Prehistory of Taiwan

The prehistory of Taiwan includes the late Paleolithic era. During that time, roughly 50,000 BC to 10,000 BC, people were already living in Taiwan.

Evidence shows that the earliest archaeological culture found in Taiwan was the Changbin culture (長濱文化), this prehistoric site was found in Eastern Taiwan. Human skeletons were also found in Zuozhen, Tainan County (now part of Tainan City, therefore called the Zuojhen people). Yuanshan (圓山) and other prehistoric sites were found in Taipei Basin. However, there isn't enough evidence to be sure which group of people left the artifacts.

Taiwan is the urheimat of the Austronesian languages. Archaeological evidence suggests that speakers of pre-Proto-Austronesian spread from the South Chinese mainland to Taiwan at some time around 8,000 years ago. Evidence from historical linguistics suggests that it is from this island that seafaring peoples migrated, perhaps in distinct waves separated by millennia, to the entire region encompassed by the Austronesian languages. It is believed that this migration began around 6,000 years ago. However, evidence from historical linguistics cannot bridge the gap between those two periods.

References

Relevant works

• Bird, Michael I.; Hope, Geoffrey; Taylor, David (2004), "Populating PEP II: the dispersal of humans and agriculture through Austral-Asia and Oceania" (PDF), Quaternary International, 118–119: 145–163, retrieved 2007-03-31.
• Blust, Robert (1999), "Subgrouping, circularity and extinction: some issues in Austronesian comparative linguistics", in E. Zeitoun; P.J.K Li (eds.), Selected papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Taipei: Academia Sinica, pp. 31–94.
• Chang, K.C. (1989), "The Neolithic Taiwan Strait" (PDF), Kaogu, 6, translated by W. Tsao, ed. by B. Gordon: 541–550, 569.
• Diamond, Jared M (2000), "Taiwan's gift to the world" (PDF), Nature, 403 (6771): 709–710, doi:10.1038/35001685, PMID 10693781.
• Hill, Catherine; Soares, Pedro; Mormina, Maru; Macaulay, Vincent (2007), "A Mitochondrial Stratigraphy for Island Southeast Asia", American Journal of Human Genetics: 1735–1737, PMC 1876738.
• Jiao, Tianlong (2007), The neolithic of southeast China: cultural transformation and regional interaction on the coast, Cambria Press, ISBN 978-1-934043-16-5.
• Olsen, Sari; Miller-Antonio (1992), "The Palaeolithic in Southern China", Asian Perspectives, 31 (2): 129–160.