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| Xitun culture | |
|---|---|
| Name | Xitun culture |
| Region | Taichung Basin, Taiwan |
| Period | Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age |
| Dates | c. 4000–2000 BP |
| Major sites | Dadu, Dajia, Beitun, Houli |
Xitun culture was a prehistoric cultural tradition centered in the Taichung Basin of central Taiwan during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age transition. Archaeological research on the culture has connected it to broader interaction networks across the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, and the Philippine archipelago, and to later groups in northern and western Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Excavations have highlighted distinctive pottery styles, lithic industries, and settlement layouts that inform debates about migration, trade, and technological transmission in prehistoric East Asia.
The cultural complex was defined through surveys and excavations by teams from Academia Sinica, National Taiwan University, and regional museums such as the National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan), which compared assemblages to sequences from Fuzhou, Guangdong, Luzon, Batanes Islands, and the Ryukyu Islands. Scholars including Chang Ming-kuei, K.C. Chang, and researchers from the Institute of Archaeology (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) have debated links with the Dapenkeng culture, the Niuheliang culture, and maritime networks connecting to the Austronesian expansion as discussed by Peter Bellwood and Roger Blench. Radiocarbon dates obtained by laboratories at Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the AMS Laboratory, National Taiwan University anchor the chronology.
Key sites include mound and habitation remains at Dadu and Dajia investigated during salvage excavations by the Taiwan Provincial Museum and systematic digs led by National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan), with fieldwork methodologies influenced by teams from University of Tokyo, Peking University, and the Australian National University. Notable trenches revealed burial pits, posthole patterns, and midden deposits comparable to those at Beinan and Nantou County sites. Collaborative projects with the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum provided comparative studies of faunal assemblages and ceramic typologies.
Artifacts attributed to the culture include cord-marked and incised pottery sherds related to ceramic traditions documented in Fujian and the Philippines, polished stone adzes reminiscent of toolkits from Luzon Strait communities, and ground slate ornaments paralleling finds from Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. Metallurgical traces observed in Late Xitun contexts prompted analyses by the Metallurgy Research Centre, National Taiwan University using techniques developed at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Comparative studies reference lithic assemblages from Shandong, obsidian sourcing protocols used in studies of Ryukyu exchange, and decorative motifs analyzed alongside collections at the National Palace Museum.
Settlement evidence indicates nucleated villages along river terraces of the Dajia River and Dadu River with defensive features paralleling patterns discussed in reports by the Council for Cultural Affairs (Taiwan). Agricultural macroremains include rice phytoliths compared with assemblages from Yangtze River Delta and Lower Yangtze archaeological projects led by Yale University and Zhejiang University. Zooarchaeological data show exploitation of estuarine and marine species similar to subsistence profiles reported from Penghu and the Matsu Islands, while trade in marine and lithic goods aligns with routes mapped in studies by the International Oceanographic Commission and maritime historians like James Hornell.
Burial architecture and grave goods imply social differentiation and ritualized mortuary behavior comparable to patterns in Hemudu culture and Hongshan culture contexts. Ornamentation with slate, shell, and beads reflects status display documented in ethnographic collections at the Peabody Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum. Spatial analyses of house sizes and communal features were modeled using methods from the School for Advanced Research and suggest leadership roles analogous to those inferred in studies of the Formosan Plains populations and early chiefs described in comparative work by Clifford Geertz and archaeologists such as Tessa Morris-Suzuki.
The chronological framework incorporates calibrated radiocarbon assays from charcoal, shell, and bone, compared across sequences from Neolithic China, Austronesian prehistoric chronology, and the Jōmon period of Japan. Debates over ceramic phasing and cultural transmission draw on theoretical frameworks developed by V. Gordon Childe, diffusionist models critiqued by Julian Steward, and more recent syntheses by Peter Bellwood and Gavin H. Menzies (controversial). Interactions with contemporaneous traditions in southeast China and the Philippines remain central to reconstructions of population movement and cultural admixture.
Material and settlement patterns attributed to the culture contributed to the cultural mosaic from which later plains and highland indigenous societies in Taiwan emerged, influencing pottery technology, agricultural strategies, and craft specializations observed in historical accounts by Dutch Formosa administrators and missionary records of the Kingdom of Middag. Continuities are invoked in comparative studies linking Xitun assemblages to ceramic phases in the Siraya and Bunun ethnohistoric records, and in regional museum displays curated by the National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan), Taichung City Museum, and international exhibitions co-organized with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Category:Prehistoric cultures in Taiwan