A trove of artifacts, including coins dating to China’s Song Dynasty 900 years ago, have been uncovered at a construction site in Hualien’s Chongde (崇德) area, the Hualien Cultural Affairs Bureau said on Monday.
Workers reported finding what appeared to be the corner of a tomb while laying a foundation in Sioulin Township (秀林) last month, bureau Director Wu Chin-yi (吳勁毅) said.
The owner of the land agreed to let the bureau investigate the site before construction resumed, Wu said, adding that its work is expected to take another two months due to the abundance of items.
Photo courtesy of the Hualien Cultural Affairs Bureau
One of the most exciting finds so far is coins from the Xining period (1068 to 1077) of Song Dynasty Emperor Shenzong (神宗), Wu said.
While coins from that era have been found before in Taiwan — at the Lingding (嶺頂) site in Hualien’s Shoufeng Township (壽豐) — there is debate about whether they were deposited there at the time they were in circulation or disposed of much later, he said.
The coins, as well as bracelets and agate beads found at the Chongde site, showed that people living near the mouth of the Liwu River (立霧溪) at the time had much more extensive trade links with China than was previously known, Wu said.
Other items found at the site include fish bones, which are evidence that residents at the time were adept at fishing in the sea, as well as a lot of the gray and black pottery typical of the middle Iron Age in Taiwan, he said.
The artifacts would be put in a collection at the Hualien Archeological Museum, where they would be available for researchers of the region’s early history to study, Wu said.
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