Earliest human relics in Taiwan unearthed in Taitung cave

TAITUNG, Taiwan -- A team from Academia Sinica, Taiwan's highest research institute, has recently discovered a neolithic stone hearth in a cave in the eastern county of Taitung that has been confirmed as the earliest human relic to have been discovered in Taiwan, the Taitung county government said Friday.

After a year of investigation and research, the prehistoric archaeology research team discovered the hearth at the Basiandong (Eight Deities) Historic Site, which carbon-dating reveals to be 20,000 years old, according to an official with the county's Cultural and Tourism Bureau.

"The sample proves that humans were living in Taiwan more than 20,000 years ago, " the official quoted Tsang Chen-hua, deputy director of the Academia Sinica Institute of History and Philology, who led the research team, as saying.

In addition to the fire place, the research team has also discovered seven new caves, bringing the number of caves found at the Basiandong Historic Site to 24 from the previous 17, the Taitung official said.

According to the Taitung Cultural and Tourism Bureau, the Basiandong site attracted the attention of Japanese archaeologists during Taiwan's Japanese colonization who explored the main cave, located in a coastal cliff area in the county's Changbin township.

Between 1968 and 1969, a National Taiwan University archaeologist team led by Professor Sung Wen-hsun worked on the Basiandong Historic Site again, discovering four samples that were later carbon dated as dating back between 5,000 and 15,000 years.

To further prove the dates of the Basiandong relics, the Cabinet-level Council for cultural Planning and Development later entrusted Academia Sinica to conduct a new round of research into the site.

"The discoveries by Tsang and his team are tremendously meaningful in terms of Taiwan's neolithic archaeological research, " the official said.