Two sophomore students from National Tsing Hua University, Lin Chia-Le (林嘉樂), and Li En-te (利恩得) made a remarkable discovery Wednesday as part of an internship with the Hualien Archaeological Museum.
While conducting a surface survey on fallow private farmland, part of the Beisanzhan archaeological site, they spotted a jade stone resembling a human-animal shape. Lin and Li were only planning to spend two to three weeks interning in Hualian during their winter break. Their duties included assisting with specimen organization, measurements, and guided tours.
Measuring 2.9 cm in height, 1.5 cm in width, and approximately 0.3 cm in thickness, the jade artifact is estimated to be around 2700 years old. Museum staff brought the artifact back for cleaning and speculated it dates from the prehistoric era.
The Director of the Hualien Archaeological Museum Wen Meng-wei (溫孟威) highlighted the rarity of the discovery. He noted that the farmland had previously yielded various jade artifacts, but this was the first time a human-animal motif jade had been found. Even after decades in the field, many archaeologists might never encounter such a discovery, saying this kind of discovery was more rare than winning the lottery.
