The stone pillars are the first item to draw the attention from anthropologists in the Peinan Site. In Kano Tadao's "Megalithic Culture in East Taiwan" (1930), slate pillars were recorded as erecting at the Site. The stone pillars are 1.8-3.6m in height, the highest one is 4.6m, and form a almost-perfect straight line in the directions of the northeast or southwest. After half century of exploitation, the stone pillars are no longer found nowadays, except for one standing at the Site. It is the landmark and the historical witness of the Peinan Site, the Crescent-shape Stone Pillar.
The "Crescent-shape Stone Pillar"
is named for the circular hole on the top,
which shapes like a full moon. The function
of the stone pillar is still vague until
today. One legend says that the people of
the Peinan Culture used them to support
the house, and the hole on the top is for
the beam. Another theory says that the ancient
people of the Peinan Culture set the round
stone pillars in front of the house to symbolize
the societal status. Today, the site of
the stone pillar is the small platform left
by the railroad construction. To its north
was once the excavation site but now a railroad
switchyard. Only the Tulan Mt. standing
far away is still in the clouds, for thousands
of years.
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