I Am the Peinan Culture Man

I am a happy Peinan Culture man. I have a powerful build but a sanguine character, one not given to violent outbursts. I can keep up my end of a friendly conversation and will crack a joke every now and then.

I'm listed as a Class One Historical Relic. That's me, the flat, moon-shaped, hole-pocked stone pillar behind the New Taitung Train Station. Why was a stone pillar taken to represent a man? You shouldn't think it strange; in ancient times there was no photography and few artists who could paint, so stone pillars were used as a representations of a human image. They wouldn't bust after installation and were part of our culture.

You ask how old I am? Sorry! I don't remember clearly. For someone who's in the range of 3500 to 4000 years old, counting age year by year isn't very practical. I count by centuries; it's like the expression, "A day in heaven is 100 years on earth."

The people of the Chilin culture also lived with me over here on the east coast; we're cousins. They're up there in age too--at the very least 2-3000 years old.

On the subject of age, it's better I don't starts smugly implying that seniority suggests superiority, because if those Changpin Culture people hear me, they'll cuss me out as a callow whippersnapper. They go way back, maybe as far as 50,000 years. Their youngest are at least 5,000 years old.

Anyway, what I want to do is chat with you about those prehistoric peoples who lived behind the mountains. Why now? Because some of the living are beginning to transgress the bounds of civility. They've been presumptuous enough to build temples, roads and houses in places we lived for generations. Even the graves next to me have been disinterred, and so, as the president of The Prehistoric Peoples of Eastern Taiwan Association, I have no choice but to raise my voice in protest.

True, you could say that although we passed our days in these parts, we didn't strictly speaking historically exist. Since we didn't have any writing to record our history, no one knows what we prehistoric peoples were really like. At most, we only left some broken pottery and old stones. But thank goodness for these, because they serve as proof of our existence. You don't seem convinced. No matter. Let me explain.

The people who find images of us in the rubble, who prove our existences, are archaeologists, those people who specialize in looking for cultural artifacts above and below ground.

Beginning in the Japanese Era, they began sticking their noses in every nook and cranny and turning over every stone in our ancient tribal villages, putting numbers on the tools, utensils, shells, charcoal, and stone coffins they dug up. Then after painstaking analysis that took geology into account, they were able to make a general outline about the age and environment in which we lived. After they reached their conclusions, they named us, usually for the site where we were found.

For example, my seniors were discovered in the Eight Immortals Grotto of Changping Rural Township in 1968 by Sung Wen-hsun and Lin Chaochi, both professors at National Taiwan University(of anthropology and geology respectively). Sung named the human civilization at that site the "Changpin Culture." Remains of the same kind found later at other sites are also referred to as belonging to the Changpin Culture.

It's the same deal for me and my cousins. Our cultures are called "Peinan" and "Chilin."

To these archaeologists--for all their planning of their digs, for their recovering of artifacts thousands or tens of thousands of years old, and for proving that we really did in some day and age live here--let me offer my warmest thanks.

How is it that you can know so much about our lives from these artifacts dug up from underground? Why isn't it necessary for us to crawl out of our graves and give an explanation? (I'm of a personality that would be more than willing to do it!)

It's because if a people exist for a long time, they will almost certainly leave behind traces of their activities: remains of their food, used tools, architectural remains, buried coffins, etc.

When they later abandon a site because of natural disaster or migration or some other reason, what they leave behind will become covered with dustand dirt and eventually be buried underground. And that level underground, which is full of clues about culture in times past, is called the "cultural stratum."

Is this too academic? Generally speaking, the things we employed to eat, drink, defecate, urinate and sleep are all jumbled up together and buried in the dirt. This is the cultural stratum. Say you're some place where people are digging in order to build a road or foundation, and in the wall of their hole, you spot one or more layers of pottery shards, stone implements or shells: That's the cultural stratum.

If different groups of people lived at the same site at different times, there could be several cultural strata. Because everything is piled up on top of what came before, each level further down is older than the level on top of it. When these various cultural strata are discovered and the artifacts excavated, experienced archaeologists can make conjectures about them and advance our understanding of how humanity evolved.

Plain pottery, for instance, appeared earlier than pottery glazed or ornamented with spiraling lines, because human culture evolves gradually.

What information can archaeologists glean from these artifacts? How did my cousins and I differ from our elders of the Changpin Culture?

We were all Stone Age peoples. But my people didn't come until the end of the New Stone Age, well after the Changpin people, who are oldtimers from the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age.

According to archeological convention, the earliest of ancient peoples are said to have lived in the Stone Age because most of the tools they used were made of stone. The age is further split into"Old" and "New" periods. The major difference is that in the former people fashioned their tools by smashing rocks together, making for a clumsy and rough finish, whereas we New Stone Agers ground our stone implements. As a result they were smoother and easier to use.

