Tuesday, December 29, 2020

What Happened to Peking Man?

 


Early hominid fossils lost in China in 1941.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mystery-of-the-lost-peking-man-fossils-solved-166415409/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_Man

In 1941, to safeguard them during the war, the Zhoukoudian human fossils—representing at least 40 different individuals—and artefacts were deposited into 2 wooden footlockers and were to be transported by the United States Marine Corps from the Peking Union Medical College to the SS President Harrison which was to dock at Qinhuangdao Port (near the Marine basecamp Camp Holcomb), and eventually arrive at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Unfortunately, the ship was attacked by Japanese warships en route to Qinhuangdao, and ran aground. Though there have been many attempts to locate the crates—including offering large cash rewards—it is unknown what happened to them after they left the college. Marine Richard Bowen recalled finding a box filled with bones while digging a foxhole one night next to some stone barracks in Qinhuangdao, while the city was under siege by the CCP Eighth Route Army who were under fire from Nationalist gunboats (a conflict of the Chinese Civil War). According to Mr. Wang Qingpu who had written a report for the Chinese government on the history of the port, if Bowen's story is accurate, the most probable location of the bones is 39°55′4″N 119°34′0″E underneath roads, a warehouse, or a parking lot.

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