Down 30,000 Years

Around AD 1500, a bay on the northeast coast. People live on the dunes, and their pottery and iron belong to the same culture as the river mouth. This stop looks at the route the porcelain took, and at what was written on the ships passing offshore.

Sites it is based on

Renli site, Jiushe site

How it was found

In 1962 Sheng Ching-yi surveyed Renli (仁里) and collected 161 pieces from the dunes: sherds, iron slag and shells. In 1981 Chen Yu-mei excavated and found a flexed burial. In July 2025 the NCKU Institute of Archaeology held a field school at Renli and dug further down.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, a small fishing harbor on the northeast coast. On the crate lid is a sherd of celadon with a label that reads Gongliao. Beside it are the tape recorder, the lump of slag and a notebook, all set down for now next to the fishing nets on the quay.

This stop’s accent color

The pale blue-green of celadon

• HomePostholes were found at Renli, and the Jiushe site is known to be a place where people lived. Both are on dunes beside river mouths. No report gives the size of the houses or the look of the roofs, so they are drawn as shadows.secondhand
• PeopleUnknown. Nothing I read estimates the population. In the seventeenth century the Spanish and the Dutch recorded the people of this coast as Basay. That is a name written down by outsiders.imagined
• FoodShellfish and animal bones were excavated; I could not find which species. In 1632 a Spanish priest wrote that two villages near Keelung lived by fishing, hunting and making salt, and traded what they made for rice.secondhand
• CraftSeventeen pieces of iron slag were picked up as early as 1962, and later digs found pieces of furnace wall and fragments of iron objects. The pottery is sand-tempered, with patterns paddled onto the surface. Whether iron was smelted here or only forged is disputed.read the source
• TradeThe celadon vases and ewers are large pieces this bay could not have fired. Chao Chin-yung of NCKU thinks they very likely came by way of the Ryukyu Kingdom. So far I only have this secondhand, from Taiwan’s Public Television Service.secondhand
• DressNo clothing survives. Jiushe yielded agate beads and copper ornaments, and one skeleton at Renli wore glass beads on the head.read the source
• BurialIn 1981 Chen Yu-mei found a flexed burial at Renli: the person was buried with arms and legs bent. Jiushe has burials too. I could not find which way the graves face or what was buried with the dead.read the source
• TravelNot one boat has been dug up. Ang Kaim, working through seventeenth-century documents, says the people of this coast were good at rowing boats in inshore waters.imagined
• AfarFar off, a sailing ship passes out at sea. There is no record of whether those ships ever put in at this bay.imagined

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes.
• The people are shadows, and so are the houses and boats, because nobody knows what they looked like.
• “Basay” and “萍島野夷” (“wild barbarians of the duckweed islands”) are both names written down by outsiders.
• The six sherds are schematic. The number is not an actual count.
• The furnace, anvil and bellows on screen are schematic. There is no excavated basis for them.
• Setting the five written lines beside what was dug up here is the game’s arrangement. Not one line in those books mentions this bay.
• The fishing harbor is imagined, not drawn from any particular harbor.

More than a thousand years ago, people on the dunes at the mouth of the Tamsui River smelted iron, made pottery, and ate shellfish from the estuary and fish from the sea. This stop looks at how they turned black sand into iron, which things came by ship, and what was written on the ships that passed.

Sites it is based on

Shihsanhang site

How it was found

In autumn 1955 an air force major, Pan Ke-yung, got an odd compass reading while flying over Mount Guanyin. On November 26, 1957, Lin Chao-chi of the National Taiwan University geology department found the site, reported it and named it. In 1990, because the Bali sewage treatment plant was to be built on top of the site, a rescue excavation began.

What she carries in 2020

The dig at Bali in 1990, with the excavator right behind. Then 2020: the sewage plant has long since been built, about one twentieth of the site remains, and the crates sealed that year have still not been opened.

