Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

But the anatomically modern remains were found along with a typical StegodonAiluropoda fauna, giving a date range for the site of the entire Middle Pleistocene. The assemblage included Hystrix (porcupine), Ursus (bear), and Sus (hog). Since the species were not identifiable, these forms are not useful for precise dating (Han and Xu 1985, p. 286). Ailuropoda melanoleuca fovealis (panda) survives today and Rhinoceros sinensis lived until recently in China. But Stegodon orientalis (elephant) and Megatapirus augustus (giant tapir) probably did not survive past the Middle Pleistocene (Aigner 1981, pp. 289, 325), suggesting that the fossil-bearing cave deposits are at least that old. This completes the main faunal list at Liujiang, although Jia (1980, p. 46) mentions other unnamed species of cattle and deer.

“The [human] skull was found near the cave mouth no more than four meters [about 13 feet] from the find spot of the panda remains,” said Jia (1980, p. 46). “The deposits there consisted of limestone, sand, and earth. The greybrown deposits were very loose and moist in marked contrast to mammalianfossil-bearing deposits found elsewhere in Guangxi, which are hard and yellowish. The types were obviously of different dating.”

It seems Jia (1980, p. 47) assigned a recent date of about 40,000 years to the Liujiang Homo sapiens fossils simply because the stratum where they were found was of a different color and consistency than that found in other caves in the same province. This is a weak argument, considering that the faunal remains are typical of the Middle Pleistocene. One can easily imagine circumstances that might account for different sorts of cave deposits in different locations.

A more frank explanation of the recent dating is suggested by Chang (1962, p. 753): “Woo Ju-kang, who reported the finding of Liu-chiang Man, assumes that the fossil human skull together with that of Ailuropoda is later than Middle Pleistocene. As the human skull is definitely fossilized and of Homosapiens type, it can be assumed that it is of late Pleistocene age.” Wu Xinzhi and Zhang Zhenbiao stated: “although in 1958 most of the representatives of the fauna were thought to have been deposited during the Middle Pleistocene, Wu Rukang believes the hominid remains postdate this epoch” (Wu and Zhang 1985, p. 109). These statements imply that that the remains of the human and panda were deposited in the cave after the other mammalian fossils. One suspects, however, that if the hominid remains had been of the Homo erectus type, scientists would not have felt compelled to interpret the evidence in such a fashion.

Aigner (1981, p. 64) provides an example of some very finely tuned morphological dating: “Based on the descriptions of relative primitiveness of the remains noted by Wu, Coon, and Thoma, a suggested dating of 15,000 or even 25,000 and 40,000 years ago is possible.” Yet the faunal evidence clearly indicates that the possible date range for Liujiang Homo sapiens extends far back into the Middle Pleistocene, contemporary with Lantian man and Beijing man.

9.2.7 Gigantopithecus

Also found in the Pleistocene caves of South China was Gigantopithecus, a very large apelike creature. Weidenreich believed Gigantopithecus was an ancestor of Beijing man, but modern scientists do not accept this. The time range of Gigan topithecus sites in China extends from the Early Pleistocene through the Middle Pleistocene (Han and Xu 1985, pp. 279–284).

9.2.8 Dali

The Dali site in Shaanxi province has yielded a skull classified as Homo sapiens (Han and Xu 1985, p. 284) with primitive features.

The Dali fauna (Han and Xu 1985, p. 284) includes unidentifiable species of Palaeoloxodon (extinct elephant), Equus (horse), Rhinoceros (rhino), Megalo ceros ( large extinct deer), and Bubalus (water buffalo) as well as unidentifiable genera and species of the Castoridae ( beavers). All of the genera found at Dali are represented throughout the Middle Pleistocene and earlier.

Megaloceros pachyosteus (Young), one of the two identifiable species from Dali, occurs at Zhoukoudian Locality 1, and the other species, Pseudaxis grayi (axis deer) occurs at the Lantian man sites, said to be roughly contemporaneous with Zhoukoudian Locality 1 in the middle Middle Pleistocene, if not earlier.

 Some Chinese paleoanthropologists suggest a late Middle Pleistocene age for Dali (Wu, X. and Wu, M. 1985, p. 92). While this may account for the human skull, the associated fauna does not dictate such a date. Rather it suggests for Dali Homo sapiens a possible date range extending further back into the Middle Pleistocene, overlapping, once more, Beijing man at Zhoukoudian Locality 1.