Qualla: Peinan Site Park https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Peinan Site Park https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park Peinan Site Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. They were building a railway station when they found the dead. In 1980, construction workers digging behind Taitung station in southeastern Taiwan broke through soil that had not been disturbed for millennia. Beneath the surface lay a graveyard of several thousand slate coffins, some still cradling human remains. Around them, scattered like offerings, were more than 20,000 pieces of jade, pottery, and stone tools - the material record of a sophisticated prehistoric civilization that had flourished on this coastal plain roughly three thousand years ago. It was the largest and most complete prehistoric settlement ever discovered in Taiwan, and it had been sleeping beneath a railway platform.

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/wsn1-peinan-site-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Peinan Site Park: The First Witness https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park/ Photo credit Benson KC Fang, CC BY-SA 3.0. The earliest outsider to record the site was Torii Ryuzo, a Japanese anthropologist who visited Taiwan four times during the early period of Japanese colonial rule. Torii photographed the monolithic stone pillars that stood above ground at Peinan - massive carved columns whose pu...

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Image: Benson KC Fang | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/wsn1-peinan-site-park-the-first-witness.mp3 0:06 2 full Peinan Site Park: Jade and Slate https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park/ Photo credit 總統府, CC BY 2.0. The 1980 discovery transformed Peinan from an archaeological curiosity into a national priority. The burial sites covered an area of more than 10,000 square meters and contained over 1,600 individual graves. The dead had been interred in coffins made from carefully shaped slate s...

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Image: 總統府 | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/wsn1-peinan-site-park-jade-and-slate.mp3 0:06 3 full Peinan Site Park: From Dig Site to Park https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park/ Photo credit Benson KC Fang, CC BY-SA 3.0. The sheer scale of the find forced Taiwan's government to act. Archaeological excavation began in earnest, and the decision was made to preserve the site in place rather than scatter its contents across distant museums. Peinan Site Park opened in 1997, built around the original e...

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Image: Benson KC Fang | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/wsn1-peinan-site-park-from-dig-site-to-park.mp3 0:06 4 full Peinan Site Park: A Civilization Without a Name https://qualla.com/peinan-site-park/ Photo credit Lord Koxinga, CC BY-SA 3.0. Archaeologists call them the Peinan culture, but the people themselves left no name for us to use. They lived on Taiwan's southeastern coast during the late Neolithic period, roughly contemporary with the early Bronze Age civilizations of mainland Asia. Their jade-working skills ...

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Image: Lord Koxinga | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/n/1/peinan-site-park-wp/wsn1-peinan-site-park-a-civilization-without-a-name.mp3 0:06 5 full