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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to