This stop’s accent color

The orange of iron

• HomeThe dig found clusters of postholes and no stone buildings. Archaeologists infer raised houses of wood, bamboo and thatch. Nobody knows what they looked like, so they are drawn as shadows.read the source
• FoodThe site has charred rice and seeds, and from these the museum infers that they grew rice. The midden holds bones of pig, dog, deer, whales and dolphins, and water deer, and a great many fish bones.read the source
• AnimalsThe excavated pig bones come from at least 88 pigs, and dog bones were found too. The museum writes that they kept domestic animals; it does not say which.secondhand
• DressNo clothing survives; only pottery spindle whorls for spinning thread were found. What remains is what they wore on the body: more than twenty thousand glass beads, plus agate beads, gold foil and bronze bells.read the source
• CraftEveryday things were mostly pottery. Jars with a small mouth and a big belly are the most common, their patterns paddled on with a carved stamp. Three years of digging produced more than eight hundred thousand sherds.read the source
• TravelAnalysis of the skeletons suggests they paddled often. No boat was excavated at the site; the museum writes that they may have used dugout canoes and bamboo rafts.read the source
• BurialMost people were buried on their side with arms and legs bent, head to the southwest, without a coffin. There are two to three hundred graves; the figure differs from source to source.read the source
• PeopleThis group lived at the river mouth from about AD 200 to 1500. I could not find how large the settlement was or how many people lived there at one time.imagined

The table scrolls sideways.

• Everything on screen is a style sample. Neither the dig in 1990 nor the sewage plant is drawn from the real scene.
• “Work the bellows all night without stopping” and “too fast and the charcoal burns up too quickly” are the game’s arrangement. In the 2018 reconstruction experiment the furnace was sealed and left to smolder.
• No bellows or other blowing tools were excavated at the site, and no boat. The bellows, the sailing ship, the size of the deer herd and the white smoke on the hill are all conjecture.
• The lump of iron fresh from the furnace is drawn from the experiment. None was excavated.
• The site originally covered a little over sixty thousand square meters, and the preserved area is a little over three thousand. The two figures come from two pages of the same museum, which does not say whether they were measured the same way.
• The team’s tools are the ones generally used in fieldwork. I could not find which were actually used on site that year.
• No fields were excavated, so where they were is not known. The fish-drying racks, the weaver, the mounds over the graves and the number of people on screen are all imagined.

Around 1000 BC, a wide stretch of water lay below the hill, and half of today’s Taipei City was under it. The people on the hill gathered clams, hunted deer, ground stone and made red pottery. This stop reads what they ate from their leftovers, then finds the things that did not come from the basin.

Sites it is based on

Yuanshan site (Yuanshan shell midden)

How it was found

On March 7, 1897, Inō Kanori picked up stone tools on this small hill. On April 18 he and Miyamura Eiichi made a test dig, saw a layer of white shells showing in the cliff face, and named it the Yuanshan (圓山) shell midden.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, there is a tray of clam shells in the storeroom, and the label says only Yuanshan. She takes the tray back to that small hill. On the table are the tape recorder and the drawing board, with an information board beside them.

This stop’s accent color

The white of shells

• HomeIn 2010, 74 postholes were newly found in the bedrock on the northeast side of the hill, on an upper and a lower step. Scholars infer raised houses. Nothing remains of the roofs, the walls, or which way the doors faced.read the source
• PeopleUnknown. Neither of the two sources I read estimates the population. All I could find is the size of the midden: a 1933 record gives it as three to four meters thick and one hundred meters long.imagined
• FoodAmong the shells, clams are the most common, with pond snails and oysters as well. The meat was deer, muntjac, pig, fish, turtle and bird, and there is a small amount of charred rice.read the source
• AnimalsThe midden has dog bones; scholars infer the dogs were kept for hunting. The pigs look like wild boar, and whether any had been caught and raised is not settled.read the source
• CraftStepped adzes, shouldered axes and spoon-shaped axes were all made by grinding. The pottery is plain and red, and one kind of jar has two mouths.read the source
• DressNo clothing survives; what was found is pottery spindle whorls. They wore jade rings, jade slit rings, jade beads and animal-tooth pendants. Two upper teeth on each side were pulled.read the source
• BurialIn 1953 the team met five people in the midden, all lying on their backs with arms and legs straight, without coffins. One had the head to the south and a small stone axe placed at the upper right of the chest.read the source
• TravelBone net sinkers and antler harpoons show they went into the water for fish. No boat has been found. The jade came from Hualien, so they were in contact with the east.read the source

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes.
• If you walk there today you will not see an exposed shell layer; the best-preserved area is fenced off. The shell layer and the shapes of the shells on screen are schematic.
• The people are shadows, because nobody knows what they looked like. The bones have color, because those were dug up.
• No fields were found, so there are none on screen. No boats are drawn either.
• Where the fire was and how many people are on screen are both imagined.
• The picture of the teeth is a diagram, not drawn from the bones.

