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On May 1, 1965, Chinese scientists found two teeth and some coarse stone tools in Yuanmou county, Henan province. Scientists determined that these are leftovers from primeval humankind, about 1.7 million years ago. They are called "Yuanmou people". They were the ever known earliest humankind that lived in China. |
| For more than 50 years, primeval relics
of humankind had been found in more than 20 places on
China's mainland , from Liaohe in the north to Zhujiang
in the south; most of them were found in the Yellow River
and the Changjiang River valley. The "Lantian people"(the
first illustration is the restored skull of Lantian People")
found in Shaanxi province and the famous "Peking
Man" are among them. China is the country in the
world where most relics of primeval humankind were found. During the early 20th century, at the cave in Longgu hill, Zhoukoudian, southwest of Beijing, bones of primeval humankind were found. They lived 700 to 200 thousand years ago. The "Peking Man" retained the features of apes, but they could use tools in labor. They were humans. They used stones to strike and to make coarse stone tools. The era when such stone tools were used is called "Old Stone Age". They also cut down branches to make bat. Stone tools and bats were the earliest tools that humankind used in labor, and to be able to make tools is the fundamental factor for distinguishing humankind from animals. The "Peking Man" used natural fire. They used fire to bake foodstuff, and to make light and keep warmth, also to scare away beasts. The use of fire strengthened their ability to conquer Nature, was a great progress in the evolution of humankind. The "Peking Man" lived in a hostile environment and used simple and coarse tools. Individuals could not survive by their own efforts. They worked together in groups of several persons each, and shared fruits of labor-they lived a social life, but it was hard. This is also one characteristic of the early human society in primeval time. During the long period of several hundred thousand
years that followed, our ancestors struggled hard with
Nature and got progress step by step. |
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18,000 years ago, in the same region
of the "Peking Man", there also lived another
primeval humankind. Their outlook was almost alike to
modern men. Their bones were found in a cave on top of
the Longgu hill; that's why they are called the "Upper
Cave Man". The Upper cave man still used ground stone tools, but they knew how to polish and drill holes on stone, and they also knew how to make bone needles and the other similar instruments. They also made ornaments. The Upper cave man knew how to make fire by hand. Fishing, hunting and collecting were their major productive labor. The social unit where the Upper cave man lived was a "clan" linked by genealogy. One clan had only several dozen persons descented from a common ancestor. They used common tools in collective labor, and shared foods among the members, and they lived together. Such a living unit is called "clan commune". Members of the clan relied on collective efforts to struggle against Nature. Human society was, by that time, in the "clan commune" stage of primitive society. |