PRIMITIVE MAN IN CHINA SMITH 547 



plements had been found. When it is considered how vast a quan- 

 tity of fossils were recovered and the scrupulous care which has 

 been exercised in the search, it seems something more than a mere 

 coincidence that no trace of any stone implements were found. Not 

 only were the various excavators on the constant lookout for such 

 artifacts (in particular Father Teilhard has been looking for ar- 

 cheological evidence), but after the material was removed from the 

 caves, a group of boys was put on to sift the material once more 

 to make quite certain that no such evidence had been overlooked 

 by the geological explorers. It must not be forgotten, however, that 

 Doctor Andersson in 1921 found pieces of quartz in association with 

 the fossil bones, and that in the later stages of the excavation Mr, Pei 

 found further examples of this alien material. Those who have been 

 searching in vain for evidence of human craftsmanship on this site 

 were being forced to the conclusion that the Peking man was in 

 such an early phase of development as not yet to have begun to 

 shape implements of stone for the ordinary needs of his daily life. 

 In the spring of 1931, however, Mr. Pei began to examine the 

 adjoining cave of Kotzetang (fig. 2) and was at once rewarded by dis- 

 coveries of exceptional interest and significance. In association with 

 two large fragments of a human jaw and three pieces of a brain case 

 (found at SG, fig. 2) thousands of pieces of quartz, quartzite, and 

 other alien stones were found. Some of these had been fashioned 

 into implements which the discoverers regard as the crudest possible 

 type of flaking, but the Abbe Breuil claims to be surprisingly ad- 

 vanced. (Bull. Geol. Soc. China, 1931; also Man, Jan. and April, 

 1932.) Not only so but Mr. Pei and Dr. Davidson Black found 

 conclusive evidence of the use of fire and, according to the Abbe 

 Breuil, of the splitting of the bones of large mammals to obtain 

 marrow, the making of implements of bone and deer-horn, and the 

 working of the brain-cases of deer to make drinking cups. No longer 

 then is there any room for doubt that the most generalized member 

 of the human family had already acquired the skill and the intelli- 

 gence which are the hall-marks of his humanity. 

 102992—32 36 