After about 1500 BC, people worked jade beside a stream at the foot of the Hualien mountains. Most of what they left on the ground is offcuts they did not want. Beinan, more than a hundred kilometers to the south, was a very large settlement. Its people were buried in slate coffins under their houses, wearing jade. This stop looks at how jade was worked, and at which piece is from Hualien.

Sites it is based on

Zhiyagan (Pinglin) site, Chongguang site, Beinan (Peinan) site

How it was found

In 1929 Kano Tadao recorded Zhiyagan (支亞干) at the foot of the Hualien mountains; it was called Pinglin then. In July 1980, building the new Beinan (卑南) station in Taitung exposed slate coffins underground. Sung Wen-hsun and Lien Chao-mei of National Taiwan University led the rescue, thirteen seasons in all.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, spread on dark blue canvas: camera, film, tape recorder, notebook, magnifying glass, calipers, geological hammer, and a black velvet box. Inside is a piece of green jade with one face sawn very flat.

This stop’s accent color

The green of jade

• HomeHualien workshopThe jade was worked on a higher terrace at the foot of the mountains, some way above the riverbed. I could not find what the houses looked like.read the source
• FoodHualien workshopThe people here lived mainly by farming, and jade working was something done besides farming. I could not find what they grew.read the source
• CraftHualien workshopJade was an everyday material like any other stone. They mostly made axes, hoes, adzes, chisels, spearheads and arrowheads.read the source
• TravelHualien workshopMost of the stone was knocked off the mountain behind and carried back here. The finished things went south to Taitung, then to the far side of the sea. I could not find how they were carried or by which route.secondhand
• BurialHualien workshopI could not find where the people of this jade workshop were buried.secondhand
• TravelBeinanThe slabs are slate about 3 centimeters thick. Slate is not found nearby, and it is thought to have been floated down the Beinan River on bamboo rafts. The jade came from outside too.read the source
• FoodBeinanThey grew rice around the settlement and stored grain, gathered wild plants, hunted boar in the mountains and chased deer on the plain. Stone net sinkers are few; fish was not a staple.read the source
• HomeBeinanThe settlement covers more than 300,000 square meters. The long side of most houses faces east of north, and excavation has uncovered 50 building features. Roofs and walls do not survive.read the source
• FoodBeinan, stone rings behind the housesBehind the houses are round rings of laid stone. The Bureau of Cultural Heritage’s description says they may be pits for storing grain.read the source
• HomeBeinan, stone pillarsThe crescent-shaped stone pillar stands more than three meters above the ground. Its top once had a round hole, and it is thought to be a post from a large house.secondhand
• CraftBeinanThe slate coffins contain pottery vessels. I could not find where the pottery was made or how it was fired; the potter is imagined.secondhand
• DressBeinan, jadeEar ornaments, jade tubes, jade rings, strings of bell-shaped beads, flaring bracelets, zoo-anthropomorphic jade earrings. Adult men and women alike had the upper canines and the incisor next to each pulled.read the source
• DressBeinan, clothingUnknown. No clothing survives, and I found no mention of spindle whorls either.imagined
• BurialBeinanThe slate coffins lie under the houses people lived in. Most point about 20 degrees east of north, toward Dulan Mountain. Nearly 1,500-odd have been excavated; another page of the National Museum of Prehistory says 2,000.read the source

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes.
• Putting the jade workers beside the stream is schematic. The blank lying on the ground with stones under it is conjecture; there is no direct evidence of where it sat while being worked.
• “Dull on the surface, green only at the break” is conjecture. No source says so outright.
• Five strikes, the feel of the rapid tapping and the flipping, the three-step identification and the “find three” game are all designed.
• The offcut matching follows a display about Liangzhu. I could not find whether offcuts were used this way in Taiwan.
• The slate coffin is drawn outside the house with its lid raised so that you can see it. The look of the grave jar is a sample.
• The people are shadows, because nobody knows what they looked like. The bamboo raft, the fields, the dog and the spinner are all imagined.

