Batanes Neolithic Artifacts
For this week’s #TrowelTuesday, we are featuring the Neolithic artifacts of the Batanes Islands.
The Neolithic Period in Southeast Asia is described as a transition from hunter-gatherer population to village farmers. Discovered artifacts supporting such transition included polished stone adzes and axes for boat-building, distinctive red slipped pottery with circle stamped decorations, stone bark cloth beaters, spindle whorls, and fishing implements, among others. The pottery, seldom found intact, are either plain or with decorative patterns that include circle stamps, cord marks, dentate impression, and incision. The presence of Neolithic artifacts is recognized as part of the spread of the languages and culture of Austronesian – a language family previously known as the Malayo-Polynesian group of languages that spread across Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.
In the Philippines, the Neolithic Period is estimated to be about 4500 to 2500 years ago. Archaeological evidence for Neolithic culture found in the Batanes Islands included artifact remains of polished adze technology and the red slipped wares (earthenware pottery) with circle stamps and cord-impressed marks, providing information on the earliest settlement established at about 4000 years ago. Batanes was inhabited by Austronesian-speaking people who probably reached the islands by boat or raft about 4500 years ago.
Research done through archaeology, comparative linguistics, and human genetics proved these early settlers’ connection to Austronesian speakers that originated from Taiwan. Studies made by archaeologists Hidefumi Ogawa, Peter Bellwood, Eusebio Dizon, and Hsiao-chun Hung shed light on the Austronesian occupation of Batanes Islands. For instance, Hung and coauthors’ 2007 publication discussed Fengtian nephrite, which was exploited in Taiwan around 4500 years ago, and brought to the Philippines about 3800–3500 years ago and manufactured as lingling-o or split earrings, and other ornaments.
Pottery assemblage from Torongan Cave and Reranum Rockshelter in Itbayat Island in Batanes consisted of plain red slipped pottery, circle-stamped sherds with lime or clay infilling, and cord-marked design that established a baseline for the Batanes Neolithic period as early as about 3500 years ago. Stone artifacts found in the Batanes Islands, particularly in the sites of Sunget and Anaro, consisted of adzes with asymmetrical bevels, flaked and hammer dressed hoes, bark cloth beaters, sawn and ground Taiwan slate points and knives, grinding stones, pendants, and side-notched pebble sinkers. These provided data on the late phase of the Neolithic Period from about 3000 to 2200 years ago.
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Text by Ame Garong and poster by Timothy James Vitales
© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines
Discover the richness of Visayas biodiversity by visiting the Mobile Museum Boxes traveling exhibition “Conserving the Natural History of the Visayas Region” at the Santa Barbara Centennial Museum in Santa Barbara, Iloilo.
The exhibit was opened to the public on February 14. Santa Barbara LGU officials led by Mayor Rema Somo, together with representatives from the Departments of Education and Tourism, the academe, and cultural workers from Iloilo, graced the opening ceremonies.
Forester John Rey Callado, Museum Researcher II of the Botany and National Herbarium Division, stressed the importance of conserving Visayas forests as they host unique flora and fauna in his walk-through tour of the exhibition. He called on the educators to utilize the exhibition as a learning tool to raise public awareness on the importance of preserving and protecting the environment to biodiversity.
