On December 2, 1929, the first fossil hominin skullcap of Homo erectus pekinensis - an example of Homo erectus - estimated to be up to half a million years old, was discovered during excavations at Zhoukoudian, 40 kilometers southwest of Beijing.
The work at Zhoukoudian was carried out under hardy conditions, with scientists having to ride there on mules, and the skull was found by 25-year-old Chinese archaeologist Pei Wenzhong, “working in a 40-meter crevasse in frigid weather with a hammer in one hand and a candle in the other.”
The excavations uncovered a total of 200 fossils from more than 40 individual specimens, including six skullcaps, before coming to an abrupt end in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China. The fossils were then placed in a safe at Peking Union Medical College, before being packed up in 1941 to be sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for safekeeping.
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