The National Museum of Prehistory’s (NMP) Tainan branch officially opened yesterday after a nine-month soft opening, with hundreds of artifacts, including some dating back 5,000 years, on display.
Named the Museum of Archaeology, the branch is built on 2.44 hectares of land in the city’s Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學工業園區). Artifacts unearthed in the Tainan area are being showcased, some of which have never been exhibited to the public before.
Among the artifacts being showcased in the opening exhibition are carbonized rice pellets, which date back 4,300 to 5,000 years, NMP director Wang Chang-hua (王長華) said.
Photo: CNA
“The rice pellets show us that people lived in the area 5,000 years ago,” she said.
Another exhibition highlight is a jade necklace, determined to be 2,100 to 2,800 years old, which is made from 188 pieces.
“The diameter of each jade piece is about 0.2cm to 0.6cm. These pieces are originally from Hualien, which is very interesting because it shows that 2,800 years ago, people could find products from Hualien in Tainan,” Museum of Archaeology research assistant Sung Yu-chieh (宋昱潔) said.
Another discovery on display is the “three superimposed burials” — the skeletal remains of three adult males buried on top of each other 800 to 1,300 years ago.
The body at the bottom was buried the earliest, while the other two were buried closer together, Sung said, adding that back then, people who lived in the Southern Taiwan Science Park area often used to bury bodies on top of one another.
Ancient burial sites in the area have often been found near the remain of homes, according to the museum’s information guide.
People began digging for artifacts in the area 24 years ago, and so far more than 8 million artifacts have been found, Wang said.
Eighty-two historical cultural sites have been discovered in the Southern Taiwan Science Park area, encompassing more 3,000 hectares, Wang said.
“The museum aims to show the public how people lived thousands of years ago and hopes to promote the understanding of history and culture,” Wang said. “The museum’s collection reflects the pride of Taiwan.”
The Museum of Archaeology is one of the world’s only archaeology museums within a science park, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said.
Museum of Archaeology research assistant Huang Yu-lin (黃于琳) said that 540 items consisting primarily of artifacts unearthed in the Tainan area were displayed on the opening day.
They are among about 8 million artifacts collected in parts of the science park and Tainan’s Tree Valley Park, many of which date back 300 to 5,500 years, she added.
To celebrate the official opening, visitors can enter free of charge this weekend.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS