Ancient interactions between eastern Taiwan and the Philippines: From the Palaeolithic Age to Iron Age

Abstract

Archaeological records have shown the variable interactions among people of eastern Taiwan and the Philippines over time scales of thousands of years, involving different configurations of trade and exchange through complex and dynamic social and environmental contexts. These examples are instructive for understanding current social, political, and economic relations as well as for learning about the general scope of cross-cultural interactions that have occurred throughout world history. For the case of eastern Taiwan and the Philippines, the archaeological evidence here is synthesized in a chronological narrative of time periods, including a Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age (30,000 through 6000 years ago), a Neolithic or New Stone Age (6000/5500 through 2400 years ago), and an Iron Age (2400 through 400 years ago).

While this topic has attracted scholarly attention for about 100 years, the substantive evidence from eastern Taiwan and the Philippines now enables many new insights, made possible through detailed investigations of cross-comparisons of artefact forms and styles, geochemical sourcing of ancient ornaments and other objects, cranial morphology of ancient skeletal remains, ancient DNA research, analysis of preserved ancient botanical remains, and palaeo-landscape studies. The newest results can support re-thinking of key issues about population migrations, cross-cultural interaction, trade, exchange, and technology trans-location in a long-term perspective.