Around 2000 BC, a bay on the east coast. The people on shore made red-slipped pottery, ground stone tools and fished, and rice phytoliths were found in the soil. This stop uses dates and pottery styles to work out the order, then compares several languages across the sea.

Sites it is based on

Chaolaiqiao site, Fushan site; Torongan, Reranum, Sunget, Anaro and Savidug in the Batanes; Nagsabaran on Luzon

How it was found

In 2000 Liu Yi-chang and Pan Chang-wu found the Chaolaiqiao (潮來橋) site during a surface survey. Hung Hsiao-chun made a test dig in 2005, and Wu Yi-lin returned from 2010. At the Fushan (富山) site next door, Huang Shih-chiang of National Taiwan University led students on a training dig in 1989, and a test dig followed in 1994 after land leveling exposed sherds and a slate coffin.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, there is a red potsherd in the storeroom, and the label says Chaolaiqiao. She takes it back to the shore in Taitung. On the crate are the tape recorder and a sea chart, with the terrace and a notice board beside them.

This stop’s accent color

The dark brick red of pottery

• HomeUnknown. The people who test-dug Fushan in 2020 write that they saw no clear house structures. All that is known is that it is a raised platform by the sea.read the source
• PeopleUnknown. The reports I read do not estimate the population.imagined
• FoodAt the 2013 Chaolaiqiao dig, fish bone was the most common find, 1.6 kilograms of it. Rice phytoliths from about 2250 BC were found in the soil; no charred grains of rice were found.read the source
• CraftNearly all the pottery has a thin coat of red and was shaped by paddling. Stone tools include axes, adzes, knives and net sinkers, and Fushan yielded jade waste and knives for sawing jade.read the source
• DressNo clothing survives. Among the stone tools from this test dig at Fushan, needles are the most common, and there is one pottery spindle whorl. A slit-ring ear ornament was found in 1989.read the source
• BurialIn 1994 land leveling exposed a slate coffin at Fushan, and in 2020 more slabs and 53 fragments of human bone were found. I did not read whether these two coffins have been dated.read the source
• BoatsUnknown. In eastern Taiwan, the Batanes and Luzon, not a single boat, paddle or sail of this date has been excavated.imagined
• TravelFrom Orchid Island to the northernmost islet of the Batanes is a hundred kilometers, with the Kuroshio current running south to north in between. The authors of the Batanes report think it could be avoided; their evidence is the Taiwan jade and slate dug up in the Batanes.read the source

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes. The exposed red sherds are schematic.
• There are no postholes and no walls. Every house on screen is imagined, so they are drawn as shadows.
• The people and boats are shadows. The picture does not show whether there were sails or outrigger floats.
• That Taiwan is the starting point of the Austronesian-speaking peoples is the account most linguists and archaeologists consider most likely. Nobody can say it has been proven.
• The map follows today’s coastline, and the dots are approximate.
• The sea chart and the things on the crate are imagined.

Around 3000 BC this part of Tainan was by the sea. The people here grew foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and rice, fished and hunted, shaped pottery by hand and pressed cord marks all over it below the neck. This stop looks at how cord marks are pressed, and at how charred grains float up out of the soil.

Sites it is based on

Nanguanli East site, Nanguanli site (the culture is named after the Dabenkeng site in Bali, New Taipei)

How it was found

In 1995 a science park was to be built. Only after the land was chosen did a survey reveal sites underground. The archaeology project started in December 1996 and the rescue ran to 2010. Nanguanli East (南關里東; written Nankuanli East in the excavators’ papers) was dug from September 2002 to March 2003. The name Dabenkeng (大坌坑) comes from the site in Bali, New Taipei, which Sheng Ching-yi and Wu Chi-jui found on a survey in June 1958.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, beside the factory buildings of the Tainan Science Park. On the lid of a storage box is a sherd pressed with cord marks. Beside it are the tape recorder, a hard hat and a sieve holding black grains.

