Academia Sinica researchers received an international award for an archeological project conducted at the Tainan Science Park, which led to the discovery of “the first millet in Taiwan” and furthered understanding of the origin of Austronesian people.
The project, hosted by Academia Sinica research fellows Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華) and Li Kuang-ti (李匡悌), won the Field Discovery Award at the Second Shanghai Archeology Forum last month for preserving archeological heritage, the researchers said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“It is an honorable award and our nomination means Taiwanese archeology has been internationally recognized. More archeologists should be nurtured to prevent a talent gap in Taiwan’s academia,” Tsang said.
Photo provided by Tsang Cheng-hwa
The team have been conducting archeological investigations at the park since 1996 and 58 archeological sites have been discovered with an excavation area of 120,000m2, Tsang said, adding that those sites date back to 300 BC to 5000 BC and have been chronologically divided into six cultural strata.
More than 2,000 burials and 2,500 pieces of human skeletons have been discovered in addition to millions of artifacts and ecofacts, including pottery, stone tools, jade, bone and antler objects, iron objects, bronze and glassware, as well as plant seeds, animal bones and other items, he said.
In August last year, the team announced the discovery of millet thought to be 5,000 years old, which was described by the media as “the first millet in Taiwan,” he said.
Thousands of burned grains of millet have been preserved due to their carbonized state, which shows that ancient people knew how to cook and burn agricultural waste, he said.
Bones discovered at the site are assumed to be related to the Atayal people, but no DNA evidence has been gathered, as it is difficult to extract DNA from fossilized bones, but the team has sent temporal bones, where DNA is more likely to be found, for testing to determine whether the ancient humans were related to Aborigines.
The team’s findings might help determine an answer to the two main theories pertaining to the origins of the Austronesian people — the Southeastern Asia origin and the southeastern China origin, Tsang said.
Remains of stilt houses dating back 5,000 years were found in coastal areas in Tainan, which resemble houses found in southeastern China that can be traced back 6,000 years.
That, coupled with the similarity between pottery and stone tools found in Tainan and southeastern China, indicates that Austronesian people originated from coastal areas in southeastern China instead of Southeastern Asia, he said.
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