Prehistory of the Philippines

Before 1926, there were only two important archaeological research done in the Philippines.
The 1881 that Alfred Frenchman undertook the first archaeological work in the Marinduque and
other in Central, Philippines. Between 1992, Carl Guthe of University of Michigan considered
his work more systematic than Marche. His primary concern was to " collect chinese ceramics
exported to the Philippines from China that would aid in reconstruction of the Philippine
-Chinese relationship ". He also collected locally made earthware and other artfacts. Otley Beyer
contributed towards initiating and developing interest in archaeological excavation in
Philippines.

After war the other excavation in the Philippines, but no one can surpass that conducted by
National Museum in Tabon and other Palawan caves. The Tabon cave was discovered and
considered dramatica and important because of carbon -14, they revealed the presence of man
in area between 22000-30000 ago. During initial excavation in June and July 1962, atleast 3
scattered fossil bone of individuals were excavated, and also fussilized bones of small animals.
Archaeologist have considered Cagayan Valley as the mlst promising arhaeological site. As 1971,
54 sites have been reported to be relatively rich in terms of additinal information. A
reinvestigation of Cagayan Valley, specifically the Espinosa ranch site, was conducted by the
National Museum in 1971. The Ateneo de Manila University group discovered a Lemery Taal
Area " a series of stratified side, each representing atleast four cultural periods in Philippine
History". In Batangas also the Bario Calubcub Segundo, San Juan preliminary archaeological
excavations were done by the National Museum.

Excavation was intended to " sytematically retrieve cultural artifacts from site which are in
danger of being totally destroy either by or contrived process". Archaeologist started nursing
idea that side had convincing potential in terms of its being chronologically classified as Late
Metal Age Site", a grave was discovered to have a chinese tradeware as one of grave furniture.
Proper excavation method and dating made possible the comparative analysis of artifacts. Date
assigned by scholars to artifacts are determined largely by the types of artifacts discovered and
recovered.

Traditional Technique

In the past, datings of artifacts were based on approximations as well as inferences.

Reconstruction was done therefore through the study of soil chemistry as well as through the
words of paleontologists. Archaeologists analyzed and finds through associated means, such as
relating ceramics with trade items imported from neighboring countries like China, Thailand,
and Indo-China, where the approximate dates of manufacture are historically known. The
method has been subjected to criticism and has brought about certain problems, particularly in
matters pertaining to chronological dates. Jocano has pointed out one of the weaknesses of
such method, particularly on the dating of those imported and the establishment of the
historical time. He argued that there was a considerable gap in terms of the manufacture,
transportation, exchange and the burial of the ceramics as grave furniture and their excavation
as a cultural artifact.

Modern Dating Technique

A more reliable and dependable method of dating has been introduce in the study of Philippine
prehistory and culture. This method is the result of series experiment which done by Williard
Libby, a nuclear scientist from University of Chicago. Dr. Libby discovered a certain radioactive
elements taken in plants and animals when alive disintegrate at a constant rate when they die.
The sample materials which can be tested through the used of carbon -14.

Geological foundation of the Earth

As early as 1,500 million years ago, believed the Archaeozoic period was characterized by the
appearance of simple living beings. This was followed by Proterozoic period 925-505 million
years ago, ancient animal and plant lidfe appeared on earth, this period was known Paleozoic.

Cenozoic period, which followed by Paleozoic, considered an important in evoulution of man

and cultures, because of the presence of more advanced forms of animals. This period was
subdivided in two:

1) Tertiary or The Age of Mammals

The tertiary period, described as the period with mammals, including primates appear on
earth. Because of certain climatic condition which enabled mammals to adopt to their
environment. Philippine prehistory as it was then that " it's land structure". During this period
when apprently there were land connections with other Asian countries because of it's similar
cultural materials found in Philippines and Asia.
During Pleistocene period, characterized by climatic changes alternating a warm, cold and
lasting for about a thousand years, that the revolutionary processes in both the flora and fauns
including man and began. (Jocano, 1975:28).

