Dapenkeng culture
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The Dapenkeng culture () was an early
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
culture that appeared in northern
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
between 4000 and 3000 BC and quickly spread around the coast of the island, as well as the Penghu islands to the west. Most scholars believe this culture was brought across the
Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...
by the ancestors of today's
Taiwanese aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...
, speaking early Austronesian languages. No ancestral culture on the mainland has been identified, but a number of shared features suggest ongoing contacts.


Characteristics

The type site in
Bali District Bali District () is a suburban district in northwestern New Taipei, Taiwan. In Taiwanese Hokkien, it was known as ''Pat-lí-hun'' (八里坌) during the rule of the Qing dynasty. History Based on examinations of grave goods it is believed tha ...
,
New Taipei City New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, be ...
in northwest Taiwan, was discovered in 1958. Other major sites excavated before 1980 are the lowest layer of the
Fengbitou Archaeological Site The Fengbitou Archaeological Site () is an archaeological site in Linyuan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The site was discovered by Japanese scholar Sueo Kaneko around 1941. In 1945, Japanese archaeologist Kiyotari Tsuboi excavated the s ...
in Linyuan District,
Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
and Bajiacun in Gueiren District,
Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...
, both in the southwest of the island. Dapenkeng sites have since been found in coastal areas all around the island, and on the Penghu islands in the
Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...
. Dapenkeng pottery is thick and gritty, and light to dark brown in colour. The main types are large globular jars and bowls. The outsides of the jars are covered with impressed cord marks, except for the flared rims, which are decorated with incised linear designs. Dapenkeng sites have also yielded a number of types of stone tools: * Pecked pebbles, up to 20 cm across, were probably used as net sinkers. *
Bark beater In many traditional cultures, bark beaters were tools used to pound tree bark, to make the bark softer for the processing of barkcloth, which is used for making paper, and clothing. This tool has many different variations that are seen in indigenou ...
were found at two sites. * Adzes were highly polished, with a rectangular cross section. Shouldered adzes made of
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
appear later in the period, and are believed to come from a workshop on Penghu. * Many thin, flat, triangular points of green
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
were found, each with a hole drilled through the centre. Reaping knives made from oyster shells and some tools and ornaments made from bones and antlers have also been found. The inhabitants engaged in horticulture and hunting, but were also heavily reliant on marine shells and fish. Later in the period they cultivated
foxtail millet Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evidenc ...
and
rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
. Around 2500 BC, the Dapenkeng culture developed into locally differentiated cultures throughout Taiwan. Because of the continuity with later cultures, most scholars believe that the Dapenkeng people were the ancestors of today's
Taiwanese aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...
, and spoke Austronesian languages.


Proposed mainland antecedents

Taiwan was first settled by
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
people, who reached the island during the
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...
glaciation, when
sea levels Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
were lower and the
Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...
was a land bridge. Although the Paleolithic
Changbin culture Changbin Township () is a rural township in Taitung County, Taiwan. It is the northernmost township in Taitung County. The population of the township consists mainly of the Amis people with a Kavalan minority. Geography * Area: 155.19 k ...
overlaps with the earliest Dapenkeng sites, archeologists have found no evidence of evolutionary development, and assume that the Dapenkeng culture must have arrived from elsewhere. The most likely candidate is the coast of what is now
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
on the other side of the
Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...
, which is 130 km wide at its narrowest point. However, archaeological data from that area is quite limited. Three principal sites from the early Neolithic have been excavated: * The Keqiutou site on
Haitan Island Pingtan Island or Haitan Island is an island of Fuzhou off the east coast of mainland Asia in Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China (PRC), south of the complex estuary of the Min River. It is the largest island in Fujian and the fifth-larges ...
was partially destroyed by later activity, but has been excavated by Fujian archaeologists. It features worked pebbles, polished adzes and points similar to those of Dapenkeng sites. The decoration of the pottery is more varied. * The Fuguodun site on Kinmen was found by a geologist, and excavated in an ad hoc manner. Some of the pottery is decorated with cord-marking, but stamping with shells is more common. * The Jinguishan site on Kinmen features similar pottery to Fuguodun, but without cord-marking.
K.C. Chang Kwang-chih Chang (15 April, 1931 – January 3, 2001), commonly known as K. C. Chang, was a Chinese / Taiwanese-American archaeologist and sinologist. He was the John E. Hudson Professor of archaeology at Harvard University, Vice-President of the ...
argued that Fuguodun and Dapenkeng were regional variants of the same culture. Other scholars consider them distinct cultures, pointing to differences in pottery styles. These coastal mainland cultures seem to have appeared abruptly without local precursors, and their origins are unclear. Chang and Ward Goodenough argue that these cultures reflect the influence of the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures of the lower
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
area, though they are unsure whether this was the result of migration or trade. Peter Bellwood agrees that the Austronesian cultural package came from this area, but confirming archaeological evidence has not yet been found.


References

Works cited * * * * * * * {{citation , chapter = First farmers and their adaptation in coastal Taiwan , surname = Li , given = Kuang-ti , pages = 612–633 , title = A Companion to Chinese Archaeology , editor-given = Anne P. , editor-surname = Underhill , publisher = John Wiley & Sons , year = 2013 , isbn = 978-1-4443-3529-3 , postscript = .


External links


Dapenkeng Archaeological Site
New Taipei City government Archaeological cultures in Taiwan 4th-millennium BC establishments