In a collaborative effort by Academica Sinica, NTU and a Spanish research organization, a 300 years old church has been discovered under a parking lot on Jilong’s Heping Island (基隆和平島).
The Spanish built a fort called Castillo San Salvador on Heping Island when they established a footing in Northern Taiwan back in May of 1626. I am hazarding a guess that Heping island’s former name Siā-liâu-tó (社寮島) could be a phonetic translation of Salvador (the island was referred to by the Basai aboriginals as Tuman), much like nearby Sann-tiau-kak (三貂角) is a phonetic translation of Santiago.
The first church the Spansih built on Heping island was named Todos los Santos, which was the first Catholic Church in Taiwan. It is known in Chinese as 諸聖堂.
By the time the Dutch defeated the Spanish in 1642, a total of 33 Dominican fathers have been to Taiwan. They converted over 4000 Taiwanese, most of whom were Aboriginals.
The research team also discovered two sets of bones around the ruins. Both are male and around 165cm tall. The team are sending them in for DNA analysis to find out if they are the remains of Spanish or Taiwanese (or Catagayan or Latin American…).
In an earlier dig, a child’s remain of the same era was discovered at a corner of the church’s wall. The child was buried in a pottery jar according to Taiwanese aboriginal traditions. However, since aboriginal tradition would also require the child to be buried under the main house, it’s likely the child is buried at the church because of the conversion to Catholicism.
There were other pottery, jade and stone tools dating back to as early as 3000 years ago found at the site, showing humans have been active on Heping island since the Neolithic period.
By the way, if these two male remains indeed belongs to the Spanish, they would mark the first remains of the 17th century Spanish discovered in Taiwan. Previously most of the remains from that period discovered belonged to the Dutch.
So how about the fort in Jilong? Originally thought to be Dutch, it was actually Spanish.[/quote]
The Dutch East India company took over all Spanish positions after they won. They made major modifications Fort San Domingo in Tamsui (淡水), pretty much rebuilt it, and then called it Fort San Antonio. So they could have done the same to the fort in Jilong, which the Qing army then rebuilt as well. There’s little left of Castillo San Salvador on Heping island as well.
The original Spanish fort in Jilong was big, with four corner forts and long walls joining them up. The Dutch didn’t have the manpower for the whole thing, so they pulled down (or blew up) most of the walls and three of the towers, and set up shop in the remaining tower. It was also the site of the little-known reoccupation of Jilong (1664–1668, I think) where the Dutch tried to make another go of Formosa after being booted out by Koxinga.
I met the team (4 women) last week and had a lengthy chat with them. They come to Taiwan often, but are usually only allowed to participate in documenting artifacts already discovered. They told me they were very happy to be allowed to lead a dig and follow their own procedures for excavation, as Taiwanese methods and western methods of excavation and documenting often differ. They have to end the dig on the 29th, which is a shame as I bet there is a lot more to be discovered in that area.
4 European burials discovered at the Todos los Santos site on Heping island.
There were found 2 meters underground, with arms crossed in front of their chests, with their heads pointing west. Basic analysis points to them being Europeans.
“These are the first European burials from this time period discovered in the entire Asia-Pacific region and they contain the first documented human remains. The colonial cemetery that we unearthed is also the oldest in the region,” says María Cruz Berrocal.
Unless “the region” refers to Taiwan alone, I just find that extremely unlikely. Europeans have been in the Asia-Pacific region way before the Spanish occupation of Northern Taiwan. European powers had occupied Macau, Manila, and Java for over 3 decades by the time the Spanish got to Taiwan.
The most significant Spanish deaths in Taiwan was probably the death of Francisco Vaez and Luis Muro. Both of them were missionaries killed by local Aboriginals.
Dominican Friar Jacinto Esquivel who wrote two dictionaries of the Tamsui language was also an important figure in Taiwan, but he was killed in Japan after being sent there, much like the movie Silence.
