MOC minister touts merits of NMP branch in Tainan City

2016/01/05

The National Museum of Prehistory branch in Tainan City illustrates the commitment of the government to preserving southern Taiwan’s invaluable prehistoric relics and sites, Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi said during a recent visit to the soon-to-be-completed facility.

Situated at Southern Taiwan Science Park, the new museum is set to store more than 8.5 million artifacts, as well as 2,513 skeletons discovered since 1996 by Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology. Dated at between 300 to 5,000 years, the relics were excavated from 32 sites around STSP in Xinshi District.

“Such rich findings prompted the birth of the facility,” Hung said Dec. 30, 2015. “We believe the museum will also serve as a repository for safeguarding unearthed cultural and historical heritage in the area.

“It is reassuring to see close cross-sector collaboration among Academia Sinica’s archaeological team, the local government, Taitung-City based NMP and STSP Administration,” Hung said, adding that this lays the foundation for a large-scale research project pooling the nation’s related talents.

The most important finds at the park include pottery and fossilized rice, as well as a canine and 83 human skeletons thought to belong to the Tapenkeng Culture of 5,000 years ago. Dug up in 1990, the artifacts indicate the presence of an ancient agricultural society and domestication of dogs.

In addition, the Academia Sinica archaeological team is working on facial identification and reconstruction techniques to shed further light on the origins of discoveries in the park.

According to Taiwan academics, the Tapenkeng people are shaping up as strong contenders for the title of Taiwan’s oldest Homo sapiens. It was originally thought that fossilized parietal lobe bone fragments dated between 20,000 and 30,000 years found washed up on the banks of Tsailiao River in Tainan held the honor. But after a re-dating by overseas laboratories in Australia and the U.S. in December last year, the relics are now thought to be between 250 and 3,000 years.

Another valuable find reveals greater detail about prehistoric burial practices in Taiwan. The stacking of three adult bodies one atop another and the placing of children’s bodies in clay urns have never been documented before on the island.

Work on NMP Tainan branch commenced last June, with renowned architect Kris Yao responsible for the facility’s design. Located on a 2.44-hectare site, the NT$1.5 billion (US$45 million) museum is scheduled for completion this year and will start trial operations in 2017.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=240887&ctNode=2194&mp=9)