This stop’s accent color

The dark gold of grain

• HomeUnknown. Neither of the two reports nor the official pages I read say anything about the houses here.imagined
• PeopleNanguanli East has about 82 graves. Twenty-four adults were studied: the men averaged about 160 centimeters and the women about 155, and most died between twenty and thirty-five.read the source
• FoodThey grew foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and rice. There were fish from the sea, and the animal bones include deer and wild boar.read the source
• FarmingFlotation produced more than 110,000 grains of millet and over 8,000 of rice. No fields were excavated.read the source
• AnimalsThe neighboring Nanguanli site yielded complete dog skeletons, and dogs were sometimes buried. I did not read whether pigs were kept.read the source
• CraftThe pottery was shaped by hand and pressed all over with cord marks below the neck. Stone was ground into adzes, shell into knives, bone into points.read the source
• DressNo clothing survives. The finds include ornaments. Among adults, the most common pattern is two upper teeth pulled on each side.read the source
• BurialNanguanli East has about 82 graves, with pottery and shell objects as grave goods. In one grave, the person had a bone spear point lodged in the right shoulder blade.read the source
• TravelThe scholars who studied the skeletons write that this was a place by the sea, with fishing gear. I found nothing on boats, and I did not read a source on where the coastline was then.read the source

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes.
• The people and houses are shadows, because nobody knows what the people looked like or how the houses were built. The bones have color, because those were dug up.
• No fields were excavated; where they were and how large is imagined. The water on screen is imagined too, and no boats are drawn.
• The sources say only that the cord marks were “pressed”, without saying rolled or paddled. The marks on screen are schematic.
• The person and the dog are drawn in one picture so that both fit. They are drawn lying on their backs, heads to the south; I did not read a source on the burial posture at Nanguanli East.
• The Science Park sites are a later part of this culture, not the earliest group. “New to the island” refers to what has been excavated so far.
• The grain sizes in the picture are schematic, and the counts are estimates from sampling.

At least thirty thousand years ago, the sea was 60 to 80 meters lower than today. In the high caves people made fire and struck pebbles into stone tools. There was no pottery, and no human bones have been found. This stop strikes a pebble, then pulls the sea back to its level then.

Sites it is based on

Baxian Caves site

How it was found

On March 4, 1968, the geologist Lin Chao-chi came to look at these caves. In December Sung Wen-hsun and Lin Chao-chi led a National Taiwan University team on a test dig and found stone flakes and no pottery. Li Chi named it the Changbin (長濱) Culture. Forty years later Tsang Cheng-hwa’s team surveyed again and found charcoal more than twenty thousand years old, and hearths, in the highest caves.

What she carries in 2020

Thirty years later, on a tray: a struck stone flake and a blank label. She stands before the rock face at Changbin, with the tape recorder, headlamp, camera, folding ruler and a waterproof notebook at hand. In front of the lowest cave is a short stretch of boardwalk.

This stop’s accent color

The orange of fire

• HomeThe high caves have hearths, with charcoal more than twenty thousand years old. Chang Kwang-chih considered the later Chaoyin Cave a temporary stopping place. Whether the people of thirty thousand years ago stayed long or were passing through is not known.read the source
• PeopleSeven people are drawn in the picture. That number is a guess. I found no source that discusses how many people were in a group.imagined
• FoodNo fishing gear was found in the early layer. A 2025 news report cites research saying the earliest people ate mainly wild boar and deer.secondhand
• DressUnknown. No clothing survives, the Paleolithic layer has no trace of textiles, and I read of no ornaments.secondhand
• TravelUnknown. Nobody knows how people got here, and no boat has been found.secondhand
• BurialUnknown. No human bones were found in the caves, and there is nothing to draw about where the dead were put.read the source
• CraftThey struck pebbles to make choppers and flakes, working one face only. There were three methods: hammerstone, anvil and bipolar percussion.read the source

The table scrolls sideways.

• Every picture is a style sample, not drawn from actual artifacts or real scenes.
• The rock face, the positions of the cave mouths, the boardwalk, the layout inside the cave and the sea-level cross-section are all samples or schematic.
• The panorama in front of the cave is an imagined scene. The number of people and the figures carrying things back are guesses.
• The people are shadows, because no human bones were found in the caves.
• The shells and animal bones in the flat lay are conjecture. The small quartz flakes and bone fishhooks appear only in the late period.
• “It only comes off if you strike near the edge” is a general rule of knapping; I did not check it against an experiment report for the Baxian Caves. The rhythm of waiting for the echo is a designed mechanic.
• The sea-level maps follow today’s seabed depths, without allowing for crustal movement or sediment. I could not find how far the caves were from the sea then.