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Reports Archaeologists find 25,000-year-old human bones

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

BEIJING (AP) -- Archaeologists have discovered the bones of a human who lived 25,000 years ago, in a cave on the outskirts of Beijing, news reports said Tuesday

The bones were found in the village of Zhoukoudian near the site where the Peking Man fossils were discovered, newspapers and the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Excavations began in the cave in 2001 after forestry workers discovered fossilized animals there, Xinhua said, citing the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The gender and exact age of the remains are still not known, although the news reports said they were believed to be those of an adult male, and that researchers estimated them to be 25,000 years old.

Archaeologists found a human jaw with teeth, and bones from the shoulder, leg, arm and spine, Xinhua said. It said several teeth were also found but were believed to have come from another individual.

Researchers also found remains of 26 animals in the cave, mostly deer and hedgehogs, Xinhua said. Researchers said some marks -- possibly burns -- were found on the animals' remains.

Archaeologists have been excavating at sites in Zhoukoudian since the 1920s.

In 1929, archaeologists found fossil remains there of some half-ape, half-human creatures that lived 250,000 to 500,000 years ago and became known as Peking Man.

Most of those fossils disappeared during World War II.

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