This week’s #MaritimeMonday highlights the blue and white porcelain from the Lena Shoal and Santa Cruz shipwrecks. Both shipwrecks have been mentioned in previous posts. For the Lena Shoal, please see: https://tinyurl.com/LenaShoalShipwreck. For Santa Cruz, please see https://tinyurl.com/SantaCruzShipwreck

Both shipwrecks have been dated to the late 15th and early 16th centuries CE (Common Era) and carried predominantly tradeware ceramics from China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, along with other metal, glass, wood, and organic artifacts. The Vietnamese blue and white ceramics appear as vases, jarlets, bottles, covered boxes, saucers, and kendi with floral and geometric pattern decorations. These vessels were produced by the Chu Dau kilns in Hai Hung Province, northern Vietnam. Archaeological investigations at the kiln sites from 1986 to 1991 resulted in the excavation of more than an area of 40,000 sq m with a cultural layer of 2 m that uncovered tens of thousands of different ceramic items as well as production tools including saggars, kiln supports, axles, and parts of potter’s wheels.

The Chu Dau kilns were remarkable as the only producers of underglaze blue wares outside of China during the 14th to 16th centuries but were most active in the 15th century based on shipwreck and terrestrial finds. The ceramic decorative styles such as plants, landscape, animals, and scrolls indicate a heavy Chinese influence. However, Vietnamese potters incorporated their own distinct styles that make it quite different from the Chinese pieces. A peculiar technique for the Chu Dau ceramics is the iron wash painted on the base of the vessels, popularly known as ‘chocolate bottom’. This treatment varies in color from reddish- to dark-brown and gives a distinct and diagnostic look to the pieces.

Your #NationalMuseumPH is open to the public. You may see and appreciate these blue and white porcelain at the 300 Years of Maritime Trade in the Philippines exhibit located at the 2nd floor hallway gallery of the National Museum of Anthropology. For groups of 20–30 persons, book your tour in advance through this website.

#MuseumFromHome
#VietnameseBlueAndWhites
#LenaShoalShipwreck

#SantaCruzShipwreck
#BeatCOVID19

Text and poster by the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

In celebration of the #NationalHeritageMonth, this week’s #TrowelTuesday is featuring the protection of Philippine archaeological heritage vis-à-vis urban development as part of our #MuseumFromHome series.

Should modern urban development be stopped in the name of cultural heritage preservation?

In 2007, during the construction of the Cebu South Coastal Road Project (CSRP) tunnel section in Cebu that cuts through the Plaza Independencia archaeological site, archaeologists from the #NationalMuseumPH worked alongside construction workers to rescue archaeological remains revealed during road-building activities. Among the archaeological remains uncovered were 14th–15th-century Common Era (CE) graves that contained gold death masks. Before this, evidence for the rare practice of burying the dead with gold covers for eyes, nose, and mouth was only scientifically documented in Oton, Iloilo. Were it not for archaeologists investigating urban development sites, the evidence for the unique and significant burial practice of pre-Hispanic Cebuanos would be unrecorded and lost forever.

Infrastructure development and redevelopment are indispensable facets in urban areas and expanding cities. New roads, railways, buildings, subdivisions, and industrial complexes, among others, are continuously built and rebuilt to meet the needs of exponentially increasing urban populations. Unfortunately, construction projects potentially destroy archaeological sites.

In the Philippines, cultural and archaeological heritage is protected under Republic Act 10066. However, laws protecting cultural heritage are still inadequate as cultural resource protection is largely carried out as an afterthought. Frequently, construction activities have either begun, ongoing, or completed before the stakeholders learn about the culturally-damaging projects, ensuing public outcry.

A recent example is the construction of the Filipino-Chinese Friendship Bridge that connects Binondo to Manila. The problem with the bridge from a cultural heritage perspective is it lies within the buffer zone of the San Agustin Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Intramuros, and carries adverse social, cultural, and environmental implications like potentially delisting the historic church from the UNESCO Heritage List. This example demonstrates one of the biggest challenges to archaeological resource protection in the country—poor or overlooked consciousness of the importance of our national cultural heritage at various levels of society. Another lingering hurdle is the consistent communication and collaboration among government agencies on how to best protect cultural heritage.

