Under the direction of Dr. John Olsen, Mr. Xing Gao will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will analyze archaeological material collected from the very important site of Zhoukoudian Locality 15 (ZL15), and clean the original profile of the excavation to describe the stratigraphy and collect materials for geological and chronological analysis. `Zhoukoudian` includes a series of sites which together likely span a major part of the last Ice Age and therefore probably represent an interval of over half a million years. The majority of the archaeological work at these sites predates World War II and is best known for the fossil Homo erectus crania which were recovered in association with faunal remains and stone tools. This East Asian hominid material has recently been a subject lively interest because it is uncertain whether the lineage they represent terminated prehistorically or whether a link exists with current Asian peoples. In this context ZL15 is particularly important because preliminary analysis indicates that in its lowest level it overlaps with the Homo erectus material in time and that the uppermost level may be fairly recent in date. It thus may provide a needed bridge. However the abundant cultural and faunal materials from the site have not been studied and the geology and chronology has not been addressed using modern techniques. Mr. Gao will conduct both field and laboratory research. In the field he will survey Zhoukoudian Hill and the immediately surrounding area. He will clear the ZL15 section and collect sediment, faunal and floral (including pollen) samples which will be subject to detailed analysis including absolute dating, palynological analysis and pedological and sedimentological study. Uranium series dating on fossil bone and speleothems, fission-track dating on ash and burned materials and amino acid racemization and electron spin resonance dating of fossil teeth will help to determine the ages of the individual levels. Approximately 10,000 pieces of worked stone were recovered from the site and Mr. Gao will conduct typological and technological analyses of these. He will also, with the help of colleagues, study the faunal remains both to identify species represented and to reconstruct subsistence practices. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the basis for the physical variation observed among human populations today. It will increase our understanding of the prehistory of a little known region of the world and provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also assist in the training of a promising scientist.