2) Quarternary or The Age of Modern Man

Relationship between Biology and Culture

1. The general biological evolution is a process common to all living beings

Man, as an animal, undergoes the biological of processes and therefore, share certain affinities
with other living beings. In fact, the same biological processes that operate in the evolution of
fish or gorilla; meiosis, mitosis, fertilization, mutation, genetic drift, selection, and other
processes also occur in man's evolution.

2. The unit of evolution among all living beings is the population.

In evolution, the population is modified or undergoes changes through time. The individual,
contibutes his genetic materials to total gene and pool of the population of which he is a
member. He passes the genetic material to future generations to sexual reproduction therefore
continues to be part of that gene pool. However, if the individual unable to reproduce his
kind,.they die with the invidual and are therefore, considered to be an irrelevant to evolution.

3. Adaptation

Is an orienting factor in evolution and is considered common to allliving beings. Adaptation is a

strategy used by all living beings in order to survive and viewed in relation to the environment.

4. Man adapts to his environment culturally, a highly mutable form of adoptation, biologically, a
highly immutable form of evolution.

5. Culture has not always existed. It emerged in the courseof man's biological evolution, as
result of the biological changes taking in man.

6. Culture affects man variablity, viability, and adaptation.

Intermarriage between of different nationalities contributeso variations in the composition of

the population. This is made possible as a result of migration as well as colonization (Schwartz
and Ewald 1968:64-65).
Endogamy That is, marriage of a woman with a man belonging to the same class, to the same
community, with the with the same religious orientation and perhaps occupation.

Exogamy That is, a marriage of a woman to a man belonging to a dofferent class, religious
orientation, residential are and occupation. Exogamous marriage can possibly lead to variability
and better adaptation of the individual.

Theories on Biological Evolution

Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. In this theory noted that individual members of a
species differ from one another physically. For instance, in a given population, some animals
may have longer limbs than others. These variations are dependent upon the demand placed
on the organism by it's environment. It enhances the animals chance of producing offspring
that survive. In effect with each generation, the better adopted of a population increase in
number at the expense less favored invidual. In the process the species changes as a whole
(Plog, 1980:63).

Gregor Mendel

A monk discovered the Mendelian theory as an "explanation of variation and continuity". In his
quest for order in the transmission of genetic material, Gregor Mendel chose pea plants
displaying seven classes of easily observable traits, each with two variant. The variables used
were height (tall and short) seed color (green vs yellow) and seed textures (smooth vs.
wrinkled). Mendel selected plants of pure strain so that crossing them " like" plants would
produce pure consistency.

One hundred years ago, Darwin considered man's closest to relatives to be a apes. However the
fossil remains of monkey and apes are scanty and they are composed largely of teeth and jaws.
In spite of the problems, man is believed to be closely related to the African apes. The Old
World monkeys form a natural group (Cercopithecidae) which is much less similar to man.

This contention of the course is substantiated by a 17 million year old fossil discovered in Kenya
year 1983. It consideredto be a prime candidate of the ancestor common to African apes and
humans, because it's age predates the time when two lineage aged and human are thought to
have branch apart (Newsweek, 1984:34).

Among the evidences used to dispel the above mentioned notion was its dentition and its
size,believed to be half the size of the modern man and tentatively identified as Sivapithecus- a
fossil primate genus dating back in Miocene Epoch (27.3-5.3 million yeras ago) and thought to
be direct ancestor of the orangutsn. The other sivapithecus remains will be found in Turkey,
Pakistan, China, Greece and Kenya. Procunsul, the creature previously considered a likely
progenitor (Washburn, 1973:36).

Donald Johanson, with his discovey of lucy, started to redraw man's ancestor by considering it
(Lucy) the first species appear after humans diverged from apes between five and ten million
years ago. Johanson claimed that Australopithecus Afarensis was ancestor to modern man.
Indeed to all manlike creature homo or not. He believed that lucy and her kin "stood at the
threshold of humanity". This assertion was vehemently rejected by his archival, Richard Leakey,
the son of louis Leakey who categorized lucy just one of the ancestor of the Australapithecus
and of man, who lived as long seven to eight million years ago. (Life, 1975:110).

