Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Age of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus determined with 26Al/10Be burial dating

Nature volume 458, pages 198–200 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The age of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus, commonly known as ‘Peking Man’, has long been pursued, but has remained problematic owing to the lack of suitable dating methods1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Here we report cosmogenic 26Al/10Be burial dating of quartz sediments and artefacts from the lower strata of Locality 1 in the southwestern suburb of Beijing, China, where early representatives of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus were discovered. This study marks the first radioisotopic dating of any early hominin site in China beyond the range of mass spectrometric U-series dating. The weighted mean of six meaningful age measurements, 0.77 ± 0.08 million years (Myr, mean ± s.e.m.), provides the best age estimate for lower cultural layers 7–10. Together with previously reported U-series dating of speleothem calcite3 and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy4, as well as sedimentological considerations8,9, these layers may be further correlated to S6–S7 in Chinese loess stratigraphy or marine isotope stages (MIS) 17–19, in the range of ∼0.68 to 0.78 Myr ago. These ages are substantially older than previously supposed and may imply early hominin’s presence at the site in northern China through a relatively mild glacial period corresponding to MIS 18.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Correlation of Zhoukoudian Locality 1 with loess stratigraphy and marine isotope record from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) core 677 (ref. 21).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wu, R. K. et al. Multi-disciplinary Study of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian [in Chinese] (Science Press, 1985)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Zhao, S. S. et al. in Multi-disciplinary Study of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian [in Chinese] (eds, Wu, R. K. et al.) 239–240 (Science Press, 1985)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Shen, G. J. et al. High-precision U-series dating of Locality 1 at Zhoukoudian, China. J. Hum. Evol. 41, 679–688 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Qian, F., Zhang, J. X. & Yin, W. D. in Multi-disciplinary Study of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian [in Chinese] (eds, Wu, R. K. et al.) 251–255 (Science Press, 1985)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Yuan, S. X., Chen, T. M., Gao, S. J. & Hu, Y. Q. U-series dating of fossil bones from Zhoukoudian sites. Acta Anthrop. Sin. 10, 189–193 (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Guo, S. L. et al. Fission track dating of Layer 4 of the Peking Man site. Acta Anthrop. Sin. 10, 73–77 (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Grün, R. et al. ESR analysis of teeth from the palaeoanthropological site of Zhoukoudian, China. J. Hum. Evol. 32, 83–91 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhou, C. L., Liu, Z. C., Wang, Y. J. & Huang, Q. H. Climatic cycles investigated by sediment analysis in Peking Man’s Cave, Zhoukoudian, China. J. Archaeol. Sci. 27, 101–109 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu, Z. C. Sequence of sediments at Locality 1 in Zhoukoudian and correlation with loess stratigraphy in northern China and with the chronology of deep-sea cores. Quat. Res. 23, 139–153 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Yang, Z. G. et al. in Multi-disciplinary Study of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian [in Chinese] (eds, Wu, R. K. et al.) 1–85 (Science Press, 1985)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Goldberg, P., Weiner, S., Bar-Yosef, O., Xu, Q. Q. & Liu, J. Y. Site formation processes at Zhoukoudian, China. J. Hum. Evol. 41, 483–530 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dong, W. et al. A comparative analysis on the mammalian faunas associated with Homo erectus in China. Acta Anthrop. Sin. 19 (suppl.). 246–256 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Aigner, J. S. The age of Zhoukoudian Locality 1: the newly proposed 18O correspondences. Anthropos 23, 157–173 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ludwig, K. R. & Renne, P. R. Geochronology on the Paleoanthropological time scale. Evol. Anthropol. 9, 101–110 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Richards, D. A. & Dorale, J. A. Uranium-series chronology and environmental applications of speleothems. Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 52, 407–460 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Granger, D. E. & Muzikar, P. F. Dating sediment burial with in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides: theory, techniques, and limitations. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 188, 269–281 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Granger, D. E. in In Situ-Produced Cosmogenic Nuclides and Quantification of Geological Processes (eds Siame, L., Bourlès, D. L. & Brown, E. T.) 1–16 (Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. 415, 2006)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Partridge, T. C., Granger, D. E., Caffee, M. C. & Clarke, R. Lower Pliocene hominid remains from Sterkfontein. Science 300, 607–612 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Carbonell, E. et al. The first hominin of Europe. Nature 452, 465–469 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Nishiizumi, K. et al. Absolute calibration of 10Be AMS standards. Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 258, 403–413 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Shackleton, N. J., Berger, A. L. & Peltier, W. R. An alternative astronomical calibration of the lower Pleistocene timescale based on ODP site 677. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb. Earth Sci. 81, 251–261 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhou, L. P. & Shackleton, N. J. Misleading positions of geomagnetic reversal boundaries in Eurasian loess and implications for correlation between continental and marine sedimentary sequences. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 168, 117–130 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Gaboardi, M., Deng, T. & Wang, Y. Middle Pleistocene climate and habitat change at Zhoukoudian, China, from the carbon and oxygen isotopic record from herbivore tooth enamel. Quat. Res. 63, 329–338 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Rightmire, G. P. Human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene: The role of Homo heidelbergensis. Evol. Anthropol. 6, 218–227 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Wu, X. Z. The evolution of humankind in China. Acta Anthrop. Sin. 9, 312–321 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Clark, J. D. et al. African Homo erectus: old radiometric ages and young Oldowan assemblages in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. Science 264, 1907–1910 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Pike, A. W. G. & Pettitt, P. B. U-series dating and human evolution. Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 52, 607–630 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhao, J. X., Hu, K., Collerson, K. D. & Xu, H. K. Thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-series dating of a hominid site near Nanjing, China. Geology 29, 27–30 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Shen, G. J., Gao, X., Zhao, J. X. & Collerson, K. D. U-series dating of Locality 15 at Zhoukoudian, China: implications for hominid evolution. Quat. Res. 62, 208–213 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Stone, J. O. Air pressure and cosmogenic isotope production. J. Geophys. Res. 105, 23753–23759 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Wenner-Gren Foundation. Accelerator mass spectrometer 26Al and 10Be measurements were supported by an NSF facility grant to PRIME Lab. We thank Zhoukoudian Site Museum for assistance in sample collection, L. Zhou, T.-L. Ku and C. Norton for discussions, and S. Zhang and the first author’s graduate students Q. Shao, H. Wang and L. Zhang for assistance in sample collection and pre-treatment.

Author Contributions G.S. and D.E.G. contributed equally to conceiving the project, organizing fieldwork, interpreting data and preparing the paper. X.G. provided access to the site and quartzite artefacts. Chemistry was performed by B.G. and D.E.G.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210046, China,

    Guanjun Shen & Bin Gao

  2. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica, Beijing 100044, China

    Xing Gao

  3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2051, USA,

    Darryl E. Granger

Authors
  1. Guanjun Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xing Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bin Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Darryl E. Granger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Guanjun Shen or Darryl E. Granger.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shen, G., Gao, X., Gao, B. et al. Age of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus determined with 26Al/10Be burial dating. Nature 458, 198–200 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07741

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07741

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing