Early Peopling in and Around Taiwan

This chapter reviews chronological and archaeological findings from Palaeolithic and Holocene Preceramic contexts in and around Taiwan. The time range extends from an estimated 450 to 100 kya for seabed finds beneath Taiwan Strait, and it continues through to 5 kya in cave and rock shelter sites on the main island of Taiwan. The "Penghu 1" mandible from the bed of Taiwan Strait has possible Denisovan ancestry, and the only human burial from a Holocene Preceramic site on Taiwan, that of a female from Xiaoma Cave, has been confirmed through craniofacial analysis to be related to Negrito populations in the northern Philippines. This chapter discusses the possibility of several Pleistocene through Middle Holocene episodes of ancient migration, during which different groups reached Taiwan before the arrival of Proto-Austronesian-speaking populations around 5–4.8 kya.