Explaining prehistoric mysteries
Faced with such an abundance of diverse artifacts, archaeologists have naturally been curious about how they were crafted. Since the Austronesian peoples historically lacked writing, they were entirely reliant on oral traditions and memory to pass along information, and when civilizations transitioned from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, jade craftsmanship and culture were gradually lost and forgotten, and are now preserved only within the archaeological record. What is certain is that behind the production of jade artifacts there lay structurally complex societal systems involving trade, management, exchange, transportation, and more. This complexity bears witness to a civilization that had advanced to a high level of sophistication.
As the site of large-scale jade workshops, Ciyakang offers something unique: Although finished jade artifacts from here remain somewhat rare, a plethora of jade waste and processing tools have been left behind. Archaeologists are attempting to reconstruct the process of crafting jade objects from raw stone by studying these artifacts and the remnants left over from the production process.
From today’s perspective, prehistoric jade production, executed entirely by hand, seems both labor-intensive and primitive. Yet intriguingly it also demonstrated technical prowess that is hard to match even today. For instance, how were jade bells, smaller than fingernails, crafted? What tools were used to hollow out extremely slender jade tubes? Archaeologists have found it very difficult to replicate these processes using modern tools.
Archaeologist Hung Hsiao-chun, a senior research fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Natural History at Australian National University, has led a team that excavated ear ornaments made from Taiwanese jade in various locations, including sites on Palawan Island in the Philippines, as well as coastal areas of central and southern Vietnam, and central Thailand. Her findings lend credence to the “Out of Taiwan” hypothesis, which posits Taiwan as the “mother island” of the Austronesian-speaking peoples. In addition to linguistic and genetic evidence, the diffusion of Taiwanese jade compellingly corroborates this theory.
Many questions remain. These Taiwanese jade artifacts unearthed from Southeast Asia bear witness to thriving maritime trade. Yet it’s puzzling how prehistoric humans were able to travel so frequently to Southeast Asia. How did these jade objects reach such distant places? These questions only lead to more, about ship design and navigation techniques. A solitary clue comes from the Zhishan Rock site in Taipei, where a fragmented jade artifact in the shape of a boat was unearthed. It appears to be carrying at least four individuals and possibly even animals such as dogs. It can’t help but spark our imaginations.
Taiwan jade has distinctive black spots resulting from the presence of iron, manganese, chromium and other elements.
A wide variety of remnants from jade processing have been found at Ciyakang.
Discarded cores often feature a distinct ridge.
This length of bamboo with quartz teeth installed at one end is a reconstruction
of a tubular saw used for creating jade pipes.
From discarded jade dug up at the site, archaeologists have been reconstructing how prehistoric artisans worked jade here.