The Ministry of Culture on Saturday said that it has designated the Hanben Culture (漢本遺跡) site in Yilan County as the nation’s eighth national historical site.
The ministry’s historical site reviewing committee made the decision and also agreed to add Blehun, an Atayal word, to the site’s name to indicate its cultural significance for the Atayal community.
The Hanben site in Nanao Township (南澳鄉) was discovered in 2012 by workers on the Suhua Highway improvement project between Yilan and Hualien counties.
After the discovery, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications asked Academia Sinica to conduct an archeological study on the Hanben site, excavating a number of relics, including iron, jade, ceramic and stone items, as well as stone coffins that contained human remains.
Academia Sinica said the relics dated back 1,600 years, indicating that the people who lived in the area had developed technology for harnessing high temperatures.
The relics also showed that people of the Hanben culture used to gather in a special area to hold unique funeral rituals, adding that the relics serve as a reference for the Aboriginal culture of the time.
The Yilan County Government in March declared the Hanben site to be a county historical site and in May it filed an application with the Ministry of Culture to designate the location as a national historical site.
Since the Hanben site is close to the construction site of the highway improvement project, the culture ministry has asked the construction team and Academia Sinca’s archeological team to protect the site, but not to hamper the progress of the highway improvement work.
The culture ministry’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage is to submit the decision to declare the Hanben site as a national historical site to Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) for approval before making an official announcement of the designation.
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