on this assertion as siliceous aggregate (an insoluble phase of burned ash) was not present in ash remains recovered from the site. New analyses of four ash samples retrieved from different positions of Zhoukoudian Locality 1 during the excavations carried out in 2009, present evidence for the controlled use of fire by Peking Man, according to an article published in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin 59(3).

"At present, the key point of the debate over the intentional use of fire by Homo erectus pekinensis at Zhoukoudian is whether or not siliceous aggregate (an insoluble phase of burned ash) is present in ash remains recovered from the site", said study coauthor Dr. GAO Xing, an archaeologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. In order to examine whether siliceous aggregates and potassium are present in the insoluble phase of the ash, GAO Xing and his team collected four samples from different locations at the site with one sample from Layer 6 (ZKD4) and three from Layer 4 (ZKD1, ZKD2, and ZKD3). Once the presence of siliceous aggregates and potassium is identified in the ash deposits, the in situ use of fire can be extrapolated. This method has been used to confirm the presence of anthropogenic fire use at other early sites....