Despite these difficulties, many projects have shown how different government agencies can work together with local stakeholders to balance the needs of archaeological heritage protection and economic development. More recent construction or redevelopment projects, for instance, at the Manila Metropolitan Theater, Intramuros, Mehan Garden, SM City San Lazaro, and SM City Santa Ana, involved agencies such as the #NationalMuseumPH, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Intramuros Administration (IA), and the City Government of Manila. It allowed archaeologists and developers to collaborate and assess the archaeological value of the sites, scientifically document them and their contexts, and recover the archaeological materials before infrastructure construction. Though construction of the roads and buildings on the sites proceeded, archaeological data about the past were successfully collected.

Much of the Philippine prehistory is unknown and unwritten. The only way to know and understand our past is to dig our way through it archaeologically. Discoveries from development projects not only provide an opportunity to learn about our nation’s prehistory; the knowledge gained also serves as the foundation upon which a profound consciousness and sense of national and local identities are instilled among generations of Filipinos.

For archaeological discoveries, contact the #NationalMuseumPH and NCCA.

#PamanangLokal

#NHM2022

#ArchaeologicalHeritage

#ArchaeologicalSitesAsHeritage

Text by Alexandra De Leon and Nida Cuevas, and posters by Timothy James Vitales | NMP Archaeology Division

Photo credits: Nida Cuevas and Gregg Alfonso Abbang

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

As we approach the close of our National Heritage Month, we celebrate the life of the country’s first-declared National Artist, Fernando Cueto Amorsolo who was born #OnThisDay, 130 years ago, in 1892 in Paco, Manila.

Known as the “Grand Old Man of Philippine Art” because of his masterful use of light and dark colors and depiction of the “Philippine sunlight”. His paintings of Philippine landscapes, Filipino maiden, rural folks and traditions, and portraits, made him one of the most sought-after artists during his time and even after his passing on April 24, 1972. His masterpieces, some exhibited inside the galleries and in one of the hallways of the National Museum of Fine Arts (NMFA), continue to enthrall and inspire viewers.

At the Museum Foundation of the Philippines (MFP) Hall, Gallery X of NMFA is his 1950 oil on canvas, “Tinikling” from the collection of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). It is one of Amorsolo’s eight artworks from the GSIS collection included in a special exhibition launched last April for his 50th death anniversary. To know more about this exhibition and the artist, click this link: https://bit.ly/3lEHduf

The theme for #NHM2022, “Pamanang Lokal: Binhi ng Kulturang Pilipino,” underscores the importance of preserving and promoting local heritage within the community. Tinkling, one of the country’s most popular folk dances, has its name and movements derived from “tikling” or the Barred Rail (Gallirallus torquatus or Hypotaenidia torquata). It is a bird that jumps over bamboo traps set by farmers and is commonly found on wetlands and agricultural lands.

Illustrated in the core of this painting are two dancers dancing the Tinikling, gracefully jumping over and between bamboo poles held by four women. On the right side of the canvas is a group of men playing music. A carabao-drawn-sled on the left side stops by as the passengers (mother and child) watch the merriment.

As we end this year’s NHM, the #NationalMuseumPH thanks you all for your continued support of our public programs. Rest assured that we remain committed to acquiring, documenting, preserving, exhibiting, and protecting our national heritage for generations to come.

Text by NMP-FAD
Photo by Bengy Toda III
© National Museum of the Philippines (2022)

This week’s #MaritimeMonday presents the research potential of microfossil inclusion in archaeological ceramics. Microfossils are the remains of microscopic organisms including bacteria, phytoplankton, and small-sized elements of macrobiota such as sponge spicules, in sizes ranging from 0.001–1.0 mm.