The people of the Changpin Culture came over during the ice age, when the ocean waters were in retreat and Taiwan was still linked to the mainland. At the time, the population was sparse, the tribes small and nomadic. The people survived off of hunting, fishing and gathering.

My cousins and I came to Taiwan about 3-5000 years ago from different places. We lived in fixed tribal villages that were larger in size, and we knew how to farm the land and raise animals. You've got to understand that the age in which we lived was quite a long time ago, long before your grandfather' grandfather. You needn't know specific numbers; a general idea that it was many years ago is good enough.

From what I've said so far, everyone ought to have a rough understanding of my family background; from here on I'll speak of the environment in which we lived.

On the east coast of Taiwan the mountains come down to the sea, and there's little flat land on which homes can be built. Since we couldn't live at the bottom of the sea or on the mountain tops, we lived on fluvial or littoral terraces, where we could use the sea and rivers while keeping a safe distance from them.

This is why remains of us are stumbled across most frequently when there is digging on river banks or along the seashore.

Now you know where to go to try to find our remains. Perhaps one day, you'll be taken by an impulse to dig. Who knows? You might come across our remains. But it would better if you didn't because the current Cultural Assets Preservation Law prohibits excavations in this manner.

This is because once an archaological site is excavated, it is very difficult to preserve its original appearance and the order of its strata. Digging in such a fashion can impede research, and as a result, few artifacts can now be seen.

Take the Class One Relic of the Eight Immortals Grotto. These were originally sea caves inhabited by our predecessors of the Changpin Culture. They have been privately made into temples, and the strata of the site have been damaged to the point that they can't be restored. Archaeologists can no longer proceed with new investigations or digs there. Fortunately, in a sea chasm of one of the caves, you can still see the lines marking the limits of the cultural level, preserving a smidgen of respect for our predecessors.

The sites of the younger generation--of the Peinan and Chilin and Huakangshan cultures--are easier to see. There are still three sites where you can see remains of the Peinan Culture. I'll first speak of the Class One Relic of the stone pillar behind the new Taitung Train Station. It's just that every time I mention it. I have to hold back the tears.

Back in the Japanese era, a Japanese archaeologist came here to do research. "There are an unknown number of slate stone pillars erected in the ground," he wrote at the time. "The largest is about four and a half meters tall, and the others are all between two and four meters. These pillars face north-east or south-west, and holes have been carved into the upper portions of them. It is our hypothesis that these stone pillars are remnants of an ancient people's tribal village." Now that there's only lonely old me, what can I do but sob?

There is also a pair of large stone pillars on a riverbank in Wuho of Hualien's Juisui Rural Township. Although most of the land in the area has been turned into the Tienho Tea Plantation, luckily the stone pillars were not affected. The bottom of the pillars are caked in cement, and they are encircled by a railing. The whole setup looks quite sturdy. The pillar facing south has been reerected, and its direction is not quite accurate.

And in the Taipalang archaeological site in Tungfu Village of Kuangfu Rural Township, there is a hole-pocked stone pillar, in which Ami people in the modern era have carved words that claim the stone marks the founding of their culture. But it's obvious that this pillar, though somewhat smaller, is made in the same basic form as the Peinan stone pillar behind the new Taitung Train Station. Next door, they're building an observation tower four stories tall.

The Chilin culture has also been called "Giant Stone Culture" after the large stone artifacts that are its remains. These can be divided into two basic categories: stone coffins and stone blocks.

In 1975 a Japanese businessman unsuccessfully attempted to remove a stone coffin that was originally in the Hsinshe village of Fengpin Ruraltownship of Hualien county. It was then moved and put behind the town hall of Hsinshe village, where it served as a container for garbage. It wasn't until 1989 that it was bought by the Taiwan Provincial Museum and moved to the Taipei New Park to be displayed. If you don't have the time to go to the east coast, take a quick look in front of the Taiwan Provincial Musuem.

Another coffin, which was originally in the Paishoulien Village of Chengkung Township of Taitung County, is now being displayed in front of the Taitung County Cultural Center.

As for actual archaeological sites, in the vicinity of the Taitung Tungho Rural Township's Tulan Forest a stone coffin and three stone walls have already been designated a Class Three Relic. The East Coast Scenic District Management Office plans to save this place by turning it into the "Tulan Archeological Park."

Smaller slabs of stone have been found in greater quantities. The large group found in Chilin village in southern Chengkung Township is the most famous. Placed in a rectangular shape, these stones, whose surfaces are covered with bumps and groves,were possibly used for religious worship. Importantly, charcoal was found in the holes in one of the rocks. This was verified to be 3060 years old(give or take 280 years), thus dating my younger cousins of the Chilin Culture. It's just too bad this group of stone slabs can no longer be seen on the site itself.

