‘Peking Man’ Site Left Unprotected, China Says
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BEIJING — China has disciplined two officials for failing to protect the site where the skull of the “Peking man” was found more than 60 years ago, the official New China News Agency reported Tuesday.
It said pollution from nearby factories and lime kilns is endangering the site, about 30 miles southwest of the capital, where the first skull fragments of what became known as Peking man were discovered in 1927. The skull, from a forerunner of modern humans known as Homo erectus, is believed to be up to 500,000 years old.
The city government ordered three factories and four lime kilns shut, but officials did not implement the directives.
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