Qualla: National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan)

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pbdragonwang, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1980, workers laying the foundations for a new Taitung railway station broke through something unexpected. Beneath the construction site lay slate coffins — dozens, then hundreds — along with jade ornaments and stone tools belonging to people who had lived and died here three thousand years before. The South-Link Line project halted. A National Taiwan University excavation team moved in and would not leave for a decade. What they found across 10,000 square meters of ground was one of the most significant prehistoric burial sites in East Asia: over 1,500 burials and tens of thousands of artifacts from the Beinan culture, a Bronze Age civilization whose descendants are the Puyuma people living in this region today.

Image: Pbdragonwang | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): What the Railway Workers Found

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike841125, Public domain. Construction for the South-Link Line — the railway connection that would finally link the island's east and west coasts through the southern mountains — was already a major infrastructure undertaking when the Taitung station site yielded its surprise in 1980. The discovery was la...

Image: Mike841125 | Public domain

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): The Beinan Culture and Its Living Heirs

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lord Koxinga, CC BY-SA 3.0. The civilization that left those graves behind is known as the Beinan culture, a Bronze Age society that flourished on Taiwan's southeast coast roughly 3,500 years ago. The Beinan site, now preserved as Beinan Cultural Park adjacent to the museum, is the largest known prehistoric...

Image: Lord Koxinga | CC BY-SA 3.0

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): A Building Worthy of What It Holds

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jun, CC BY 2.0. The National Museum of Prehistory opened in Taitung City in 2002, more than two decades after the initial discovery. The building was designed by the American architect Michael Graves — known for his postmodern style and for projects including the Portland Building in Oregon and ...

Image: Jun | CC BY 2.0

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): What the Exhibitions Tell

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pbdragonwang, CC BY-SA 4.0. Three core exhibitions anchor the museum's permanent collection. The Natural History of Taiwan, designed by MET Studio of London, traces the island's ecological formation and the environmental context in which human life here developed. The Prehistory of Taiwan brings the archaeo...

Image: Pbdragonwang | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Museum of Prehistory (Taiwan): Stone, Slate, and Three Thousand Years

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rsa, CC BY-SA 3.0. The museum is reachable on foot from Kangle Station on Taiwan Railway — a short walk from a stop that most visitors to Taitung pass through. The building underwent renovation beginning in May 2020, a sign that the institution sees its work as ongoing rather than settled. The Bein...

Image: Rsa | CC BY-SA 3.0