A Research on Excavated Bricks from the Taipei Machinery Bureau Site

Traditionally, archaeology applies stratigraphy and typology to build it’s own foundation of culture sequences. Those two basic methods are not functioned well in late historical (contemporary) archaeology, because time period was too short to form well-deposit stratification and also too much disturbance in stratification. The built of world trade system make the fast transit of materials, cultures and styles, and the transition made difficult for categorize materials and styles in typology. As the reasons above, we have to apply different method to solve dating issues. In this research, the author uses the raw materials to determine the dating of architecture and stratification.
Taipei Machinery Bureau located in center Taipei, was built by Qing Government in 1885 and took over by Japanese in 1895. This bureau contained three different land usages in one plant area, administrative area, dormitory area and arsenal area. In Qing period, this arsenal present as the original point of modernism made gunpowder, guns and cannons. Japanese use the bureau buildings as rail maintainess factories continually. In the period of factory operation, Japanese had some modifications to the factories. After 1930’s, the Japanese Government moved the rail maintainess factories to another area and rebuilt the building as dormitory in this area. This also changed the landscape in close area. Although the landscape changed on the ground, but the old landscape be preserved by archaeological context underground as a site. Those “ old” landscape preserved lots of building structure. The basic raw material of those structures was bricks.
This research tries to combine archaeological context and some other related research, to build the chronology of those bricks in different stratifications, structures and styles. This research also wants to establish conversation between archaeology and other disciplines. For example, the dating and manufacturer of “two scratches bricks”. Furthermore, the author wants to propose some ideas about the preservation issues of contemporary culture heritage.