In the 1920s, Homo erectus pekinensis or “Peking Man” were discovered in Zhoukoudian. And as the researchers have discovered multiple kinds of burned items such as stones, bones, seeds, and charcoal fragments during excavation, they concluded that there were evidence suggesting the possibility of hominin-controlled use of fire. Use of fire is an extremely crucial skill or feature in the evolutionary history of humans because it is theoretically associated with higher cognitive skills to manipulate or manufacture fire and the consumption of cooked meat, which might be related to encephalization.
However, there were also debates around whether the existing evidence could really support for hominin use of fire conclusively. For example, Binford, Ho, and Boaz have suggested that the association between hominin fossils and stone tools was weak and the cave originally thought to be the habitation site might actually be a hyena den.
In a recent review (Gao et al. 2017), researchers have reviewed the original field notes, reports, and papers. And combined with new field discoveries and evidence since 2009, they argued that there was “clear-cut evidence for in situ use of fire” (S267) in Layer 4 of Locality 1 in Zhoukoudian. They have found burned materials like fire-cracked rocks and burned animal bones throughout the deposit, and there were also fireplaces and hearths being discovered to be outlined with stones. They have also conducted multiple kinds of quantitative measurements and analyses for siliceous aggregates, magnetic susceptibility, and redness in the archaeological sites to determine the potential use of fire. Addressing the idea that the cave might actually be a den of large carnivores, they have also described the possibility that H. erectus pekinensis and hyenas or cave bears might have both used the cave across different periods throughout the history of the cave’s formation.
To conclude, there have been new and reliable evidence supporting for the use and maintenance of fire by hominins in the Zhoukoudian site. But more research is needed to excavate other layers and investigate other aspects of how these early hominins have lived their lives and interacted with the local environment in the evolutionary process.
References
Gao, Xing, Shuangquan Zhang, Yue Zhang, and Fuyou Chen. 2017. “Evidence of Hominin Use and Maintenance of Fire at Zhoukoudian.” Current Anthropology 58 (S16): S267–77. https://doi.org/10.1086/692501.