Zhoukoudian

or Chou-k'ou-tien

Archaeological site some 26 mi (42 km) southwest of Beijing, China, where fossil remains of the extinct hominin Homo erectus have been found. So-called Peking man was identified as a new fossil human by Canadian anthropologist Davidson Black in 1927 and variously classified as Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus before being assigned to H. erectus. Partial remains of about 40 individuals along with more than 100,000 artifacts have been uncovered, making Zhoukoudian one of the most important H. erectus sites in the world. Its strata date to 770,000–230,000 years ago. It was named a World Heritage site in 1987.

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