A Guide to the National Museum of Prehistory: Where Taiwan Meets the World

簡介

Museum Director’s Preface
The National Taiwan Museum of Prehistory (hereinafter referred to as the “NMP”) originated with the discovery and archaeological excavation of the Peinan Site in 1980 during the construction of the South Link Rail Line. After years of preparation, it was officially opened in 2002. As of June 2020, after serving more than 7.5 million visitors, the NMP temporarily suspended services as it began relandscaping its grounds and updating its permanent exhibition. During this period, we reviewed the changes in Taiwan’s social and academic trends, restudied the museum’s positioning and future development, made major changes to the movement lines for the public service spaces in the building and its exterior landscaping, and updated the structure and content of nearly the entire permanent exhibition. At the same time, the museum’s guide service work was replanned, with greater use of modern technology in combination with social resources to provide visitors a more complete museum visiting experience.
The renovation of the NMP’s permanent exhibitions focused on the reconstruction of the Taiwan Prehistory Hall and the Austronesian Hall, and the planning for an entirely new Exploration Center for school-age children. The Taiwan Prehistory Hall is based on the results of important archaeological research conducted in the past 30 years and expands the content of the exhibition to include Taiwan’s surrounding areas. The Austronesian Hall employs the core concept of “The Island Is Our Canoe, the Sea is Our Pathway: Oceanic Thinking and the Island Experience,” and “connectivity” served as the main perspective in the planning of its displays, which feature entirely new content. The Exploration Center uses three stories—“White Dove’s Trail of Tears” from the United States, “Chanie’s Secret Path” from Canada, and “Ill-fitting Shoes” from Taiwan—to look squarely at the issues of “forced migration,” “assimilation through education,” and “migrant workers.” We hope to inspire parent-child audiences to understand and reflect on the history and life experiences of different ethnic groups.
This booklet completely yet briefly covers the content of the important exhibits of the Taiwan Prehistory Hall, the Austronesian Hall, the Taiwan Natural History Hall, and Exploration Center. For the audioguide part we are very honored to have invited the Paiwan musicians, Hu Defu (also known as Ara Kimbo), a fighter for democracy, and Tuhi Martukaw, an outstanding international cultural worker of the Kasavakan Community of the Pinuyumayan people. Ara Kimbo and Tuhi Martukaw contributed their enthusiasm and their voices to participate in the making of the Mandarin and English versions of the guided tour of the NMP. You can use this well-illustrated publication to follow the tour of the newly renovated NMP and explore its presentation of Taiwan—from the origins of this island and its flora and fauna, to the arrival and settlement of the Austronesian people, as well as their interactions among themselves and with the surrounding environment from the distant past to the present. We hope this will help you to rediscover and understand the land and culture we live in.

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目次

Table of Contents

2 Museum Director’s Preface
6 Installation Art/Spool of Time

Taiwan Prehistory Hall
8 Introduction/The Stories of People Living in Taiwan From 30,000 Years Ago
10 The Paleolithic Period
14 The Early and Middle Neolithic Periods
22 The Late Neolithic Period
38 The Iron Age
44 Taiwan 500 Years Ago

Austronesian Hall
48 Introduction/Austronesian Worlds, Worldly Austronesias
50 Kita Us
52 Understanding
60 Bordering
66 Exchanging
72 Communicating
84 Identifying

Taiwan Natural History Hall
92 Introduction/Time Journey
94 Birth
98 The Ice Age
106 A New Age

Exploration Center
112 Introduction/Curiosity, Creativity, Empathy
114 “Empathy: The Stories of Moving” Exhibition
118 Prehistory Exploration Play Area

Information for Visitors
122 Main Museum
124 Peinan Site Park
126 Museum of Archaeology, Tainan Branch of NMP