Wild Boars and Domestic Pigs in Prehistoric Southern Taiwan: Some Point of Views on Domestic Pigs as a Verification Mark to the Migration and Dispersal of Austronesian Speaking People

Formation of the concept and economic behavior of animal husbandry is one of the key indicators showing our entry into civilization. With animal remains unearthed from archaeological sites, archaeologists believe that we would be able to learn how ancient people selected their prays and how heavily they were dependent on animal resources. This study focuses on the pig bones remains unearthed from the Hengchun Peninsula and Tainan Science Park region, and their mandible and teeth are studied with dental geometric morphometric variation. In addition, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from modem Formosan wild boars and Lanyu pigs are analyzed to tell their genetic variation. The first objective of this paper, in short, is to answer whether those ancient pigs were wild boars or domestic pigs. Secondly, if the hypothesis that Taiwan is the homeland of Austronesian speaking people has been proven to be valid, then this paper intends to further discuss whether domestic pigs could possibly be a verification mark to the migration and dispersal of these people. Our results reveal that specimens discovered from the O-luan-pi II. site and the Yuhsienfang site have larger third molars (M3) than modern wild boars, and show resemblances to wild boars. These specimens are therefore recognized as larger wild boars. M3 size of the specimens unearthed from Niuniaokang site are similar to those of modern wild boars, while their shapes are identified as in between those of the wild boars and domestic pigs. This result would however need further clarification in the future. Lastly, specimens from the Kueishan site yield possibile samples of domestic pigs, while the size and shape of teeth samples unearthed from the Shenei site are closely related to those of modern domestic pigs. To sum up, based on these aforementioned evidences, East Asian domestic pigs were introduced to Taiwan at around 1,500 BP at the latest through trade and/or human migration. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of concrete archaeological evidence to know when Lanyu pigs began to exist in Lanyu. We need more samples from other areas to make the phylogenetic tree and geometric morphometric analysis to determine the time when pig husbandry was very first started in Taiwan. In short, this study provides essential information for reconstructing the subsistence system at then and the model of prehistoric animal resources utilization in general.