26Al/10Be Age of Peking Man

The chronological position of Peking Man, or Homo erectus pekinensis, has long been pursued, but has remained problematic due to lack of a suitable dating method^1-7^. Here we report cosmogenic ^26^Al/ ^10^Be burial dating of quartz sediments and artifacts from the lower strata of Zhoukoudian Locality 1 where the remains of early members of the Peking Man family were discovered. This study marks the first radioisotopic dating of any early hominin site in China beyond the range of mass spectrometric U-series dating. The weighted mean of six meaningful measurements, 0.75 +/-; 0.09 (0.11) Ma (million years), provides the best age estimate for lower cultural Layers ^7-10^. Together with previously reported U-series^3^ and paleomagnetic^4^ data, as well as sedimentological considerations^8, 9^ these layers may be further correlated to S6-S7 in Chinese loess stratigraphy or marine isotope stages 17-18, in the range of ~0.68-0.75 Ma. These ages are substantially older than previously supposed and may imply hominin presence in northern China throughout early Middle Pleistocene climate cycles