PHILIPPINE PREHISTORY

DR. LARS UBALDO

TOPICS
Definition
Sources
Periodization
Significant Scholarly Works
Sample Activity

Artifacts: anything made or modified by humans

– Lithics: (most common artifacts) stone tools
– Ceramics: pots and other items from baked clay
– Wood and bone tools
– Shell tools
– Glass tools
Lithics (Palawan)
(Cagayan)
Ceramics (Pambansang Museo)
Burial Jars (Maitum, Saranggani)
Porcelein (Laguna)

Ecofacts: natural objects that have been used or affected by humans

– Animal bones that people have eaten
– Pollen found in archaeological sites
– Remains of insects/pests
Buto ng Usa (Mindanao)

Fossil: impression of an insect/leaf etc on a muddy surface that is now a stone or an actual
hardened remains of an animal skeletal structure
– Contribution of volcanic ash, limestone, mineralized ground water.
– Fossilized Shells (Sagada)
– Fossilized Dugong (Palawan)

Features: a different kind of artifact that cannot be easily removed from archaeological sites
– Hearth: intrinsic feature of a site
– Pits: holes dug by humans
– Living floors: where humans live and work
– Midden: deep area of debris
– Bequibel Shell Midden (Butuan)
– Tabon Cave Flooring
DATING METHOD

Radiocarbon/ Carbon-14/ 14C Dating:

– Based on the principle that all living matter possesses a certain amount of a
radioactive form of carbon (14C)
– Purpose: to determine the amount of 14C left in an organism by counting the beta
radiations emitted per minute, per gram
Potassium-Argon: Potassium-40(40K) Radioactive form of potassium decays and forms
Argon-40 (40Ar).
 May be used to date samples from 5,000 years up to 3 billion years old.
 Used to date potassium-rich minerals in rock
Uranium Series Dating: decays of two kinds of uraniums (235U) and (238U) into other
isotopes such as 230TH (thorium)

TERMS

Before Present (BP): years is a time scale in archaeology, geology etc.

PRESENT=1950
Before the Common Era, sometimes Current Era (BCE): dates before the year 1 CE

Before Christ (BC):before 1 AD

Folklore
Manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc. which would throw
light about the past.

Folk: any of people who share at least one common factor

Lore: common denominator = ‘product of human invention’

Myths
Legends
Folktales
Jokes Proverbs
Riddles
Chants
Charms
Blessings

Curses
Oaths
Insults
Taunts
Tongue-twisters
Greetings/leave-taking formulas
Costume
Folk drama
Folk art

Folk belief
Folk music
Folk metaphors
Folk poetry (epics)

Games
Gestures
Prayers
Folk etymologies
Food recipes
Traditional ornaments
Other art forms

Survivals of past custom and belief may be embedded in the various genres of lore
EARLY LIFE FORMS

Awidan Mesa Formation, Solana, Cagayan (750,000-500,000 years ago)

Fossilized elephas jaw & molar

Callao Cave
250, 000 BCE
Stone flake tools
Fossils
(?) Homo erectus philippinensis
Philippine Paleolithic
ca. 70,000-10,000 BCE
use of flaked stone tools
Evidence come from the remains of three individuals at Tabon Caves, Lipuun Point,
Quezon, Palawan, excavated by Dr. Robert Fox, chief archaeologist of the National
Museum.
Bone fragments included Tabon Woman (43,000 years BP)

TURNING POINTS

Callao Cave

Excavation site, 2003-2007

Third metatarsal (R) or foot bone

metatarsus or metatarsal bones are a group of five long bones in the foot located between
the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes.

metatarsal or foot bone, 67,000 years old (Homo sapiens)

native brown deer (Cervus Mariannus),
the Philippine warty pig (Sus Philippensis)
Tabon Cave
43,000-47,000 BP
Lipuun Point

Tabon Bird

Tabon [Wo]man (Mandible & Jaw Bone), 43,000BP

Philippine Neolithic
ca. 5,000 – 1,000 BCE
marked by the use of polished stone and shell adzes
beginnings of permanent settlements owing to the domestication of plant and animal species
Riziculture/rice
pottery
stone adze, hinges of the giant clam, Tridacna gigas (Taklobo), Conus shells
betel nut chewing

TURNING POINTS

AUSTRONESIAN ARRIVAL
AUSTRONESIA(N)
Latin auster “south wind”
Greek nêsos “island”

ancestors of the Philippine Austronesian speakers, Pacific and other insular Southeast Asian
people

BASIS OF AUSTRONESIAN MOVEMENT

inherent transportability and reproducibility of the agricultural economy
“frontier zone” available for colonization
tradition of sailing-canoe construction and navigation
culturally-sanctioned desire to found new settlements in order to become a revered or even
deified founder ancestor in the genealogies of future generations
CONTRIBUTIONS
Horticulture (rootcrops)
Agriculture (rice)
Domestication of animals (chicken, pig)
Navigation/boat-building
Language

Oryza sativa

Oryza sativa

Payoh/Rice Terraces

Colocasia esculenta

Alocasia

Dioscorea esculenta

Artocarpus altilis/Artocarpus camansi

Saccharum L.

