The
Peinan Site is located in the northwest of the Taitung City, on the southeast
side of the Peinan Mountain, and on the western river terrace of the Peinan
River. The river terrace is facing the Coastal Range on the eastern side with
the Peinan River in between and connects the Taitung Plain in the south. The
location at N 22°47’40” and E 121°06’48” is believed to be a possible center of
the Peinan Site (Wen-Hsun Sung & Chao-Mei Lien, 2004: 15-22).
The
earliest records of the Peinan Site were the photos taken by Ryuzo Torii of the
stone pillars on the ground surface at the contemporary site in 1896. However,
the photos were not released until 1990 (Wen-Hsun Sung & Chao-Mei Lien,
2004: 32). Therefore, the photos of the Peinan Site in Vol. 2 of Report
on the Old Customs of Barbarian Tribes published in 1915
(Kono Karoku, 1915) can be seen as the earliest available literature. Tadao
Kano (1930, 1952) conducted 10 surveys at the Peinan Site between 1929 and
1937. It was referred to as the Vuno Site. Although it was mentioned in his
related articles that excavations were performed, none of the excavations was
recorded or published (Tadao Kano 1952:164; Tadao Kano 1955:96 translated by
WenHsun Sung). Investigations on the Peinan Site at this time were still
considered as ethnology-oriented studies and interpretations (Chao-Mei Lien,
2008: 3-4).
Archaeological
excavations at the Peinan Site with explicit records were those performed by
Kaneseki Takeo and Kokubu Naoichi in 1945 (Kaneseki
Takeo & Kokubu Naoichi, 1990: 126-162, translated by Chi-Shan Tan). They
chose the area by the largest stone pillar on the ground surface at the time to
perform archeological excavations. A large number of ceramic and stone tools
and building structures were unearthed. The structures appeared to be oriented
in a northeast and southwest direction with a length of around 15cm and a width
of around 4.2 to 4.3m and hence were extrapolated to be those of a house. The
excavation process had to stop due to the war.
Following
the war, many Taiwanese scholars investigated the Peinan Site and foreign
scholars R. Pearson, H. Egli, and E. Kaneko also visited the Site in 1970,
1972, and between 1978 and 1979, respectively. It was not until 1980, when the
South Link Railway construction began and the Site was severely damaged due to
projects such as the Peinan New South Link Railway Station (Today’s Taitung
Station) and the train yard inside the station, that the local government
authorized the archeological team from the National Taiwan University
spearheaded by Wen-Hsun Sung and Chao-Mei Lien to preserve the Site. The
preservation project consisted of 13 stages which were completed over a period
of nine years. The area unearthed during the first 8 stages was around 7550m2. However, due to limited time, only funerary objects inside slate
coffins and burial data were recovered. More complete building structures were
uncovered and recorded during the later stages of the excavation, i.e. from
Stages 9 to 13 (Chao-Mei Lien, 1989:66-77).
Thanks
to the numerous and abundant remains that were found at the Peinan Site as a
result of this large-scale preservation project, preparations for the “National
Museum of Prehistory” could begin in 1983. In 1988, the Department of
Anthropology of the National Taiwan University was again authorized to perform
the “pilot excavations for the construction of the Taiwan’s National Museum of
Prehistory at the Peinan Cultural Park.” Criss-cross sampling was adopted in
this project. The archeological excavations took place in the Peinan Cultural
Park at a distance interval of 100m. Results of the pilot excavations showed a
denser and thicker cultural level in the eastern and southern parts of the
Cultural Park with a lower altitude. On the other hand, sporadic remains were
discovered from higher drill holes in the western part of the Park and the
cultural level was thinner (Chao-Mei Lien & Wen-Hsun Sung, 1989:1-8, 51,
69-79).
In 1990,
the Preparations Office for the National Museum of Prehistory was established
to perform two pilot excavations on the planned sites for the parking lot and
the Visitor Center on the southwestern side of the Peinan Cultural Park.
“Basically, remains within this area were still the result of re-accumulation.
The unearthed remnants were of smaller quantities and fewer types. Tools were
seriously damaged. However, the residual tools were sufficient to tell that
both the type and material of the tools were still within the scope of area
where past tools were uncovered at the Peinan Site.” (Kun-Hsiu Li, 1993: 1-3,
32) In 1993, a large part of the Peinan Site was dug away by a “naive”
landlord, resulting in exposure of a large number of remains and several slate coffins
on the ground surface. It was not until later that the Preparations Office
embarked on subsequent archeological plans in the damaged area. This event also
became the first prosecuted and sentenced case for destruction of a
pre-historical site following implementation of the Cultural Heritage
Preservation Act in Taiwan (Kun-Hsiu Li, MeiChen Yeh, Shu-Ling Yang, 1994:
37-40, 43).
In 1997,
to establish a showroom for the preserved contemporary Peinan Site, the
Preparations Office built a make-shift archeological tent on a planned road of
urban planning and performed the “site preserving demonstrative excavations.”
It was referred to as the “archeological scene.” (Edited by Mei-Chen Yeh,
2009:10) The excavated area was 400m2 (Mei-Chen
Yeh, 2005:11-1~12). It has been used for excavation studies and displays up to
this date. Later, to understand the scope of the Peinan Site, the Museum
performed investigations in the surrounding areas and archeological excavations
were conducted in various regions (Kun-Hsiu Li, Mei-Chen Yeh, 2009).
The
Stage II expansion of the Peinan Cultural Park was approved in 2008. The museum
planed this expansion project comprehensively and proposed the “Shortterm
archeological excavation plan for the Peinan Site within the scope of the Stage
II expansion” in 2009. Besides confirming of the design and construction of the
Stage II project for the Peinan Park and scope of the site preservation
showroom, the main purpose was to define the distribution and content of
remains within the Stage II scope of the Peinan Cultural Park (National Museum
of Prehistory 2009).