HEXIAN
LOCATION
Longtandong (Dragon Pool) Cave in Hexian County,
Anhui Province, eastern China.
DISCOVERY
Site first identified by local farmers in 1973; hominid
fossils collected by W. Qng and others in 1980 and
1981.MATERIAL
Fragments of several hominid individuals have report-
edly been recovered, but only the skullcap PA 830 has
been anything like adequately figured. Other speci-
mens reportedly include a mandible and isolated teeth
(see Wu and Poirier, 1995).DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Initial assessment of the associated fauna in the cave
sediments suggested a Middle Pleistocene age (Huang
et al., 1982). The human remains, and most of the
fauna, were concentrated in a limited area of Layer 2,
toward the bottom of the deposit. An initial dating by
ESR on mammal teeth by Huang et al. (1995) pro-
duced an age of about 300 Ka. Subsequently, however,
Griin et al. (1998) subjected mammal teeth from the
Level 2 assemblage to both ESR and U-series analy-
ses. The combination of these two methods produced
an age estimate of about 412 Ka, i.e., at the transition
between isotope stages 12 and 11. This agrees quite
well with the composition of the fauna.ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
None.PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
The calvaria has been assigned to Homo erectus, and
has been said to show “progressive features” (e.g., Wu
and Poirier, 1995; Grun et al., 1998). Comparison has
most generally been with certain specimens from
Zhoukoudian (e.g., Wu and Dong, 1982). Holloway
(2000) quotes a cranial capacity of 1025 ml.MORPHOLOGY
Whereabouts of original claimed to be uncertain.
Only cast is available, not of high quality; but at least
it provides some general information on this long
undescribed specimen. Calvaria (broken and repaired)
with partial base.
General shape long and relatively low. From side,
slight frontal rise originates not far behind supraorbital
margins. Frontal rise turns into gentle arc that is essen-
tially uniform right around to occipital torus. Seen
from front, it appears that facial skeleton was markedly
narrower than maximum cranial breadth, which lies
across supramastoid regions. Seen from rear, neurocra-
nium massively wide and not very tall; its lateral walls
(best seen on L) tilt slightly medially and upward, and
curve smoothly into long, very slightly peaked vault
top. Supraorbital tori tall s/i, asymmetrical. On the L,
toms peaks about midorbit and thins laterally. On the
R, torus may peak at midorbit, but it remains thick lat-
erally. Brows may have been more or less confluent
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