Also worthy of mention is a pair of stone slabs, placed three meters apart, found in an orange grove in Taitung County's Taiyuan Rural Township. The larger one looks like a bust of a person from the shoulders up, and there is also a groove in it. The above-ground portions of the small stones have clear marks of grinding and resemble mushrooms.

And in Chungjung Village of  Chengkung Township, you can still see more than a dozen stone blocks, eight of which have been placed in the garden of the village elementary school. While this may not be the ideal place for these rocks, for preservation it still deserves high marks in comparison to how the others have been used. Just take a walk through the village, and you'll see a couple of stone slabs on the side of this family's garden; that family over there has a stone wheel tied by wire to its roof to keep it from blowing off  in a heavy wind; still another family has a stone wheel on its chicken coop. You can't help but get the feeling that these priceless artifacts aren't being fully appreciated.

My younger cousins of the Huakangshan Culturelived on the northeast coast, giving them certain geographical advantages. With close connections to the Yuan Mountain People of the north, they used Yuan implements and adopted Yuan methods of making them. They stand clearly at the end of the New Stone Age, when the northern and eastern peoples of Taiwan were already coming in contact with each other.

Besides these stone implements, archaeologists have also dug up such artifacts as stone adzes, wheels, axes, sickles and knives and clay pots and jars, as well as tombs and items found in them. These are being well cared for by the Department of Anthropology at National Taiwan University and the preparation office for the National Taiwan Museum of Prehistoric Culture; it's just too bad there's no way for ordinary people to see them.

The Museum of Prehistoric Culture gives me hope for the future. Even if old sites have been destroyed, the musuem is pressing ahead with plans to build an archaological site park. This will be more than educational; it will let me, as a person of the Peinan Culture, live again.

Lu Li-cheng, head of the museum's planning department, outlines a beautiful blueprint: "Standing in front of the hole-pocked moon-shaped pillar(that's me) at the Peinan site, facing west toward the prehistoric village at the foot of  Peinan mountain, you can hear him (me) speak of the several thousand year history of the Peinan Culture people."

Upon entering, you are immediately confronted with the verdant splendor of Taiwan's native plants. At the tourist services center, you can pick up a complete map of the park or check with the computer explanation system to find what you want. Accompanying the charts and excavated objects on display, multi-media exhibits and films are used to introduce the process of excavating the Peinan site.A work tent is set up out in the field, where you can see how they dig artifacts out of the mud and record and collect what they've found.

After negotiating the steep slope down into the pit, you can view the Peinan stone coffins in their original positions. This quiet and solemn atmosphere pays homage to the Peinan Culture people who have slumbered here for so long.

Think about it: It will only be a few more years before you can see this scene. I'm so happy I could scream with joy. How it eases the heavy feeling in my heart!

Before I finish, I've still got a plea to make:Everyone should take more care to preserve cultural assets. Look at how other advanced nations have done it so well. It's not just that their governments plan things well; their people have the right attitudes too.

Take Stonehenge in England, which like me involves a group of stone pillars erected in the ground. Though far out in the countryside, guards needn't be present for the tourists to observe the regulations and stand outside the railings. They don't sneak in for a closer view.

Or what about our neighbor Japan? Whether atan archaeological site or an architectural relic, the environment is always clean and comfortable, and the tourists are quite in control of themselves and not causing a ruckus. They wouldn't even think of trying to touch the artifacts.

Italy's Pompeii is so large in scope that viewing everything in detail would take up several days.But in such a large space, there is not a single guard.

The above examples should be enough to put us to shame! Oh, how much I want everyone "to treasure relics and archeological sites!" Please! Please!

[Picture Caption]

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A skeleton recovered from a Peinan stone coffin.

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(left) This Peinan Culture stone pillar stands alone on a hillock behind the New Taitung Train Station, at the site of the future National Taiwan Prehistoric History Museum.

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The sea chasm wall in the Eight Immortals Grotto still has markings of the cultural stratum left behind by archaeologists in years past, which shows that the lower half of the caves used to be buried underground.

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The stone implements of the Changpin Culture are quite rough.

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At the end of last year, people illegally dug up and took earth from within the bounds of the Peinan archeological site. This has made museum employees speed up their own efforts at excavation, so as to prevent the damaged area from growing.

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Wuho's stone pillar is located within the Tianho Tea Plantation. The local Ami people have numerous legends about it.

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The Prehistoric Peoples of the East Coast

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In Chungyung Village precious ancient artifacts, such as this stone wheel, are with the chickens.

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Sung Wen-hsun, a professor of anthropology at National Taiwan University, came to have a look for himself at the Tulan archaeological site in 1988. (photo by Vincent Chang)

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A group of stone pillars stand in a Taiyuan orange grove.

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Though the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy are enormous in scope, not a single guard watches over them, showing how much tourists here respect the law.

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The giant slabs of Stonehenge in England have been well preserved.