Lungkeng (Mandarin: 龍坑考古遺址; pinyin: lóng kēng kǎo gǔ yí zhǐ) is an

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 ...

near the village of Ehluan in

Hengchun Township Hengchun is a township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County. Hengchun has a ...

, Taiwan. It dates to the pre-ceramic period, 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.

Geography

Lungkeng is located on a

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

rising on the eastern shore of the Ehluanpi

Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

, at the southernmost point of

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 ...

. A notch of a

that runs from the east to the west on the plateau is where the site is located, and it's at an

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

of 8 meters. Two kilometers away from the west is the Oluanpi second archaeological site, which is another site dating to the pre-ceramic period on the Hengchun Peninsula in addition to Lungkeng site. The major deposit at the site is

laterite Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

. Based on the residual laterite deposits from the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

gaps of the coral reefs and the current height of the remains, the laterite deposits may have reached a height of 6 meters above surface. The site is facing the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

with stable and abundant freshwater resources nearby. The water source is at a limestone

landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement ...

formed from coral reefs with

rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

water

seepage In soil mechanics, seepage is the movement of water through soil. If fluid pressures in a soil deposit are uniformly increasing with depth according to u = \rho_w g z_w, where z_w is the depth below the water table, then hydrostatic conditions wi ...

at the northern shore of the reef notch 60 meters away.

History of research

The site was discovered by Li Kuang-Chou et al. on August 16, 1984, and a trial

excavation Excavation may refer to: * Archaeological excavation * Excavation (medicine) * ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013 * ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000 * ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins * '' Excavation: A Mem ...

was conducted on September 6 of the same year. Later, there were no further trial excavations, but investigations were active. Based on their research results, the area of the site is approximately 20x20 m². The team set up two trail excavation pits in proximity to the coral reef notch due to the high density of artifacts. The pits were at the due north and due south locations, with an area of 2x2 m², respectively. The total area of the trial excavation was 8 m².

Research results

Unearthed Artifacts

The artifacts collected from the surface and excavation include a lithic cutting tool (1 piece),

lithic flake In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock (geology), rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure,"Andrefsky, W. (2005) ''Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis''. 2d Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and ...

s (3 pieces), lithic waste (2 pieces), a bone

chisel A chisel is a hand tool with a characteristic Wedge, wedge-shaped cutting edge on the end of its blade. A chisel is useful for carving or cutting a hard material such as woodworking, wood, lapidary, stone, or metalworking, metal. Using a chi ...

(1 piece), shell scrapers (13 pieces), tons of

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by Mollusca, mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters ...

turtle shell The turtle shell is a shield for the ventral and dorsal parts of turtles (the Order (biology), order Testudines), completely enclosing all the turtle's vital organs and in some cases even the head. It is constructed of modified bony elements such ...

s, animal bones, and animal

teeth A tooth (: teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...

Technology Development and Industries

Chipped

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

s were the primary lithic flakes in this culture, and scraping and polishing techniques had been applied to

bone tool In archaeology, bone tools have been documented from the advent of ''Homo sapiens'' and are also known from ''Homo neanderthalensis'' contexts or even earlier. Bone has been used for making tools by virtually all hunter-gatherer societies, even w ...

Hunting and gathering A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...

were the main source of subsistence. Based on the animal remains, the people might have lived primarily by gathering, followed by hunting and then

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. Shell scrapers were abundant in specific regions, and continued to be used in the historical period.

Culture Type

The results of trial excavations at Lungkeng and Ohluanpi archaeological sites demonstrate that the pre-ceramic period and

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 ...

are not a continuum according to the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

, with differences in cultural development. As the C-14 dates show that the pre-ceramic layer was in the Holocene Period, Li Kuang-Chou called it "Culture Continued from the Late Paleolithic Age" instead of the

Paleolithic period The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

Dating

Only one result of C-14 dating for Lungkeng site has been published. The date from seashells is 5560±90 B.P., calibrated as 6385±170 B.P. through tree-ring dating.

References

{{Reflist Archaeological sites in Taiwan Archaeology of Taiwan Prehistoric Taiwan