Hunt for ancestral bones

It8217;s a mystery that has baffled the world for more than a half-century. What happened to the fossils of the prehistoric human ancestors known as Peking Man?

It8217;s a mystery that has baffled the world for more than a half-century. What happened to the fossils of the prehistoric human ancestors known as Peking Man? Their discovery in the late 1920s and 1930s in limestone caves on the outskirts of Beijing, then called Peking, was one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. The discovery was not the first of its kind, but it was the first and largest group of fossils of this ancient human found in China.

The fossils, which are believed to be 250,000 to 500,000 years old, included skull fragments, five almost complete skulls and other bones of more than 40 individuals. Before more study could be done on the specimens, they disappeared amid a backdrop of war and intrigue.

As time passed, even older fossils of early humans were found in Africa. The search for the missing evidence of Peking Man waned. Then last year, the local government of the dusty suburb where they were found decided to give it another go. A search committee was formed and a hot line established.

The new group sounds determined, despite long odds. 8216;8216;We have to be confident and give it our all, even if there is only the slightest of hope,8217;8217; said Wang Zhimiao, a member of the committee that works in an office on the hilly grounds of the Zhoukoudian Peking Man site. Calls for a new search arose among Chinese scholars in the late 1990s.

8216;8216;I don8217;t know where they are. I believe they still exist,8217;8217; said Yang Haifeng, head of the search committee. 8216;8216;What belongs to us should be returned to us.8217;8217; The committee8217;s enthusiasm seems naive to those who have spent decades chasing dead ends. 8216;8216;This is not a mystery,8217;8217; said Zhou Guoxing, 70, an archaeologist who has devoted most of his life to looking for the fossils and serves as an adviser to the committee. 8216;8216;Somebody simply took it and hid it.8221;

Out by the cave where the fossils of the hairy, heavy-browed human ancestors were found, a dozen staff members sift through the nearly 100 leads that have come in via phone calls, e-mail and letters. A construction worker thinks the fossils are in Tianjin. He once worked at a US base there and said he saw Americans stash a box in a secret compartment before they fled China. A former Chinese serviceman said they were in Taiwan. He said he saw a military plane fly to the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung from Beijing during World War II and unload large crates that took three days to bury.

Western scientists first showed interest in Chinese fossils during the late 19th century. Decades later, a Swedish geologist, fascinated by a tooth believed to be 2 million years old in the collection of a German physician who had hunted fossils in China, began his own search in old Beijing. A local farmer led him to a cave in Zhoukoudian called Dragon Bone Hill.

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In the late 1920s, an international team of palaeontologist struck pay dirt in Zhoukoudian. A Chinese archaeologist clinging to the side of the frigid cave by a rope saw a nearly complete human skull embedded in the rock. Throughout the 1930s, more specimens of early human existence8212;teeth, bones, jaws and more skull fragments, as well as evidence of the use of fire and stone tools8212;emerged from the site. But as scientists sought to build a more complete picture of how the early humans lived, war began. Japan invaded China in 1937 and all excavation ended.

In 1941, a decision was made by Chinese and US scientists to take the fossils to the US for safekeeping. Plans were made to pack the specimens at the Peking Union Medical College to be transferred to the Marine Corps in the port of Qinhaungdao. The ship was scheduled to leave on December 8, 1941. But the day before, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, and the Marines in charge of the two crates were taken prisoner by the Japanese. What happened to the fossils has been a mystery ever since. Ching-Ching Ni