Hidden historical treasures

"With the exception of the National Palace Museum this is the largest collection of such material on public display in Taiwan," said Shih Pin-chu (施品曲), curator and museum guide. "What's on display, though, is only a fraction of the 140,000 pieces in the institute's possession, which is the largest collection of archeological artifacts in Taiwan."

The museum's second floor houses a selection of the institute's most important and remarkable historical documents. Here visitors can gaze upon rare Tang (618 to 907) and Sung Dynasty (960 to 1280) texts, as well as collections of 18th century paintings of Taiwan's plain-dwelling Aboriginal tribes. The most striking piece of documentation is a map created by cartographers in 1760 illustrating the boundaries that divided the early Han Chinese settlers and the threatening indigenous

Aborigines.