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Foragers, fishers and farmers: origins of the Taiwanese Neolithic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Hsiao-chun Hung  and
Mike T. Carson
Hsiao-chun Hung
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Mike T. Carson
Affiliation:
Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam, UOG Station, Mangilao, Guam, GU 92963, USA
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Abstract

The Neolithic of Taiwan represents the first stage in the expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples through the Pacific. Settlement and burial evidence from the Tapenkeng (TKP) or Dabenkeng culture demonstrates the development of the early Taiwanese Neolithic over a period of almost 2000 years, from its origin in the pre-TPK of the Pearl River Delta and south-eastern coastal China. The first TPK communities of Taiwan pursued a mixed coastal foraging and horticultural lifestyle, but by the late TPK rice and millet farming were practised with extensive villages and large settlements. The broad-spectrum subsistence diversity of the Taiwanese Neolithic was an important factor in facilitating the subsequent expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples to the Philippines and beyond.

Keywords

TaiwanAustronesian dispersalTapenkeng (Dabenkeng)broad-spectrum foragingrice farminghuman migration
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1115 - 1131
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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