Fushan archaeological site (Chinese: 富山考古遺址; pinyin: fù shān kǎo gǔ yí zhǐ) is located in Fushan Village, Beinan Township,

Taitung County Taitung () is the third largest county in Taiwan, located primarily on the island's southeastern coast and also including Green Island, Orchid Island and Lesser Orchid Island. The seat is located in Taitung City. Name While its name means "East ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. The site dates from around 3,700 or 3,800 years ago to roughly 3,000 years ago (1,750-1,050

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

), which belongs to the middle

Neolithic Period The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

. Fushan Culture is named after the site. In 1997, the site was divided into Fushan First Site in the south and Fushan Second Site in the north when conducting the “General Investigation and Research Project of Archaeological Sites in Taiwan.”

Brief History

The investigation of the site began as early as 1989, when Professor Huang, Shih-Chiang from the Department of

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, NTU led his students to survey the surface and excavate for the fieldwork course. Later, in 1990, professors Lien, Chao-Mei and Sung, Wen-Hsun from the Department of Anthropology, NTU also surveyed the site. In 1994, Li, Kun-Hsiu and Yeh, Mei-Chen from the National Museum of Prehistory surveyed the site and excavated 15 pits, 13 of which were in the southern zone (Fushan First Site) with an obvious accumulation of artifacts in the

cultural layer Cultural layer is a key concept in archaeology, particularly culture-historical archaeology especially in archaeological digs or excavations. A cultural layer helps determine an archaeological culture: the remnants of human settlement that can b ...

; the other 2 pits were in the northern zone (Fushan Second Site), with only pottery fragments and no obvious

. The unearthed objects included 133,454 pieces of

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

fragments, 563 pieces of

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

specimens, and 256 pieces of

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

remains. In 1997, Tsang, Cheng-Hua from the Institute of History and Philology,

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

and Yeh, Mei-Chen from the National Museum of Prehistory hosted the fourth “General Investigation and Research Project of Archeological Sites in Taiwan” entrusted by the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

; they investigated the site, divided it into Fushan First Site and Fushan Second Site in the report, and also suggested listing Fushan First Site as a designated site

Discoveries

After years of survey and excavation, only a single

has been identified, which is the Fushan Culture during the mid-

. The artifacts include stone tools such as

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

- hoe shaped tools for

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

purposes or

lumbering Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks

., stone knives and stone

sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...

s for

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

ing

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...

s, stone needles, and net sinkers, of which the stone needles are particularly abundant. For the pottery containers, most of them are decorated with cord-marked patterns, and some of them can be seen with leftover red paints or some painted themes, such as fence pattern, round dots, and wide-strip pattern; spindle whorls were also found. Other artifacts included jade artifacts, such as jade

earring Earrings are jewelry that can be worn on one's ears. Earrings are commonly worn in a piercing in the earlobe or another external part of the ear, or by #Clip-on and other non-pierced earrings, some other means, such as stickers or clip-ons. Earr ...

s, jade

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a supportive function to hold other items of decoration, ...

s, and tube

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under 1 ...

s. Also, slate coffins were also discovered in the site, and was regarded as a proof that the culture might be, a predecessor of Peinan Culture

Featured Artifacts

The

bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve ...

s with cord-marked patterns are commonly seen in many cultures and

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s, but the ones unearthed at Fushan Site are different; the bowls unearthed from the sites of Fushan Culture have handles, but there are no handles on the bowls from other cultures and archaeological sites. It is speculated that those bowls with handles could be a cultural inheritance.

References

{{Reflist Taitung County Archaeological sites in Taiwan Neolithic sites of Asia