Archeologist Liu：discovered human bones will aid study on burial culture

【2000/12/08 lian ho Times】

Reporter Tsao／Taipei

The Taipei city government recently discovered two human skeletons in the Chee Shan Rock area.  Archeologist Liu confirmed that it belong to the Yuan shan age, dating back around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago.

But he also expressed that there has been various discoveries of skeletons since the digging began in 1980, and due to the bad weather condition, he will comment more tomorrow when he has a better look at it.

He added that in the past people used shells to date the site, and there might be some errors involved, thus he decided to use coal to date it, and found the date to be about 2,500 years ago.

Reporter Chang/exclusive interview

Q : What age do these two skeletons belong?

A : They are quite intact, and my guess is around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, which means the Yuan Shan age.

Q : Did we find such intact skeletons before?

A : We found skeletons before, but none as intact.

Q : What does this mean in terms of archeology?

A : We can use this to study the burial cultures of the yuan shan age, because of the small ceramic can sitting next to the female bone.

Q : From an archeological standpoint, how should we arrange this site in the future?

A : There is a dilemma between preserving the artifacts and protecting the quality of drinking water, because we might need to alter the engineering of water pipelines.  But since this area is already declared a protected area, we would prefer to put preserving history as a priority.