The archaeology of the Philippines is the study of past societies in the territory of the modern Republic of the Philippines, an island country in Southeast Asia, through material culture.
The history of the Philippines focuses on Spanish colonialism and how the Philippines became independent from both Spain and the United States. During the colonial times in the Philippines archaeology was not used as it is today, it mainly focused on ethnographic and linguistic studies. Archaeology was influenced greatly by H. Otley Beyer who taught anthropology in the Philippines in 1914. Beyer's teachings in the Philippines gained many students to follow in his footsteps into the field of archaeology.
After the Philippines gained their independence from America in 1946, many students of Beyer practiced archaeology all over the Philippines. A few of Beyer's students and colleagues who worked around the Philippines are Robert B. Fox, Alfredo Evangelista, and F. Landa Jocano. Their contributions helped the Philippines archaeology grow stronger when analyzing artifacts and archaeological sites.
There are many prominent sites throughout the Philippines, and some famous discoveries that were found date back to various time periods. A few well known site in the Philippines are the Rizal Archaeological Site in Kalinga, Tabon Caves, Lapuz Lapuz Cave, and Singhapala. Additionally, some famous artifacts found in the Philippines are the Callao Man, Tabon Man, Kabayan Mummies of Benguet.
History
Colonial period Very little archaeological work was carried out in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, even though the Spaniards were interested in the people of the islands from an ethnographic and linguistic perspective. Explorers such as Fedor Jagor, Joseph Montano and Paul Ray, and Jose Rizal, occasionally reported visiting sites, but the only detailed investigation was carried out by French archaeologist Alfred Marche in 1881. Commissioned by the French government, Marche conducted systematic surveys of burial caves on two islands, accumulating a large collection of antiquities which is now held in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.
The most influential early figure in the archaeology of the Philippines was American anthropologist H. Otley Beyer. Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in 1898, and the American colonial administration actively encouraged the anthropological study of the archipelago. Beyer was therefore invited to establish the University of the Philippines' anthropology department in 1914.
Early surveys and collections were carried out in the 1920s by Beyer, Dean C. Worcester, and Carl Guthe. Various private collectors and amateur archaeologists also accumulated significant amounts of material, but Beyer lamented that "none of this work was very scientifically done".
The first major archaeological project in the Philippines was the Rizal-Bulacan Archaeological Survey (1926–1930), prompted by the discovery of finds during the construction of the Novaliches Dam in Rizal Province. Beyer opened substantial excavations in the area of the dam, employing up to seventy workers a day for six months. He also conducted a five-year survey of the surrounding area, cataloguing 120 sites and nearly 500,000 artefacts. In 1932, Beyer assisted F. G. Roth in beginning a second major project, the Batangas Archaeological Survey, which involved surveys and excavation in the Cuenca region. He also collected material from a number of localities around the islands throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.
American colonial archaeology in the Philippines came to an end in 1941 when the islands were occupied by the Japanese. Beyer was interned by the occupying forces, although he was allowed to continue his work at the university. During this time he compiled two synoptic papers, 'Outline review of Philippine archaeology by islands and provinces' (1947) and Philippine and East Asian Archaeology (1948), which laid the foundation for subsequent Philippine archaeology.
Post-independence The Philippines gained independence from the United States in the 1946, but Beyer continued at his post at the University of Philippines until 1954. In 1949, he was joined by Wilhelm Solheim, who was known in the Philippines for finding various pottery at different archaeological sites. In the 1960s, Robert B. Fox did archaeological work in the Philippines and is most famous for his research in the Tabon Caves. In 1965, Fox had found a pot from the late Neolithic Period called the Yawning Jarlet at his time at the Tabon Caves.
Alfredo E. Evangelista was a student of Beyer, Solheim and Fox and had instantly fallen in love with archaeology. In 1956, worked with Robert Fox excavating the Bato Caves in the Sorsogon Province and later on they would excavate along the coast of Cagraray and Bikol.
One of Evangelista's famous discovery in the Philippines was the excavation in 1957 of a Neolithic jar burial site in Nueva Ecija in Luzon. In 1960 he began to work with Robert Fox and Ray Santiago for the National Museum of the Philippines. From the 1970s to early 1990s, Evangelista then began to work at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City and again later at the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila.
In 1960, Alfredo Evangelista and F. Landa Jocano worked together and discovered the Oton death mask in San Antonio, Oton, Iloilo. Like Evangelista, Jocano he worked at the National Museum of the Philippines as well as the University of the Philippines. Inspired by Fox and Beyer, Jocano brought New World terminology by using previous data to the prehistory of the Philippines.
