Finds and Analysis of Five Archaeological Sites in the

Armand Salvador B. Mijares and Sheldon Clyde Jagoon

ottery is the most common cultural material round, smooth stones. Decoration was done either found in an archaeological site. This durable by impressing or incising while the paste was soft P material is believed to have been used in or leathery. Then the vessels were dried in the the Philippines since the period (Fox sun. Firing usually took place in a open fire. No 1970). Research on Philippine pottery dates to kiln has been found at a prehistoric site in the the beginning of this century. Early publications Philippines. Cogon, husk, or dry wood on the subject were written by Cole (1922) and was used as fuel and the vessels were placed Garvan (1931), among others. Other an- upside-down on top of the fuel; then the vessels thropologists who have written on ceramics were covered with more fuel and finally they include Harold Conklin (1953), George Foster were fired. (1956), and Daniel Scheans (1965). The most extensive and well-known writing on Selected Archaeological Pottery Sites archaeological pottery of the Philippines is by To present the state-of-the-art in Wilhelm Solheim, who put forth the idea of the archaeological pottery analysis in the Philippines, Sa Huynh Kalanay Pottery Tradition (1977). five sites were chosen for inclusion in this paper. Solheim classified his findings into three groups Tabon Pottery Complex Robert Fox based on complexes: Kalanay Pottery (incised and a team from the National Museum surveyed ware and impressed ware without cord-marking); and excavated the Tabon in Quezon, Tabon Cave Pottery (including cord-marking); from 1962 to 1966. This site yielded a and Asin Cave Pottery (with cord-marked and wealth of information that contributed towards hand-painted pottery). reconstructing the prehistory of the Philippines. Fox analyzed the earthenware found at the site Methods of Manufacture and suggested that the pottery be grouped under The prehistoric pottery was primarily the general term of the 'Tabon Pottery Tradition.' produced using a paddle and anvil method. He dated the site from the Late Neolithic to the Ethnoarchaeological specialists (Longacre 1992) Metal Age. The wares were made by the paddle tried to approximate the prehistoric method of and anvil method and were generally fired at a pottery manufacture. Clay was pounded to test low temperature. for compactness. Then sand was idedtified as the Fox constructed a typology based on the basic tempering material. Shapes were formed treatment of the surface and the form and grouped by hand moulding, coiling, or the paddle and the pottery into nine provisional types: (1) Tabon anvil method. The vessels were polished with Plain; (2) Tabon Polished; (3) Tabon Impressed;

44 SPAFA Journal Vol. 6 No. 1 (4) Tabon Incised; (5) Tabon Painted; (6) Tabon of the National Institute of Science and Organic Glazed; (7) Tabon Incised and Impressed; Technology also tested the shards to try to (8) Tabon Incised and Impressed; Painted; and determine the temperature of firing. Sample (9) Tabon Incised and Painted. The forms shards were refired in a modern kiln in an included jars (with and without covers), bowls, oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature of 800 restricted vessels, footed vessels, boxes with degrees Celsius. The results confirmed that the covers, and miscellaneous vessels. earthenware was fired at a low temperature. The most outstanding find amongst the Tabon Pottery of Bohol Province The pottery of pottery is the so-called '', which Bohol province in the Visayas, Philippines, is is now considered a National Treasure. It is a classified by type, form, decoration, function, burial jar with a cover and decorated with a 'ship- firing temperature, and method of manufacture. of-the-dead.' Fox described it as 'perhaps Decoration is further divided into incised, unrivalled in ; the work of an artist impressed, and excised designs or a combination and master potter.' (1970). of the three types. Calatagan Pottery The Calatagan site in Batangas The method of manufacture differs from one Province was excavated by Robert Fox in 1958 place to another. The paddle and anvil is the and yielded numerous ceramics. Dorothy Main, most common method, although hand modelling then the Honorary Curator of Ceramics, analyzed and coiling were also used. Coiling was often the Calatagan Earthenware in the 1960s and used to make a rim on a vessel whereas modelling divided it into three groups: Kay Tomas Complex, was used to give a pot its initial shape which was Pulong Bakaw Complex, and intrusive ware. As then refined with a paddle and anvil. Fox did with the Tabon ware, Mead classified the Maitum Pottery Low-fired anthropomorphic pottery on the basis of the treatment of the surface and non-anthropomorphic secondary burial jars and decoration. The pottery excavated at the Kay were found at Maitum in Province in Tomas Complex was divided into four groups: . A unique feature is that the facial (1) slipped and polished; (2) plain; (3) incised; expressions are varied. The anatomical features and (4) coarse. Two groups - incised and (eyes, eyelids, ears, nose, mouth, breasts, arms) impressed, and plain - were identified at the of the anthropomorphic head were applied. The Pulong Bakaw Complex. anthropomorphic heads have been classified into Further pottery analysis was carried out on painted and unpainted. The painted heads are the Calatagan Pottery. The Geological Survey further divided into an unpainted head with a Division of the Bureau of Mines in 1963 painted face; the unpainted heads were either conducted a petrographic analysis of selected with or without perforation. The painted shards and determined that the composition of anthropomorphic heads are either oval, round, or the clay was crystalline minerals embedded in square in shape. Sometimes a combination of ferruginous mica-clay material. The temper shapes occurs on a single head. The unpainted consists of small particles of quartz, feldspar, anthropomorphic heads are further classified into hornblende, pyroxenes, and, sometimes, grains the presence or absence of a red slip, and by the of volcanic rock. All of these materials are number of perforations, partitions, and produced by volcanic action. The Ceramic Section deformities.

