The early occupation of Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan’s geographical location off the southeast coast of the Chinese mainland and on the northern periphery of Oceania situates the island as a good point of study with respect to understanding the prehistoric dynamics of Asian interaction with the greater Pacific Basin; especially territories to the south and east. Although the encounter of Han Chinese with Taiwan dates to only the early seventh century AD, modern archaeological studies have uncovered a rich Stone Age record of indigenous peoples and cultures extending back to the Late Paleolithic and including a variety of Holocene Neolithic adaptations.