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Scientists prove existence of tiny people - once enigmatic characters from legend - who inhabited Taiwan long before indigenous population
- The people were extremely short with a dark complexion and were probably hunter-gatherers
- They were familiar characters in Taiwanese indigenous legends, but no previous hard evidence had ever proven they existed
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Taiwan famously features an indigenous population of Austronesian people whose history on the island stretches back 5,000 years.
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But among these people, oral traditions have referred to another civilisation that seemed to be far older. They were often referred to as “pygmies” or tiny people and were described as having dark skin, curly hair and a diminutive stature.
For centuries, they only existed in fables, although they popped up with remarkable consistency over an extremely long period of time.
In early October, scientists proved they existed in Taiwan.
According to a paper published in World Archaeology, a peer-reviewed journal, archaeologists analysing skeletons from a cave in southeastern Taiwan built a strong argument that those remains belonged to “Negritos”, an ethnic group that still exists in the Philippines, Malay Peninsula and Andaman Islands.
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