Archaeologists Unearth Wooden Coffins

FANTASTIC FIND: Archaelogists working at a dig site in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park have discovered a 5,000-year-old coffin and the skeletons of a couple

"Each of [the wooden coffins] was 40cm long and 10cm wide. They are made of hardwood and are dark brown in color. We need further examination to determine the exact type of wood."

Chu Cheng-yi, research fellow with the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica

A wooden coffin believed to be nearly 5,000 years old has been unearthed at an archaeological site in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park in southern Taiwan, a local archaeologist said yesterday. "We discovered the grave at a site reserved for construction of a public facility in the science park on Monday," said Chu Cheng-yi (¦¶¥¿©y), a research fellow with the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica -- Taiwan's highest academic body.

Chu, who has been conducting a field study at the science park since 1995, said it was the first time his archaeological team had discovered a grave with a wooden coffin in the area.

In the past, the team has found stone sarcophagi, but nothing like these wooden coffins.

"Each of them was 40cm long and 10cm wide," he explained. "They are made of hardwood and are dark brown in color. We need further examination to determine the exact type of wood," he said.

Also unearthed in the grave were more than 20 cord-marked pots and many pottery shards.

Archaelogists also discovered the skeletons of a man and a woman, both of whom were in their 20s when they died, Chu went on.

"This is also the first time that we have discovered the remains of a couple buried together in a single grave in the region," Chu told reporters.

Over the past six years, Chu's team has unearthed more than 370 human skeletons and a large quantity of pots and shards at nine archaeological sites in the Tainan science park, which is still under construction.

The newly discovered grave was found beneath the ninth archaeological site, known as the Nankuanli East cultural relic.

According to Chu, his team last month also excavated a grave containing 20 human skeletons, two complete dog skeletons, 140 rubbish pits, as well as many grains and shells at the site.

"All of the skeletons and artifacts were buried at a depth of between 0.5m and 1m in an area spanning 1,500m2 ," Chu said.

He added that the relics belong to the Tapenkeng culture which dates back 5,000 years.

Chu said his team must step up its work to rescue as many cultural relics in the region as possible before they are covered by concrete for the construction of the site.

The Jomon Project

The Japanese word "jomon" means cord-marked. Pottery decorated with elaborate cord-marked designs gave its name to one of the most remarkable periods of abstract creative expression in prehistory. From the appearance of the oldest pottery in the world, over seventy major pottery styles flourished during the long Jomon period (c.13,000 - c.2400 years ago).(I just learned something.)

The people who made these vessels lived in relatively settled villages with complex and often heavily ritualised lifestyles. The constructed stone circles and developed striking body ornamentation. And yet while many aspects of Jomon culture appear "neolithic" to European eyes, no farming was practiced during the Jomon period, Jomon foragers instead subsisting on the abundant natural food resources available to them in the temperate forests and along the coasts of the archipelago.

In the autumn of 2001 an exhibition of Jomon pottery was held at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and an international symposium examined the contexts within which the earliest dated pottery in the world was produced. These events marked the start of the Jomon Project. The next stage of the project is the launch of a new fully interactive website about Jomon archaeology. If you would like to receive updates about the website please leave your email details with us.

The Jomon Project forms part of Japan 2001 (www.japan2001.org.uk) a nationwide festival of Japanese culture in the United Kingdom. The Jomon Project is organised in cooperation with Kokugakuin University, the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.

The Jomon Project is sponsored by the Japan Foundation, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Japan 2001 and Kokugakuin University, which celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2002.

The Jomon Project is also supported by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (www.sainsbury-institute.org) and the Society for East Asian Archaeology (www.eastasianarchaeology.org).

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