New archaeological finds provide insights into RP’s distant past

A team of faculty and students from the UP Archaeological Studies Program (ASP) made some exciting discoveries during the recent excavations in Dewil Valley, located in New Ibajay, El Nido, Palawan. This year’s finds will provide insights into our prehistory as the unearthed artifacts, which are dated anywhere from 200 to 16,000 years earlier, answer questions about our past.

“The Palawan Island Palaeohistoric Project,” which was implemented this summer, concentrated on the Dewil Valley. Since 1998, when the project started, there have been more and more archaeological materials excavated, such as animal bones, ceramics, and stone and shell tools. In fact, this season the fourth cremation burial site — carbon dated some 9,000 years earlier — was uncovered.

Other main sites are the Ille Cave and Rockshelter, headed by Dr. Helen Lewis and Dr. Victor Paz; and the Pasimbahan Rockshelter, where several new trenches were opened this year.

This research initiative was done in close collaboration with the National Museum and with specialist archaeologists coming from research institutions in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. The Solheim Foundation, the Rio tuba bud Coral Bay mining companies, The British Academy, the local government of El Nido Palawan, and petroleum exploration companies such as Nido Petroleum, Philodrill, and Petroenergy have been supporting the project since 2004. Graduate students from the ASEM-DUO Fellowship Program also participated this excavation season.

One of the main finds during the excavation was the discovery of another tiger bone (Panthera tigris), a basal phalanx or part of the toes. The first bones were recovered from Ille Cave and Rockshelter, West Mouth excavation in 2004 and date back to at least 12,000 years ago. This represents the first evidence of the past existence of the tiger in Palawan.

This discovery also supports various theories about environmental changes in the past such as the expansion of polar ice sheets which lowered sea levels.

According to Dr. Philip Piper, a member of the ASP faculty, it is probable that tigers first entered Palawan from Borneo 620,000 or 420,000 years ago by traveling across the Balabac Strait, when the distance between the two islands was intermittently reduced to a mere few kilometers. He said their existence in Palawan indicates that such movement is possible due to the environmental conditions, and could also be done by other species, even early humans.

Body parts of tigers were usually used in trade and other cultural practices but the bones discovered did not have any signs of human modifications except those similar to the discarded remains of other human prey. This suggests, according to Dr. Piper, that not only was the tiger hunted or scavenged at that time but that the animal was a true inhabitant of Palawan.

Dr. Piper also said that the survival of the tiger still needs to be verified by further archaeological research, but the eventual extinction was probably caused by a combination of factors such as the isolation of its population, vast reduction in habitat, diminishing food resources, and possibly predation by people.

As with the previous excavations done in the sites, other finds included human and animal bones, beads, shells, pottery, and stone tools. One of the more interesting finds was a metal adze which indicates that early humans in the Philippines used such tools for building or hunting. This is only the third of its kind found in the country.

These artifacts will be studied to establish the sequence of human activity and further understand the cultural and social practices of the people who inhabited Dewil Valley in the past.

Further study on the sediments and skeletal and plant remains may also provide a picture of the environment and climate of the area then, and the possible plants that were gathered and animals hunted for subsistence.

“For the following years the ASP aims to continue working in the area and pursue other possible sites within the valley,” said Dr. Paz, who is also the director of ASP. He indicated that there is a need to update the existing exhibits established in the site as well as to increase awareness about Philippine archaeology.

The ASP has just finished conducting its annual field school in Cagayan de Oro as part of a larger research initiative in Misamis Oriental. This year’s field school will focus on a series of archaeological sites that will cover the older periods from the existence of pre-modern humans to the current history. Other simultaneous excavations include work in Batangas and in Cagayan Valley. These projects also aim to find more information that will help us understand our past.