Taipei Fine Arts Museum

In 1896(Kuangshui 22 Chin dynasty) a Japanese came to Taipei area for archaeological investigation and discovered the first prehistoric archaeological site in Chihshanyen. In 1897 others again discovered the Yuanshan site. Later, there were more than one hundred sites around and in the Taipei Basin discovered by the archaeologists. There are at least twenty some sited in the Taipei administration district, for example: Yuanshan, Chihshanyen, Kuandu, Chientan, Kungsha, the Observatory, the Botanic Garden, Shishenchuantz and Shetz. Moreover, some import sites in Taipei county were also discovered such as Tapenkeng, Shih San Hang, Tendi, Gotishan,Tudikungshan, Tzfa temple, Chinshan and Wanlichatou etc. some of the sites belong to the Neolithic era and some belong to the Iron Ages. However due to the rapid development of Taipei, most of the sites have already destroyed or disappeared.

Among those sites, Yuanshan site is the representative of the Yuanshan culture. It has always been the focus of archaeologists. It has been excavated several times since the discovery, however due to limited manual labor and techniques it is difficult to do a complete research in a short period. The site was not kept well because of the building construction in the zoo previously, and the construction of the surrounding roads and the expansion of the children's recreation center later. Although the remains area is not very large yet it holds historic and cultural values. In 1988 it was appraised by the Ministry of the Interior as the first grade historic site. In this page we will introduce the excavation of the Yuanshan site and its cultural content, as well as its meaning in the Taiwan archaeology.

Natural Ecological Environment

Location of the Yuanshan Site

Current condition of the Yuanshan Site The Yuanshan site is located in northwest of the Taipei Basin. It is a small hill by the Keelung River in the north section of Taipei. It was called "Yuanshantz" in the past and was also called "Longdonshan" and was eventually called "Yuanshan". It is a sandy rocky hill with an altitude of 36 meters from the sea. It tilts from west to east and it is not quite flat. In the ancient time when Taipei flat nowadays was then a lake, Yuanshan might be a small island or a peninsula in the lake. The presence of the convex "islands" such as the Taipei Lake, Yuanshan and Chihsanyen was the result of natural development of a long and continuous process.

Discovery Process

The Yuanshan Shell Mound

In 1897, the year after the first Taiwanese site - the Chihsanyen site was discovered, a Japanese scholar named 依能嘉矩 collected stone tools at the west and east sides of the Yuanshan Park. He and 宮村榮一 together confirmed the existence of the Yuanshan Shell Mound. The terminology of the "Yuanshan Shell Mound" was since existed.

At the same year 鳥居龍藏also did investigation at the Yuanshan Shell Mound. It attracted many archaeologists and antique collectors because of the abundant and complete archaeological specimen. But investigation and excavation were merely limited to individual specimen collection and shell mound observation.

In 1918 the Lingi Temple expanded its territory and cut off a large piece slope on the west side of the Yuanshan. The slop was originally part of the Yuanshan Shell Mound and a huge rock of 2 meters long, 1.7 meter wide and 1.25meters thick was dug out from the mound.

In 1928 the Taipei Empire University offered an ethnological seminar. Although there were several times of investigations and excavations in process because of the rich cultural heritage in the Yuanshan Shell Mount from 1928 to 1945, yet that was the first time an institute was in charge of the archaeological investigation and excavation.

After the reparation of Taiwan from the Japanese government, residents dig out things made of clay, stone, bone and shells while building houses at the bottom of the hill. The Department of Archaeology of the National Taiwan University got to know it in 1953 and went through a ten days excavation along the zoo area and the Peidan railroad and the northwest ridge of the Yuanshan Park. However, the excavation was discontinued because of limited budget.

Two Primary Culture Layers in Yuanshan Site

In 1954, the department of Archaeology again cooperated with the Taipei Archives Council proceeded the second search. They further expanded the work area beyond the discovery site in 1953. They selected several spots in west and south side as the trial sites. The search started on March 15,1954 till April 17, and it lasted more than one month. They obtained large amount of remains and tomb stuffs. After careful research they confirmed that there were two culture layers: the upper layer Yuanshan culture layer and the lower layer Rope-Pattern Terracotta Culture.

In April 1986 the remained shell mound was damaged due to individual enthusiasm of antique collection. When the news leaked out the public was very concerned and the National Science Council of the Executive Yuan asked Professor Lien, Chau-Mei from the Department of Anthropology of the National Taiwan University to convey a research on the academic value and preservation condition of the Yuanshan Site. According to the research result, the site still maintains partial primitive culture layer and four shell mounds, thus it still remains great academic value.

In 1987 Yuanshan Zoo was moved to Mucha and Taipei City Government constructed Children's Recreation Center at the same site. Knowing the importance of the Yuanshan Site, the preparation office asked Professor Hwang, Shi-Chung from the Department of Anthropology of the National Taiwan University to do a trial excavation and research at the site. They selected a second site for trial excavation. The site was almost completed excavated because the area of remains was limited. In the trial excavation they found that the Rope-Pattern Terracotta Culture Layer accumulated underneath the Yuanshan Culture Layer. Again it is confirmed that there are at least two layers of culture in different period in the Yuanshan Site. They also found some man made round holes on the rock of the bottom layer. The holes were arranged in order. It is assumed they might be the pillar holes of houses in the period of Yuanshan Culture

Content of the Culture

Beside the two primary culture layer (the upper layer is the Yuanshan Culture, and the lower layer is the Rope-Pattern Terracotta Culture), in 1992 on the trial excavation of a deep cave on the upper layer of the Yuanshan Culture the remains probably belong to the Shih San Hang Culture and the Chihwuyuen Culture, the remains included some pane-pattern terracotta culture.

The Rope-Pattern Terracotta Culture

At the same period some stone tools that might belong to the pre-terracotta age were discovered in a deep cave, which was on the lower layer of the Rope-Pattern Terracotta culture in the Dapon Opera School.

It is an early Neolithic Period culture in Taiwan; some scholars classified it as the Tapenkeng Culture. The characteristics of the Rope-Pattern Terracotta Culture in the Yuanshan Site are that the texture of terracotta commodities contains sand and a little mud. The colors are brown-red or orange-red; few are black or gray-white. They are jars, bowls, peas, plates, Spindles and unknown pipe objects. Most of the commodities are jars and axes. Most of the containers have wide rope patter inside. Some of the jars have thick opening and have several layers of concave patterns. Few color painting was also found. Stone tools include axes, hoes, stone knifes, bark clothe-bats, knife sharpening stone, stone hammers, stone slice tools. The stone knives and bark-clothe bats were considered the first ones been found. Some scholars think the bark-clothe bats were used to scrap off the bark and made clothes with it. It is similar to the stone tools used in South East Asia. Stone knives are assumed for harvest or for cutting, scrapping and slicing. From the discovery of stone axes (hoes) and stone knives we assume there was crop cultivation then in Taiwan. The remains of rice and planting tools were found in the Chihsanyen Site of the later periodture.

This site is the most representative site of the Yuanshan Culture. For Yuanshan Culture beside the Yuanshan site, it also includes the upper culture layer of the Chihsanyen Site, the lower culture layer of the Kandu site, the upper culture layer of the Tapenkeng Site in Bali County, the upper culture layer of the Chifakong Site in Wuku County and the Gensan Site in Chungho City. They are mostly distributed along the sides of the Tanshui River and the downstream of the Hsindien River. They are probably distributed to Keelung along the Keelung River Valley. This culture lasted a long period, yet the culture change was not significant. The remains of the Yuanshan Site are rather abundant, there are commodities made of terracotta, stone, jade and bone as well as several tombs.