GE-2-PHILIPPINE HISTORY notes for MIDTERM April 25, 2019

PHILIPPINE PREHISTORY • Uranium Series Dating: decays of two kinds of

uraniums (235U) and (238U) into other isotopes such as
SOURCES 230TH (thorium)

• Artifacts: anything made or modified by humans TERMS

– Lithics: (most common artifacts) stone tools • Before Present (BP): years is a time scale in
– Ceramics: pots and other items from baked archaeology, geology etc.
clay PRESENT=1950
– Wood and bone tools • Before the Common Era, sometimes Current Era
– Shell tools (BCE): dates before the year 1 CE

– Glass tools • Before Christ (BC):before 1 AD

• Ecofacts: natural objects that have been used or FOLKLORE

affected by humans
• Manners, customs, observances, superstitions,
– Animal bones that people have eaten ballads, proverbs, etc. which would throw light about
the past.
– Pollen found in archaeological sites
• Folk: any of people who share at least one common
– Remains of insects/pests factor
• Fossil: impression of an insect/leaf etc on a muddy • Lore: common denominator = ‘product of human
surface that is now a stone or an actual hardened invention’
remains of an animal skeletal structure
Myths Legends Folktales Jokes
– Contribution of volcanic ash, limestone, Proverbs Riddles Chants Charms
mineralized ground water. Blessings Curses Oaths Insults
• Features: a different kind of artifact that cannot be Taunts Tongue-twisters Greetings/leave-taking
easily removed from archaeological sites Formulas Costume Folk Drama Folk art
Folk belief Folk music Folk metaphors
– Hearth: intrinsic feature of a site Folk poetry (epics) Games
Gestures Prayers Folk etymologies
– Pits: holes dug by humans
Food recipes Traditional ornaments Other art forms
– Living floors: where humans live and work
Survivals of past custom and belief may be embedded in
– Midden: deep area of debris the various genres of lore

DATING METHOD EARLY LIFE FORMS

• Radiocarbon/ Carbon-14/ 14C Dating: Awidan Mesa Formation, Solana, Cagayan (750,000-500,000
years ago)
Based on the principle that all living matter possesses a certain
amount of a radioactive form of carbon (14C) • Fossilized elephas jaw & molar

– Purpose: to determine the amount of 14C left Callao Cave

in an organism by counting the beta
• 250, 000 BCE
radiations emitted per minute, per gram
• Stone flake tools
• Potassium-Argon: Potassium-40(40K) Radioactive
form of potassium decays and forms Argon-40 (40Ar). • Fossils
– May be used to date samples from 5,000 • (?) Homo erectus philippinensis
years up to 3 billion years old.
•
– Used to date potassium-rich minerals in rock
GE-2-PHILIPPINE HISTORY notes for MIDTERM April 25, 2019
Philippine Paleolithic (Old stone-age) TURNING POINTS

• ca. 70,000-10,000 BCE AUSTRONESIAN ARRIVAL

• use of flaked stone tools 7,000 BC Austronesian Migration from SOUTHERN PART
OF CHINA to the Philippine archipelago
• Evidence come from the remains of three individuals
at Tabon Caves, Lipuun Point, Quezon, Palawan, 4,500 BC Austronesian dispersal from the Philippine
excavated by Dr. Robert Fox, chief archaeologist of archipelago going to (south) and Pacific (east)
the National Museum.
AUSTRONESIA(N)
• Bone fragments included Tabon Woman (43,000
years BP) • Latin auster “south wind”

TURNING POINTS • Greek nêsos “island”

Callao Cave • ancestors of the Philippine Austronesian speakers,

Pacific and other insular Southeast Asian people
Excavation site, 2003-2007
BASIS OF AUSTRONESIAN MOVEMENT
Third metatarsal (R) or foot bone
• inherent transportability and reproducibility of the
• metatarsus or metatarsal bones are a group of five agricultural economy
long bones in the foot located between the tarsal
bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of • “frontier zone” available for colonization
the toes.
• tradition of sailing-canoe construction and navigation
• metatarsal or foot bone, 67,000 years old (Homo
• culturally-sanctioned desire to found new settlements
sapiens)
in order to become a revered or even deified founder
• native brown deer (Cervus Mariannus), ancestor in the

• the Philippine warty pig (Sus Philippensis) • genealogies of future generations

Tabon Cave CONTRIBUTIONS OF AUSTRONESIANS

• 43,000-47,000 BP 1. Horticulture (rootcrops)

• Tabon [Wo]man (Mandible & Jaw Bone), 43,000BP 2. Agriculture (rice)