Metroxylon sagu

Pandanus utilis

Sus L.

ALTERNATIVE THEORY
Wilhelm G. Solheim II: Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network
(NMTCN)

Wilhelm G. Solheim II
‘Nusantao’ (from ‘nusa’ for ‘island’ and ‘tau’ for ‘man’ or ‘people’)
‘Nusantao’ trading network would have originated from the edges of the Celebes Sea
including northeastern Borneo, the northern Celebes and southwestern Mindanao
territory expansion: TRADING ACTIVITIES of the maritime-oriented Nusantao.
5,000 BC
earliest communities of Nusantao would have sailed northward to trade in/at Taiwan
Other seafarers would have simultaneously spread toward the Wallacea, the Pacific islands
and Indochina.
Bolobok Rock Shelter, Sanga-Sanga, Tawi-Tawi (5,745-5,300BC)
Polished shell tools
Red slipped pottery
Tridacna (Taklobo) shell tools
Tridacna/Taklobo

Duyong Cave, Palawan

(3,675-3,015 BC)
Flake tools
Shell disks
Rabel Cave, Peñablanca, Cagayan (3,385-825 BC)
Flake tools
Earthenware pottery

Leta-Leta Cave, El Nido, Palawan (3,372 BC)

Earthenware jar
Earthenware goblet
Palanan Bay, Isabela
3, 170 BP
Stone flake tools
Grinders
mortars
Talikod Island, Davao
2,700 BP
Stone flake tools
Andarayan, Cagayan (1,450-1,290 BC)
Rice husk
Manunggul Cave, Palawan
(895-775 BC)
Burial Jar for secondary internment
Philippine Metal Age
ca. 1,000 BC – 900 AD
metal-using communities
gold, bronze, copper, iron
socketed axes, spearheads, arrowheads, knives, and needles (earliest metals), particularly in
Palawan, 800 and 600 BC.
casting molds for recasting and recycling metals imported outside of the country.
Continuation of pottery production
Glass beads

TURNING POINTS

Maitum Cave, Saranggani

(5 BC-370AD)
Anthropomorphic Jars
Libertad, Butuan, Agusan del Norte (320 AD)
Balangay (boat)
Tigkiw na Saday, Gubat, Sorsogon
(200 BC-200 AD)
Iron
Backstrap loom (weaving)
Glass beads
IRON TOOLS (200 AD)

EARLY PHILIPPINE COMMUNITIES

Orientation
Consanguine (related by blood, kinship, common origin, or marriage)

With specific geographic boundaries (rivers, seas, mountains, islands)

“Ethnos”: group sharing a common cultural and linguistic orientation

TERMS
Ilocos/Cordillera- ILI/BALOY
Pangasinense-BALEY
Tagalog- BAYAN
Kapangpangan- BALEN
Bicol/Visayas- BANUA
Waray-BONGTO
Visayas- LUNGSOD

Realms/Head
Politics (DATU/HARI/RAJAH)
Religion & Culture (BABAYLAN)
Armed Forces/Warriors(BAYANI)
Professionals (Potters, Weavers, Carvers, Blacksmith)
Datu

Hari/Ari/Adi/Hadi

Rajah

*Kamaharlikahan (gat, ginoo, lakan)

Babaylan (Visayas)

Bailan/Balian

Katalonan(Tagalog)

Baglan (Ilocano)
Bayok (Zambal)
Bagani (Visayas/Mindanao)

Bayani (Tagalog)

Bannuar (Ilocano)
PANDAY

Weavers (Pedal loom)

Abel (Ilocano)

Habi (Tagalog)

Habol/Abol/Hablon (Visayas/Mindanao)
Pottery

Carver/Boatbuilder

RESEARCHERS & THEIR WORK

Dr.Robert Bradford Fox (1918-1985)

Anthropologist of the National Museum, 1948 to 1975
Head of the Anthropology Division, National Museum of the Philippines

F. Landa Jocano
Peter Bellwood

Wilhelm G. Solheim II:pioneer in the study of Philippine and Southeast Asian prehistoric
archaeology
best known, however, for hypothesizing the existence of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and
Communication Network (NMTCN)

William Henry Scott

SAMPLE ACTIVITY
FACT:YOU CAN CHECK IT!
BASIS: cultural traits take on a life of their own, spanning over generations.

Sociofact: practices governing people’s behavior

Mentifact (aka “psychofact”): “things in the head”, the most appropriate way to define the
concept of culture.
Cultural artifact or artefact: anything created by humans which gives information about
the culture of its creator and users.
OBJECTIVES
Identify manifestations of our precolonial cultural orientation

Concretize our knowledge of precolonial culture

Synthesize/establish relationships between

ARTIFACT
SOCIOFACT
MENTIFACT