Atayal

Truku (Taroko or Sedek)

Thao

Tzou

Kanakhabu

Saaroa

Bunun

Rukai

Ami (Pantsakh)

Puyuma

Paiwan

Officially, Yami (Taoist) is also referred to as Gaoshan. Yami live on a small island of Lanyu South-East of Taiwan. They speak the Austronesian language Yami, which resembles the Filipino language, Tagalog.

The history of Taiwan, with the appearance of the first humans, goes back as far as the

Upper Paleolithic period.

In the Taiwan Strait, near the Pescadores Islands (the Penghu Islands), fishermen fished out the jaw of an ancient man who belonged to the species Homo erectus. The first humans appeared in Taiwan around 50,000 BC. Some scientists claim the Negro-Australoids to be the first settlers in Taiwan since the Paleolithic, regarding archaeological and

has disappeared over time. Almost simultaneously with the Negroids, the Indonesians settled in Taiwan. The

Austronesians are believed to have reached Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, Northeast China and Japan by sea.

Scientists generally believe that Java and Sulawesi provided the principal source of Austronesian migration. Additionally, Oceania is another source of migration, as evidenced by the megaliths at the eastern coast of Taiwan and anthropological observations.

The resettlement was not simultaneous but occurred in waves throughout the Neolithic period, as evidenced by the Corded Ware finds. Recently, researchers have concluded that both processes took place in Taiwan migration and autochthonous development. The migrants had adapted to the new conditions, and their descendants became aborigines.

The earliest archaeological culture in Taiwan was the Changbin culture, named after the place of finds in the east of Taiwan. Sites of ancient Taiwanese have also been located in other locations in Taiwan, especially in Tainan County and in

the Taipei Basin. Most likely, they were representatives of the Australoid race and inhabited all of Southeast Asia between 10 and 45 thousand years ago.

It is Taiwan that is the ancestral home of the Austronesian languages. In around 8000 years B.C. and as evidenced by archaeological finds, Austronesian native-speakers initially migrated from the east coast of China to Taiwan.

Native speakers of these languages only later, according to the data of historical linguistics, began to migrate from the island of Taiwan by sea throughout Oceania. This migration is understood to have started about 6,000 years ago and occurred in several stages. Taiwan's Neolithic past is the Dabenken culture (2700-5000 BC).

The first Taiwanese crops were yams and taro. From the 2nd millennium B.C., the natives of Taiwan began to breed dogs and pigs. The oldest evidence of life in Taiwan is the skeleton of a young woman with a child in her arms found near the city of Taichung. Following scientific analysis, the age of the fossils is around 4800 years, and therefore they belong to the Neolithic era. The earliest mention of the island of Taiwan was in Chinese sources of the 3rd century BC. This information is, however, very scarce. The Chinese, being close neighbours, were in no hurry to colonize the island.

By the third century, when life on the island was relatively- well established, military expeditions by the Chinese began. Crafts had developed, and agricultural plants grew. The early Iron Age on the island, represented by the Jingpu culture, dates back to the 1st millennium BC.

Over time, the local ceramic pottery tradition disappeared. Local craftsmen learned how to make products from porcelain and metal. The Taiwanese achieved sophistication in the production of copper bells that scare away evil spirits.

And in the 1st millennium AD, iron knives and spearheads are already appearing. These items belong to the Nyaosun culture.

Production of plain red-brown ceramics (without ornaments) begins.

The development of navigation, characteristic of the rest of the Austronesians, fades into the background, while the development of the island is becoming the main priority in the life of the Taiwanese. Despite the difficulties, little by little the Taiwanese natives selflessly mastered even the remote mountainous regions.

The ancient Chinese chronicles Hou Han Shu and San Go Zhi contain the first mentions of an island called Yizhou (the island of the barbarians).

Since the Sui period (years 581 through 618), Taiwan is more often called Lucyu (after the name of a small kingdom in the southwestern part of the island).

The island has been found under its modern name in written sources since 1599. Trade and navigation across the Taiwan Strait between mainland China and the island began long before the Chinese explored it.