Taiwan Sights: Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology (Bali, New Taipei)
Established in 2003 to protect the remnants of a Neolithic civilization, the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in New Taipei provides good introduction to northern Taiwan’s prehistory and Austronesian connections. Where Taiwan’s third-longest river meets the open sea has long been a confluence of influences wide and far.
The site was first discovered in 1957 by geologist Lin Chao-chin (林朝棨), who named it “Shihsanhang (十三行)” after the name of the smallest administrative unit around, a common archaeological practice. As for why the area became known as Shihsanhang (meaning “13 units”), there are three theories: One says it started with the area being known for 13 merchant houses, the second says this coast was later populated by 13 bachelors who left China, and the third postulates “Shihsanhang” could be a sinofication of the region’s Indigenous name.
Bali District, the north bank of where Tamsui River empties into the Taiwan Strait, is now home to riverside bike routes, mangrove reserves, waterfront condominiums, kite-flying parks, and a massive water treatment plant that once was Asia’s largest (until 2008). In fact, it was the 1989 construction of this sewage plant that led to the museum’s establishment, after much prodding and campaigning by local activists and scholars.
The Bali Sewage Treatment Plant is responsible for treating the domestic sewage of 6.4 million people — the combined population of Keelung, Taipei, and New Taipei City. Up to 1,320,000 cubic meters of treated wastewater is discharged daily into the Taiwan Strait through marine drainage pipelines, although the plant’s operator Huimin Environmental Tech (惠民實業, TPEX:6971) has been fined before for fudging its numbers and releasing untreated wastewater directly into the ocean.
During the sewage plant’s controversial construction, new remnants of an ancient settlement emerged. Archaeologists Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華) and Liu Yi-chang (劉益昌) led a successful campaign for the site’s preservation, leading to its designation as a class-two monument in 1991, national historic site in 2006, and national archaeological site in 2017. The museum began operating in 2003 in a sleek building that was designed by architect Sun Te-hung (孫德鴻), who captured the 2002 Taiwan Architecture Prize for his architectural conceptualization of “mountain, ocean, and time.”
The museum’s website states:
This representation of mountain and ocean meets in the octagon tower that links the past with the present and represents the passing of time.
Designed to stand at an irregular angle of 17°, this structure alludes to the destruction of the historical remains and the impossibility of ever restoring the past. The arrangement of exhibitions in the building leads visitors through a series of different eras, allowing them to experience the passing of time and the lasting importance of each historical period.
Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology is also designed in such a way that its ground floor is located 1.5m under ground level. The walkway to the entrance, which first climbs and then gently slopes downwards, symbolizes the fact that one is about to enter a treasure trove unearthed by archaeologists.
The museum and its accompanying archaeological park, which is situated right next to the 43.3-hectare sewage plant that has adopted the museum’s treasured Anthropomorphic Jar pattern as its beautification option, hold the memories of two ancient settlements, to be exact. The Shihsanhang culture (十三行文化) that lived on this site was known for being the earliest to smith iron on Taiwan, while the Tapenkeng culture (大坌坑文化) from the Guanyin Mountain behind the museum is proposed to be “the ancestral culture of the Austronesian peoples.”
The early Neolithic Period peoples of Tapenkeng culture are considered the original settlers of Taiwan. Other Tapenkeng-era sites have been found in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taitung, and Penghu. Archaeologists like Tsang believe that small groups of agricultural settlers crossed the Taiwan Strait around 6,000 years ago, perhaps from the Pearl River Delta and south-eastern coastal China. As the earliest Neolithic cultural stratum ever found in Taiwan, the Tapenkeng culture is seen as the first migratory stage of the Pacific expansion of the Austronesian-speaking peoples.
On the top floor of the museum, which is accessible by both elevator and a spiraling industrial staircase, a glass passage leads to a vantage point offering a far-off glimpse of the Tapenkeng National Archaeology Site, located between an elevation of 30 and 100 meters along the northwest side of Guanyin Mountain.
One more detail: a tiny land god temple made of volcanic stone is housed on the balcony of the museum. It was relocated from Guanyin Mountain for preservation and is on display as a specimen of the prized rock once quarried from the same slopes that nurtured the Tapenkeng culture around 5,500 to 4,500 years ago. The site was first discovered in 1958 but remained unprotected by the law until 1992; leading to damage by widespread quarrying and tomb-building on Guanyin Mountain during the 1980s.
The museum’s namesake, Shihsanhang culture dates from 1,800 to 350 years ago. Their mastery of natural resources led to metal tools and decorated pottery. They ate rice, hunted wild game, harvested clams, and trapped fish and shrimp. They lived in stilted huts to ward off beast attacks, traded with voyagers, and exercised their creativity with clay and kiln.
Excavated graves reveal the Shihsanhang people buried their kin in a sideways fetal position with pottery, jewelry, and metal implements. Given the similarities in lifestyle, death rites, and pottery markings, they are identified as the likely forerunners of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples.
After the Tapenkeng and Shihsanhang cultures, inhabitants of northern Taiwan encompassed several Indigenous Plains tribes (who are also known as the Pingpu peoples, now deemed assimilated with later settlers and not offered Indigenous recognition by the government), as well as historic waves of immigration from regions like China and Southeast Asia. The museum displays relics of their engagement, including trade contracts and land-leasing agreements that were written in Han Chinese characters by the newcomers and signed with handprints by Indigenous landowners.
Other displays reveal a succession of foreign arrivals to northern Taiwan, such as a section on the Todos los Santos Church on Keelung’s Heping Island that was built by Spanish missionaries (whose members were buried alongside Indigenous peoples on church grounds; most observed Western burial customs, laid backside with both hands clasped over the chest), as well as traders from Japan, China, and Europe who brought glass beads, gold and silver jewelry, fine china, wine, and ginger ale to Taiwan.
Apart from hosting the annual New Taipei City Austronesian Cultural Festival, the archaeology museum also honors Taiwan’s Austronesian connections through themed exhibitions and events. For example, “A Special Exhibition of Ancient Austronesian Ceremonies” introduces coming-of-age traditions like tattooing and tooth ablation, the social ritual of gifts exchange, and the shamanistic practices rooted in animalism.
Intersectionalities include Patu, a polished stone tool unearthed from a Neolithic site in Taiwan that is named after the eponymous Maori weapon made from basalt or whale bone; and the museum’s very own national artifact, the Anthropomorphic Jar that was painstakingly restored with the help of Stephanie Nisol, a restoration specialist with The Louvre.
A burial good unearthed from the Shihsanhang site, “the jar with a human face” was first restored with glue and gypsum fillings in 1992, then unassembled and put together again by Nisol, who came to Taiwan in 2017.
The Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology is accompanied by the biggest archaeology park in northern Taiwan, with 5.2 hectares dedicated to interactive excavation pits, replicas of Shihsanhang-era lodgings, and a demonstration hunting area. The kid-friendly institution also offers a multilingual virtual tour and audio guides in English, Hakka, Taiwanese, Japanese, Southeast Asian languages, and Amis.
Glad this ancient site is thriving alongside the sewage treatment plant instead of demolished in the name of progress.
