via Taiwan Today, Jan-Feb 2024: Exploration of the Peinan Site Park in Taitung, Taiwan, alongside efforts by the National Museum of Prehistory, illuminates Taiwan’s rich prehistoric era, highlighting significant archaeological finds like the mysterious stone pillar and extensive slate coffin clusters. This work, coupled with national initiatives, underscores the island’s historical importance and its role in the global prehistoric narrative, attracting both academic and public interest.
Near the main train station in southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung City stands a relic that remains a mystery to this day. According to the National Museum of Prehistory (NMP), some believe it was simply a support beam for a building, while others theorize that it was meant to be a monument to an unknown person. Whatever the truth, the stone pillar with a crescent-shaped top continues to stir the imagination and spark interest in Taiwan’s prehistoric past.
The pillar is situated within Peinan Site Park, which is named after the Chinese term for the Puyuma Indigenous group that still lives in the area. The NMP is headquartered nearby and has administered the park since it was established in 2002. The facility displays and cares for a large number of artifacts recovered during construction of Taitung Station in the 1980s. The site contained one of the largest clusters of slate coffins found anywhere in the world, with more than 2,000 sarcophagi and countless funerary objects. Now the 30-hectare park is home to one of the 11 national-level archaeological sites recognized under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, which was promulgated in 1982 largely in response to the groundbreaking finds in Taitung. Visitors to the park can tour an excavation site of residential and burial remains dating back 3,000 years that have been preserved in situ.