3. Domestication of animals (chicken, pig)
Philippine Neolithic (New Stone-age) 4. Navigation/boat-building
• ca. 5,000 – 1,000 BCE 5. Language
• marked by the used of polished stone and shell adzes ALTERNATIVE THEORY
• beginnings of permanent settlements owing to the • Wilhelm G. Solheim II: Nusantao Maritime Trading
domestication of plant and animal species and Communication Network (NMTCN)
• Riziculture/rice • ‘Nusantao’ (from ‘nusa’ for ‘island’ and ‘tau’ for ‘man’
• pottery or ‘people’)

• stone adze, hinges of the giant clam, Tridacna gigas • ‘Nusantao’ trading network would have originated
(Taklobo), Conus shells from the edges of the Celebes Sea including
northeastern Borneo, the northern Celebes and
• betel nut chewing southwestern Mindanao
• territory expansion: TRADING ACTIVITIES of the
maritime-oriented Nusantao.
GE-2-PHILIPPINE HISTORY notes for MIDTERM April 25, 2019
5,000 BC • ca. 1,000 BC – 900 AD
• earliest communities of Nusantao would have sailed • metal-using communities
northward to trade in/at Taiwan
• gold, bronze, copper, iron
• Other seafarers would have simultaneously spread
• socketed axes, spearheads, arrowheads, knives, and
toward the Wallacea, the Pacific islands and
Indochina. needles (earliest metals), particularly in Palawan, 800
and 600 BC.
Bolobok Rock Shelter, Sanga-Sanga, Tawi-Tawi (5,745-
• casting molds for recasting and recycling metals
5,300BC)
imported outside of the country.
• Polished shell tools
• Continuation of pottery production
• Red slipped pottery
• Glass beads
• Tridacna (Taklobo) shell tools
TURNING POINTS
Duyong Cave, Palawan
IRON TOOLS (200 AD)
(3,675-3,015 BC)
• Flake tools EARLY PHILIPPINE COMMUNITIES

• Shell disks ORIENTATION

Rabel Cave, Peñablanca, Cagayan (3,385-825 BC) • Consanguine (related by blood, kinship, common
origin, or marriage)
• Flake tools
• With specific geographic boundaries (rivers, seas,
• Earthenware pottery mountains, islands)
Leta-Leta Cave, El Nido, Palawan (3,372 BC) • “Ethnos”: group sharing a common cultural and
linguistic orientation
• Earthenware jar
TERMS
• Earthenware goblet
• Ilocos/Cordillera- ILI/BALOY
Palanan Bay, Isabela
• Pangasinense-BALEY
• 3, 170 BP
• Tagalog- BAYAN
• Stone flake tools
• Kapangpangan- BALEN
• Grinders
• Bicol/Visayas- BANUA
• mortars
• Waray-BONGTO
Talikod Island, Davao
• Visayas- LUNGSOD
• 2,700 BP
Realms/Head
• Stone flake tools
• Politics (DATU/HARI/RAJAH)
Andarayan, Cagayan (1,450-1,290 BC)
• Religion & Culture (BABAYLAN)
• Rice husk
• Armed Forces/Warriors (BAYANI)
• Burial Jar for secondary internment
• Professionals (Potters, Weavers, Carvers,
Blacksmith)
Philippine Metal Age
GE-2-PHILIPPINE HISTORY notes for MIDTERM April 25, 2019
• Datu Wilhelm G. Solheim II: (Archaelogy and Culture of SEA:
Unraveling the Nusantao)
• Hari/Ari/Adi/Hadi
pioneer in the study of Philippine and Southeast
• Rajah Asian prehistoric archaeology
• *Kamaharlikahan (gat, ginoo, lakan)
best known, however, for hypothesizing the existence
• Babaylan (Visayas) of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and
Communication Network (NMTCN)
• Bailan/Balian
William Henry Scott
• Katalonan(Tagalog) (Pre-hispanic Source Materials: for the study of Ph. His.)
• Baglan (Ilocano) BASIS: cultural traits take on a life of their own, spanning over
• Bayok (Zambal) generations.

• Bagani (Visayas/Mindanao) • Sociofact: practices governing people’s behavior

• Bayani (Tagalog) ➢ house/home/domicile/beginnings of

sedentary community
• Bannuar (Ilocano)
• Mentifact (aka “psychofact”): “things in the
PANDAY (Blacksmith) head”, the most appropriate way to define the
concept of culture.
Weavers (Pedal loom)
• Cultural artifact or artefact: anything created by
humans which gives information about the
• Abel (Ilocano) culture of its creator and users.

• Habi (Tagalog) OBJECTIVES

• Habol/Abol/Hablon (Visayas/Mindanao) • Identify manifestations of our precolonial cultural

orientation
Pottery
• Concretize our knowledge of precolonial culture
Carver/Boatbuilder
• Synthesize/establish relationships between
RESEARCHERS & THEIR WORK

Dr.Robert Bradford Fox (1918-1985)

(The Tabon Caves)
F. Landa Jocano
(Filipino Pre-history)
Peter Bellwood
(Pre-history of Indo-malay Archipelago)