Eusebio Z. Dizon
Maritime Exchanges and Localizations across the South China Sea, 500 BC-500 AD:
the Philippine case
ABSTRACT
Perhaps, the earliest migration and cultural change in the Philippine archipelago, happened between 4500 – 4000 years ago, the period of the Neolithic. There was probably the initial crossing of the Austronesian speakers from southern Taiwan to Batanes and northern Luzon in the Philippines. After this initial crossing, the boat building technology developed and sea voyage became more convenient for these people in order for them to go back where they came from and further explored and colonized other distant islands of the Philippine archipelago, such as Palawan, the Visayas and Mindanao.
However, most of the Maritime exchanges and localizations across the South China Sea, happened from 500 BC to AD 500 and the Philippine archipelago was an active participant of these cultural interactions during the Metal Age.
The Metal Ages in the Philippines is in the chronological period from about 500 BC to about AD 1000. The Metal Ages is the beginning of social complexity among populations. It is both a socio-political evolution with technological development on the impact of a newly discovered metal technology which is far different from lithics technology or stone tools. The use of pyrotechology (or the use of fire) was applied to raw materials like ore for their transformations into usable metals for the society. For the past ten years or so, there are of course a number of archaeological findings in the Philippines which is a part of the bigger picture for Island Southeast Asia prehistory and archaeology. In this lecture, I would just like to highlight the most significant archaeological findings of the Metal Ages Period in the Philippines which would have significant impact not only locally but in the general geographical region of Southeast Asia and the Pacific if not the rest of the world. For instance, in the realm of Neolithic research, which provided the matrix for the Metal Ages, the archaeological investigations conducted in the Batanes Islands and Lallo, Cagayan Valley have made us reconstruct the movement of the Austronesian Populations from Southern China (6,000 years ago) through Taiwan (5,000 years ago) to the Batanes group of Islands (4,500 years ago) to the rest of northern Luzon in Lallo, Cagayan Valley (4,500 years ago), the rest of the Philippine archipelago like Palawan etc., and all the way to the Marianas group of Islands (3,500 years ago) and the rest of Island Southeast Asia like Indonesia and Malaysia. Our current archaeological works both in Bacong, Negros Oriental and Mulanay, Quezon Province, Bondoc Peninsula are providing us our understanding of the expanding Austronesian populations in the Metal Ages (from 500 BCE to the 10th Century CE).
However, most of the Maritime exchanges and localizations across the South China Sea, happened from 500 BC to AD 500 and the Philippine archipelago was an active participant of these cultural interactions during the Metal Age.
The Metal Ages in the Philippines is in the chronological period from about 500 BC to about AD 1000. The Metal Ages is the beginning of social complexity among populations. It is both a socio-political evolution with technological development on the impact of a newly discovered metal technology which is far different from lithics technology or stone tools. The use of pyrotechology (or the use of fire) was applied to raw materials like ore for their transformations into usable metals for the society. For the past ten years or so, there are of course a number of archaeological findings in the Philippines which is a part of the bigger picture for Island Southeast Asia prehistory and archaeology. In this lecture, I would just like to highlight the most significant archaeological findings of the Metal Ages Period in the Philippines which would have significant impact not only locally but in the general geographical region of Southeast Asia and the Pacific if not the rest of the world. For instance, in the realm of Neolithic research, which provided the matrix for the Metal Ages, the archaeological investigations conducted in the Batanes Islands and Lallo, Cagayan Valley have made us reconstruct the movement of the Austronesian Populations from Southern China (6,000 years ago) through Taiwan (5,000 years ago) to the Batanes group of Islands (4,500 years ago) to the rest of northern Luzon in Lallo, Cagayan Valley (4,500 years ago), the rest of the Philippine archipelago like Palawan etc., and all the way to the Marianas group of Islands (3,500 years ago) and the rest of Island Southeast Asia like Indonesia and Malaysia. Our current archaeological works both in Bacong, Negros Oriental and Mulanay, Quezon Province, Bondoc Peninsula are providing us our understanding of the expanding Austronesian populations in the Metal Ages (from 500 BCE to the 10th Century CE).