Microfossils such as diatoms and dinoflagellates provide a valuable source of evidence in paleo-ecological, paleo-limnological, and paleo-environmental reconstructions, as well as in forensics. Further, the inclusion and occurrence of diatom microfossils in ancient ceramics have already been documented in several studies. Despite high temperatures during pottery production, these microfossils were still found embedded in several archaeological ceramics. Their inclusions in the raw materials, as well as in fillers and/or tempers used for potteries, were observed in the matrix of these artifacts. Despite being scarce in most archaeological ceramics, dinoflagellate cysts were also found in several stone tools made from chert, flint, or sedimentary rocks.

Microfossil studies would require invasive or destructive methods such as thin section and petrographic analysis as well as dissolution of materials, hence the use of broken ceramics would be necessary. Over the years, the #NationalMuseumPH through then Underwater Archaeology Section (UAS) of the Archaeology Division, and now Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division (MUCHD) have collected thousands of ceramic sherds from several shipwreck sites all over the country. Conducting microfossil research can therefore aid in accumulating information necessary for the establishment of baseline data on microfossils in archaeological ceramics. Results from this research can further be utilized to infer the possible provenance of ceramics, their functions, and their possible manufacturing technology.

Your #NationalMuseumPH is open to the public with minimum health protocols. Visit our newly upgraded ‘300 Years of Maritime Trade in the Philippines’ exhibition on the second floor of the National Museum of Anthropology Building, or watch the virtual tour of the said gallery at https://tinyurl.com/300YearsOfMaritimeTradePH. Please monitor this website and social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for further information and booking arrangements.

#Microfossils

#ArchaeologicalCeramics

#MuseumFromHome

#StaySafeStayHome

#BeatCOVID19

Poster and text by the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division
© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

The #NationalMuseumPh celebrates the 98^th birth anniversary of National Artist Jeremias Elizalde Navarro, born #OnThisDay in 1924.

Born in Antique, Navarro studied art at the University of the Philippines Manila as one of the ten aspirants chosen from 500 hopefuls for the Ramon Roces art scholarship. However, he transferred to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) where his childhood idol, Carlos “Botong” Francisco became his teacher. He also studied under eminent artists Victorio Edades, Diosdado Lorenzo, Alejandro Celis, Bonifacio Cristobal, and Francesco Monti. Navarro graduated from UST with a degree in Fine Arts in 1951. He took further studies in New York City, USA, after which he taught at UST for nine years and briefly at the Randwick University in Australia. As an artist, Navarro passionately experimented with different media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, metal, wood, mixed media and found objects in his abstract and figurative paintings, sculptures and assemblages. 

Today, as we celebrate his birth anniversary, we feature his sculpture entitled “Man and Woman” from the National Fine Arts Collection. Navarro completed this sculpture made of wood, metal, and concrete in the 1960s. Wood is his favored material, describing how he “loves the roundness” of it. During his interview with Cid Reyes, the artist remarked, “I see a piece of wood lying around, and right away it suggests a sculptural possibility.” The genius of Navarro and his high regard for this medium, enabled him to create masterpieces that are now part of the collection of major museums. The National Fine Arts Collection holds several works of the National Artist which are also exhibited in this gallery alongside “Man and Woman”. These artworks are the following: Idiot Box Circa ’64 (1964, wood), Desaparecidos [(1996, bronze) and (undated, wood)]. You may also view his two sets of Via Crucis studies at the Museum Foundation of the Philippines Hall (Gallery X). 

Navarro passed away on June 10, 1999, and was posthumously proclaimed National Artist for Visual Arts on December 1, 1999 for his significant contributions to our rich artistic heritage.

Man and Woman is part of a body of artworks by the National Artist which was acquired through his daughter with the late painter and sculptor, Virginia Ty-Navarro, Pearl, and is among the most recent additions to the National Museum’s permanent exhibition “Lilok, Hulma, at Tipon: Modern Sculptures in the Philippines”. It may be viewed at the National Museum of Fine Arts’ Philippine Modern Sculpture Hall (Gallery XXIX) during its extended visiting hours from 9 am to 6 pm, Tuesdays to Sundays.

#MuseumFromHome
#JerryNavarro
#JElizaldeNavarro
#PhilippineArt
#AbstractArt
#ModernArt
#PhilippineModernArt

Text and photo by NMP FAD