Academia Sinica bags archaeology award in Shanghai

2016/01/07

Taipei City-based Academia Sinica was recently named winner of the Field Discovery Award at Shanghai Archaeology Forum for its ongoing excavation project at Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan.

Encompassing 58 sites with six cultural strata dated at 300 to 5,000 years, the 20-year dig at TSP in Xinshi District has unearthed more than 8.5 million artifacts, including skeletons of a canine and 2,513 humans, millet, and the remains of dwellings and pottery.

According to AS, the undertaking was one of 10 awarded projects at the forum Dec. 14-17, 2015, in mainland China and trumped 83 others from around the world. The other winners came from France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, the U.K., U.S. and mainland China.

Overseen by Li Kuang-ti and Tsang Cheng-hwa, research fellows at the AS Institute of History and Philology, the dig is widely seen as a model for other excavation projects throughout the region.

“It is an honor to be recognized for our long-term efforts in preserving invaluable prehistoric pieces,” Tsang said Dec. 17 at the forum. “Although Taiwan is a small island, the unearthed artifacts are of great importance to the development of cultural prehistory across Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.”

One of the most important finds at the park is the skeletons of the Tapenkeng people from 5,000 years ago, who are thought to be the early ancestors of Taiwan’s indigenous Atayal tribe.

“A fragment of temporal bone was sent for DNA testing to University College Dublin in Ireland,” Tsang said. “But rather than sit back and wait for the result, we are working on facial identification and reconstruction techniques to shed further light on the origins.”

Another valuable discovery is carbonized millet found in August last year. Belonging to the Tapenkeng Culture, the burned grain indicates the presence of a cooking culture and ancient agricultural society.

Of equal significance are the remains of stilt houses and pottery, bearing a close semblance to those in the southeastern coastal area of Fujian province of mainland China dated at 6,000 years.

“These finds support the hypothesis that Taiwan’s Austronesian-speaking peoples may have come from the other side of the strait to settle before migrating to Pacific regions stretching halfway around the globe,” Tsang said.

Established in 2013, the forum promotes the investigation and protection of the world’s archaeological heritage, and spotlights the relevance of international research work.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=240972&ctNode=2194&mp=9)