Makers › Scientist

Pei Wenzhong

Palaeoanthropologist and prehistorian who found the first Peking Man skullcap at Zhoukoudian in December 1929 and directed the excavation of the Upper Cave.

Also known as W. C. Pei

Pei Wenzhong was born in 1904 at Fengnan in Zhili. He graduated in geology from Peking University in 1927 and in 1928 went to Zhoukoudian to join the fossil excavations, taking charge of the field work the following year. On 2 December 1929, deep in the cave fissure, he found the first Peking Man skullcap, and he went on to identify stone tools and traces of fire at the site. In 1933–34 he directed the excavation of the Upper Cave and wrote its report on the Upper Cave culture. He studied prehistoric archaeology at the University of Paris from 1935, taking his doctorate in 1937, and spent the rest of his career on human fossils and the Palaeolithic. He died in Beijing in 1982.

Life and times

  1. 1904 CEBornQingRepublican EraModern Erabirth by another account 1903
  2. 1927Peking Man DiscoveredTook partage 23In the systematic excavation of Zhoukoudian, Pei Wenzhong found the first Peking Man skullcap in 1929 and Jia Lanpo three more in 1936, making the site a key place for the study of human origins.
    1. Pei Wenzhong Finds Peking Man Skullcap1929age 25On 2 December 1929 Pei Wenzhong found the first complete Peking Man skullcap at Locality 1, Zhoukoudian, carrying the human story back more than 500,000 years.
  3. 1982 CEDied

Connections

  1. Shared events2
    1. Jia Lanpo1908–2001
    2. Yang Zhongjian1897 CE–1979 CE