Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1988, Vol. 7 ›› Issue (02): 97-101、191.

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The reconstruction of the fossil human skull from Jinniushan, Yinkou, Liaoning Province and its maintures

Wu Rukang (Woo Ju-kang)   

  • Online:1988-06-15 Published:1988-06-15

Abstract: A fairly complete fossil skeleton of human was found in 1984 by the Paleolithic Archeology Student Excavation Team of Peking University headed by Lu Zun'e at the foot of Jinniushan (Golden Ox Mountain) in Yinkou County, Liaoning Province in northeast China about 400 kilometres to the north of Beijing.
The skull was broken into more than one hundred pieces and it was sent to me for reconstruction. As most of the broken pieces are still kept in their original places, the skull can be quite accurately reconstructed with the help of our technician Zhao Zhongyi.
The skull belongs to a male individual over 30 years of age.
lts cranial capacity is about 1390 ml. The thickness of the vault is 4.5 mm in average. Together with many other features, the total morphological pattern is much more closer to that of the early or archaic Homo sapiens such as the Dali skull than to that of the latest Homo erectus such as the Peking Man skull found in the upper part of the Zhoukoudian Lower cave.
The tentative date of the Jinniushan skull of 280,000 years old as given by Lu is doubtful.

Key words: Jinniushan fossil man; Early Homo sapiens; Reconstruction of skull