Dryopithecus

In 1856, Eduard Lartet a French paleonthologist, described the first dryopithecus fossil
fragment. One significant feature of dryopithecus family was the much talked about
"Dryopithecus Y pattern" molar. It would take a good imagination to see the "pattern" which the
name applies. The molar teeth of Old world monkeys and baboons, when look at from above
have four peaks and cusps. The molars of living hominids, usually have an additional fifth cusp.
The extra valleys made by the presence of the fifth cusp form a Y pattern consisting of cups 3,4
and 5 (Hoebel, 1958:127).

Procunsul

Louis S. B Leakey discovered species of Miocene fossil apes of a single genus, called Procunsul in
Kenya, Africa. A London Zoo-resindent called consul, it was to honor a popular ape. Leakey
identified the three (3): (a) Proconsul africans, (b) Proconsul nyanza (a chimpanzee-sized form)
and (c) Proconsul major (who could match a gorilla in size) (Hoebel, 1958).

Ramapithecus

The fossil remains of the Ramapithecus included "upper right cheek (maxilla) root of the lateral
incisor, both premolars, and the first two molars; a left canine and a third molar, as well as the
premolars and the first and second left molar. Louis Leakey, on the other hand had discovered a
fragment of right maxilla containing a couple of molars and premolars which were similar to
those Ramapithecus, leading him, therefore to believed that this must belong to cousin of
Ramapithecus. Leakeys evidences were found in Africa and had been dated at fourteen million
yers by K. A analysis. The conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that "similar
protohominid population were emerging from the dryopithecenematrix in both East Africaand
the Indian subcontinent at the same time" (Hoebel, 1958:31).

Australopithecus

The term Austral refer to the "southern apes". There are two recognized species of
Australopithecus: The Robustus and Africanus the Australopithecus Africanus was discovered by
Raymond Dart. The first evidence of Australopithecus was a "child's head embedded in the
rock of a South Africa limestone quarry at Taung". This specimen was send to Dart at a nearby
medical school. The findings was the brain is larger than an apes, the face was extraodinary
human and from all indications the creature had actually stood erect. Other evidences
Australopithecus Africanus was found its skeletal structure was small; it was about 50-90
pounds and it stood and ran on its hind legs. The Africanus environment was the Savannah,
country of scattered-shrubs and trees among lush grasses.

Australopithecus Robustus

It was discovered by Robert Broom a scottish paleontologist. The species was found heavier and
weighed about 100-150 pounds. The Robustus were believed to be vegetarian, with adiet of
root and stalks because of the crest of bone stop their skull, which meant the presence of
massive chewing muscles. Authorities considered this species to have existed about 2 million
years ago. It was considered to be younger than africanus and the last of the extinct
Australopithecus line (Life, 1975).

Similarities and Differences between Africanus and Robustus

The Robustus share certain affinities with the Africanus.

Both are considered to be bipedal

The robustus pelvic remains similar to those africanus, except that they (robustus) are larger.

There are also marked differences between the two species

They are described as slow movers

They probably used stick or their bare hands to dig for roots or and pick berries and fruits.

There were more adaptable to streams and lakes.

The robustus are vegetarian

The africanus are carnivorous bacause of their adaptation to the potentialities of savannah life.

The used of tools by the Australopithecus africanus also brought another morphological change
i.e reduce canine no longer had a defensive function. The caninesof blth Australopithecene
were found to be quiet similar kn size and not significantly different from those of the Homo
erectus. The Australopithecus canines were already reduced to mid-Pleistocene homonid size
(Wolpoff, 1973).

Java Man and Peking Man

A number of fossil remains discovered in an island of Southeast Asia could shed light on the
origin of man because scientist have discovered them to be man's earliest ancestors.