After Evangelista retired from the National Museum of the Philippines in 1992 Jesus T. Peralta became the Director III. Prior to becoming Director III, he was part of the Archaeology Division at the National Museum of the Philippines in 1988.
Karl L. Hutterer, who studied under Solheim, became an influence to Philippine archaeology. Hutterer taught students the socioeconomic and political complexity of doing research in the field of archaeology. When showing the socioeconomic processes to students, he focused on showing the diversity with the various cultures around areas. An artifact that Hutterer has examined in a geometric stone tools.
In the late 1970s, William A. Longacre went to northern Luzon to do research on enthoarchaeology in the Kallinga region. He later furthered his research in southern Luzon, studying how earthenware potteries were made. An artifact that Longacre help discover and date was the Calatagan Pot with inscription. In 1992, he contributed dating the pot with an accelerated mass spectroscopy, but failed to gather sufficient data. He later suggested using a different form of dating C-14 technique to get an accurate date of the inscription.
Before the 1980s, archaeology in the Philippines focused more on culture and history. The main way that archaeologists studied archaeology was using an inductive approach. When searching for artifacts the National Museum focused on collecting prehistoric remains.
Notable sites and discoveries
Stone Age
Palaeolithic The earliest evidence of hominins living in the Philippines is the 700,000-year-old remains of a butchered rhinoceros in Kalinga Province in Luzon. Predating the existence of Homo sapiens by at least 400,000 years, the butchered rhinoceros and the stone tools around it point to a possible colonization of Homo erectus or another possible Homo the Denisovans. The 67,000-year-old Callao Man.Severino, Howie G. (August 1, 2010). Researchers discover fossil of human older than Tabon Man was found in Callao cave and, before the found remains of 700,000 year old rhinoceros, was the oldest human fossil in the Asia Pacific region. The Tabon Caves have produced a number of archaeological finds, indicating it was occupied almost continuously between 50,000 and 9000 years ago. Notably, a collection of anatomically modern human remains known as the Tabon Man was for a long time the oldest known evidence of a human presence in the Philippines. Later findings shed light on the daily lives of hunter-gatherers occupying a rock shelter in Ille Caves, Palawan, Philippines. Located near the Tabon Caves, the Ille Caves rock shelter was occupied many times, but the oldest stratigraphic layer puts the first occupation of that rock shelter at c. 14,000 cal bp (calibrated years before present). This assessment was made based on the presence of charcoal, placing this site well into the Pleistocene. Researchers from Ateneo de Manila University uncovered evidence suggesting advanced maritime technology and long-distance networks in the Philippines around 35,000 years ago, reshaping understanding of early human migration in Island Southeast Asia.
Neolithic The Angono Petroglyphs- the oldest known work of art in the Philippines located in the province of Rizal. There are 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall probably carved during the late Neolithic. These inscriptions clearly show stylized human figures, frogs and lizards, along with other designs that may have depicted other interesting figures but erosion may have caused it to become indistinguishable. The engravings are mostly symbolic representations associated with healing and sympathetic magic. The site has been declared by the National Museum of the Philippines as a National Cultural Treasure in 1973. Alab Petroglyphs of Mountain Province Penablanca Petrographs of Cagayan Province Singnapan Caves Petrographs of southern Palawan Anda Peninsula Petrographs of Eastern Bohol Lapuz Lapuz Cave Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens – The Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens are located along the banks of the Cagayan River in the province of Cagayan, Philippines. It is currently under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yawning Jarlet-The Late Neolithic period in the Philippines, Evidence shows by a Yawning Jarlet on the Burial site in Leta-leta caves in Palawan by Robert Fox which had later become National treasure in the Philippines. It is the earliest pot recovered in the country. Bark cloth beater – It is a stone tool used for the preparation of bark cloth. Early Palawenios fashioned the beaters from cylindrical stones and used the stone beaters for pounding the bark to loosen the pulp from the fiber. The bark cloth is ready when all the pulp has been stripped off, leaving a network of fibers. The stone tool found in Arku Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan was dated 1255-605 B.C. Another bark-cloth beater was found in Sagung cave in Southern Palawan. Jade Artifacts- or Jade Culture made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, has been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like chisels, and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets and beads. A "jade culture" is said to have existed as evidenced by tens of thousands of exquisitely crafted jade artifacts found at a site in Batangas province.
Metal Age Manunggul Jar (890–710 B.C.) is a secondary burial jar excavated from a burial site in the Manunggul cave of the Tabon Caves at Lipuun Point in Palawan. It dates from 890 to 710 B.C. and the two prominent figures at the top handle of its cover represent the journey of the soul to the afterlife. Artifacts from the "Sa Huynh-Kalanay" pottery complex in Masbate (dated 400BC-1500 AD.)