Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Exceptionaly rare knife from Formosa/Taiwan

yuanzhumin · 23rd March 2010, 09:33 AM

To Nonoy,
-There have been a lot of archaeological works done recently, mostly in the process of the rapid urbanization of the coastal areas of Taiwan. That’s usually when there is a new highway, a new port or an industrial zone in building that findings of historical importance are done. The Shisanhang site, close to the new Taipei harbour, is one of them, and there are few others all around the island where metal/iron tools were found dating from 2000 years ago to 1500 years ago. This give you an idea about the beginning of what we could call the Iron Age in Taiwan. (The history of Taiwan starts when the island became a Dutch colony in the 17th cent. The times before are considered as its prehistory). Shisanhang is the most interesting site because it’s the only place where a furnace for iron melting has been found, revealing that the former inhabitants of the island had the knowledge and the ability to melt iron. Discoveries of Chinese items dating from earlier Chinese dynasties showed also that commercial routes were existing, used also to bring iron or metal blades from the continent. This is for the coastal austronesian populations. As for the mountains ones, it seems that they were not doing their blades themselves and were bartering them. By the way, that’s how the Dutch made a fortune in the 17th cent.: they were giving iron blades to the mountains aborigines in exchange for deer skins that where then traded for porcelains and other precious stuff in Japan. Why the deer skins in Japan? Japan was in the middle of a feudal war at that time and the deer skin was known as being the best undercoat, under the samurai armors.
-Concerning the jade, its extraction and carving is located in one place, south east of the island, and was done early -- around 6000 years ago. We know now that this jade was exported all around Asia by the Austronesian peoples from Taiwan that exported at the same time their language. Some of the people kept on migrating till they discover Polynesia in the east or reached the coasts of Madagascar, in the west. On their pirogues with outrigger, this people exported the jade carved and sometimes raw, sculpting it on location (as some archaeological findings show it). It seems that they were using stone tools.
To Kukulza,
-it’s important to stay away from the clichés and the amalgams about the Taiwanese, the Chinese, the Japanese, the aborigines/austronesians.

23rd March 2010, 09:33 AM	#15
yuanzhumin Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China Posts: 180	To Nonoy, -There have been a lot of archaeological works done recently, mostly in the process of the rapid urbanization of the coastal areas of Taiwan. That’s usually when there is a new highway, a new port or an industrial zone in building that findings of historical importance are done. The Shisanhang site, close to the new Taipei harbour, is one of them, and there are few others all around the island where metal/iron tools were found dating from 2000 years ago to 1500 years ago. This give you an idea about the beginning of what we could call the Iron Age in Taiwan. (The history of Taiwan starts when the island became a Dutch colony in the 17th cent. The times before are considered as its prehistory). Shisanhang is the most interesting site because it’s the only place where a furnace for iron melting has been found, revealing that the former inhabitants of the island had the knowledge and the ability to melt iron. Discoveries of Chinese items dating from earlier Chinese dynasties showed also that commercial routes were existing, used also to bring iron or metal blades from the continent. This is for the coastal austronesian populations. As for the mountains ones, it seems that they were not doing their blades themselves and were bartering them. By the way, that’s how the Dutch made a fortune in the 17th cent.: they were giving iron blades to the mountains aborigines in exchange for deer skins that where then traded for porcelains and other precious stuff in Japan. Why the deer skins in Japan? Japan was in the middle of a feudal war at that time and the deer skin was known as being the best undercoat, under the samurai armors. -Concerning the jade, its extraction and carving is located in one place, south east of the island, and was done early -- around 6000 years ago. We know now that this jade was exported all around Asia by the Austronesian peoples from Taiwan that exported at the same time their language. Some of the people kept on migrating till they discover Polynesia in the east or reached the coasts of Madagascar, in the west. On their pirogues with outrigger, this people exported the jade carved and sometimes raw, sculpting it on location (as some archaeological findings show it). It seems that they were using stone tools. To Kukulza, -it’s important to stay away from the clichés and the amalgams about the Taiwanese, the Chinese, the Japanese, the aborigines/austronesians.