Evolution of skull from Ape (A) Australopithecine

(B) Ancient Man (C) Modern Man (D) Involved an

increase in size of brain case (part of skull above
broken lines ) and a corresponding decreases in
size of face (part of skull below broken lines).

Source: Schwartz B & Ewald, Robert Culture

Society.

Homo Erectus Javanensis (Java Man)

Eugene Dubois the discoverer of the Java Man, was confident that the skull, thighbone, and five
teeth found by his crew in Java year 1890. Where those of the missing link between man and
ape. Eugene Dubois named it Pithecanthropus erectus because it was an upright ape man. This
label was accepted until the 1950s when Ernst Mayr, a systematist, did a taxomic restudy of the
Pithecanthropus specimen. Through his study he convincingly demonstrated that the Javanese
fossils, as well as those found in China belonged to a single genus Homo erectus. Most scientist
refer to the Homo erectus groups as the Pithecantropines. The Java man was found in the valley
of the solo river near Trinil in Central Java.

For more than three decades, Dubois did not allow other scientists to examine the skullcap and
femur. Although he finally yielded in 1923, his secretive behaviour surrounding the remains—
combined with insinuations made in his letters written shortly before his death in 1940 that the
remains may have belonged to a primitive creature that was possibly more apelike or gibbonlike
than humanlike—caused some of his critics to claim that Java man was a hoax. However, after
subsequent investigations of the remains by American biologist Ernst Mayr in 1944, Java man
was classified as a member of H. erectus.

Java man predates Peking man (which was also placed in H. erectus by Mayr in 1944) and is
usually considered somewhat more primitive. H. erectus is thought to have occupied Java from
about one million to 500,000 years ago. However, radiometric dates obtained for volcanic
minerals at Sangiran indicate that some Javan fossils may be substantially older, perhaps
approaching 1.5 million to 1.8 million years in age.

Homo Erectus Pekinensis (Peking Man)

Peking man is characterized by a cranial capacity averaging about 1,000 cubic cm, though some
individual skull capacities approached 1,300 cubic cm—nearly the size of modern man’s. Peking
man had a skull that was flat in profile, with a small forehead, a keel along the top of the head
for attachment of powerful jaw muscles, very thick skull bones, heavy browridges, an occipital
torus, a large palate, and a large, chinless jaw. The teeth are essentially modern, though the
canines and molars are quite large, and the enamel of the molars is often wrinkled. The limb
bones are indistinguishable from those of modern humans.

Peking man postdates Java man and is considered more advanced in having a larger cranial
capacity, a forehead, and nonoverlapping canines. The original fossils were under study at the
Peking Union Medical College in 1941 when, with Japanese invasion imminent, an attempt was
made to smuggle them out of China and to the United States. The bones disappeared and have
never been recovered, leaving only plaster casts for study. Renewed excavation in the caves,
beginning in 1958, brought new specimens to light. In addition to fossils, core tools and
primitive flaked tools were also found.

Neanderthal Man

The Neanderthal man has been classified as the contemporary of modern of man and is
therefore, Homo Sapiens, his cranial capacity has been placed at 1600 cc. Morover, the
members of the species had a concept of living and dying, as they buried their dead. Living in
caves is an indication that they had a conscious concept of protecting themselves from the
animals that roamed around. The caves where they were found also had crude drawing,
indicating a concept of sympathetic magic, that the pictire on the wall can be recreated in real
life. A Neanderthal man would then throw a spear on the wall. If he hit the animal on the head,
he would feel that if he went hunting, he would kill the animal at the same manner.

The Neanderthal man also had a concept of religion. The evidence is the Venus of Willendorf,
believed to be the statue of the goddess of fertility which was found belong to the period of
Neanderthal. Many paleontologist were once the opinion of modern man descended directly
from Neanderthal 35 years ago. However this belief was dispelled with the recovery of a skull
fragment at St. Cosaire, France in 1981.