[Archeology] Mysterious Skull Earthenware Pieces Unearthed in Taitung, Suspected to be New Evidence of Negritos' Presence in Taiwan

[Archeology] Mysterious Skull Earthenware Pieces Unearthed in Taitung, Suspected to be New Evidence of Negritos' Presence in Taiwan (Chinese Version)

CNA (2010/10/25), China Times E-paper & the Liberty Times (2010/10/26) Several mysterious earthenware pieces with skull engravings were recently found at the Kavayavayan (which means the place to work in Paiwan language) site in Dawu Township, Taitung County. The skull patterns were very rare among the recorded excavation in Taiwan, which the local cultural worker Zhi-jian XU (徐志堅) therefore believed to be the evidence of the presence of Negritos in Taiwan, while, on the contrary, Kun-xiu LI (李坤修), Assistant Research Fellow at the National Museum of Prehistory, held that the patterns might belong to the late San-He culture. The final determination still needs further findings and investigation.


According to the oral history, there were once many Negrito people live in the area of the Paiwan tribe Ai-guo-pu (愛國埔) in Dawu Townshp, Taitung County, but they just suddenly disappeared, merely leaving behind a wall of stone ruins. A seventy-six-year-old woman Jiu-gu (鳩谷) said, the elders always said that the Negrito people liked to run to and fro in the rivers, which caused the tribal people's suspicion that they were poisoning the river so that they were all killed. She said, the skulls people worshipped in the old tribal sites were smaller than the tribal people's remains, and that these worshipped skulls might be the Negritos'. Another version of the story was that the Negritos were actually very kind, but they were either driven out in the mountains by the Paiwan people or mixed by them.

The local cultural worker Zhi-jian XU discovered several pottery fragments on which many skull totems were engraved, under a stone pillar. He compared the patterns with the literature and the recorded unearthed cultural relics but failed to congruently match. He thought, the old Paiwan people only engraved snake (Dienagkistrodon acutus) patterns or solar totems, and it was very odd to his knowledge about all the ethnic groups in Taiwan that the totems of misfortune, the skulls, would be engraved. Hence, he got the intuition that the totems should belong to Nagritos and that the pottery fragments were the evidence to prove the presence of Nagritos in Taiwan.

However, Kun-xiu LI, an archeological researcher at the National Museum of Prehistory, said the pottery fragments could belong to local Paiwan, who were known to revere the gods. He claimed that the carvings was not supposed to be of a human skull but of a god. Similar totems were found in the relics in the Chiu-hsiang-lan Site, so he believed these latest findings should belong to the late San-He Culture. LI said, the residence of the Nagritos should be deeper in the mountains. He got the information that a suspected site was found in the Jinlun Mountain area. He had arranged a research trip into the area in the near future.


Further Information:
CNA 2010/10/25 (Chinese)
China Times E-paper 2010/10/26 (Chinese)
The Liberty Times 2010/10/26 (Chinese)

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