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500,000-year-old Peking Man Site Faces Potential Damages
Already having suffered the loss of six valuable intact skulls during World War II, the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, where the 500,000-year-old skull of Peking Man was discovered, now faces potential damage from natural causes.
The World Heritage Site, which is in Beijing's southwestern suburbs, holds the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human beings and is known as the only site of continuous habitation by our early ancestors from between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Zhu Ming, director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paeleonto-logy and Paeleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the site has been exposed to air since it was excavated half a century ago.
There are holes made by bees on sections of the cave walls, portions of the outer cave has been eroded by rain and weeds and bushes have almost covered the Ape Man Cave.
Moreover, repair work on the Zhoukoudian Museum has been stopped for lack of money. The museum has been closed for seven months.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will come to China and review all sites on the World Heritage list later this year. Any site listed before 1994 with improper protection measures or serious damage will be ranked as endangered heritage.
Insiders say China's first addition to the World Heritage list will lose its status if no immediate action is taken to protect the Zhoukoudian site.
Zhu, whose institution is in charge of the site, attributed the declining situation to insufficient financing.
It would cost 60,000 yuan (US$7,220) to weed the Ape Man Cave and 3-5 million yuan (US$361,000 to US$602,000) to repair the museum and rearrange the exhibits.
Pollutants from a number of small cement factories near the site have also contributed to the damage.
Zhu said his institution has formed a protection commission to raise funds overseas, but its efforts have so far failed.
The Zhoukoudian site holds the richest remains of prehistoric man in the world.
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