Peinan Site Park
Peinan Site Park is an archeological site in Taitung City, Taitung County, Taiwan. The park is the site for the largest and most complete prehistoric settlement ever discovered in Taiwan.
Geography
The park covers an area of and contains more than 1,600 burial sites. It is part of the "Beinan Archaeological Site and Mt. Dulan" potential World Heritage Site.Peinan Site
Image:Beinan [Archaeological Site (2).jpg|right|thumb|The Puyuma's Moon-shape Monolith ca. 1896]The earliest records of the prehistoric Peinan Site in Taitung City were made by Torii Ryūzō, an anthropologist in the early period of the Japanese rule. During his four visits to Taiwan for anthropological research, he photographed the monolithic stone pillars at the site.
This historic settlement area was discovered during the construction work of the back part of Taitung railway station in 1980 when a graveyard containing several thousand slate coffins was unearthed, with some bodies still laid within. Around 20,000 pieces of jade, pottery and stone tools were also found. This induced the government to carry out archeological work and build a national museum to preserve the artifacts.
Peinan Site Park opened in 1997 to display and preserve the archaeological site, considered the most important one in Taiwan. An indoor/outdoor Museum of Prehistory opened in 2002.