SPAFA Journal Vol. 6 No. 1 45 The red and black pigments of the jars were Garvan, John. 1931. The Monobos of Mindanao. analyzed in a scientific laboratory and the results Washington: Government showed that the red colour is a natural red clay. Printing Office. Hematite (Fe203 x H20) was mixed into a clay Longacre, W.A. 1992. 'The Perfect Marriage: paste and painted on the surface before firing The Essential Joining of Ethnoarchaeology (Dizon 1993). The black colour is an organic and Experimental Archaeology,' carbon derived from burned plants and other Ethnoarchaeologie: Justification, Problems, deteriorating organic matters in the mud. Limits 12 Rencontres Internationales d' These burial jars were found in association Archaeologie et d'Histoire d'antibes Editions with earthenware jarlets with paddle impressions, APDCA, Juan-les-Pins. geometric and angular incised designs, cut-out Main, Dorothy and Robert Fox. 1982. The foot rims, black and red painting, etc. Catalagan Earthenware Monograph No. 5 Kalinga Pottery William A. Longacre of the , Philippines: The National Museum. University of Arizona in an ethnoarchaeological Santiago, R.A. 1982. Annual Progress Report of study at Kalinga Apayao in northern Luzon noted Bohol Archaeology. Typescript. Manila, patterns of abrasion, pitting, and soothing, and Philippines: The National Museum. analyzed the relationship of these methods to the Scheans, D.J. 1966. 'A New View of Philippine patterns of stirring, steaming, and other cooking Pottery Manufacture.' South-Western Journal methods and the washing and cleaning of vessels of Anthropology. Portland, Oregon: Portland (1992). • State College. Solheim, Wilhelm G. II. 1959. 'Further Notes on References the Kalanay Pottery Complex.' P.I. Asian Cole, Cooper Fay. 1956. The Bukidnons of Perspective 3:156-7. Mindanao. Chicago: Natural History Museum Solheim, Wilhelm G. II. 1977. 'Man's Journey Press. According to the Pots; A Study of the Kalanay Conklin, Harold C. 1953. 'Buhid Pottery.' Journal Pottery of the Philippines.' Filipino Heritage of East Asiatic Studies 3:October 1953:1-12. 2. Dizon, Eusebio. 1993. 'Maguindanao Prehistory: Tenazas, R.C.P. 1965. Archaeological Field Trip Focus on the Archaelogy of the to Bohol: To Investigate Reports of Burial Anthropomorphic at Pinol, Maitum, Caves Bearing Boat-shaped Coffins in the South Cotobato, Mindanao, Philippines.' Area of Guindulman, Bohol. Typescript. National Museum Papers 4(l):Manila, Manila, Philippines: The National Museum. Philippines: National Museum of the Thiel, Barbara. 1985. 'Austronesian Origins and Philippines. Expansion: The Philippine Archaeological Foster, George. 1956. 'Resin-coated Pottery in Data,' Asian Perspective 26(1). the Philippines. American Anthropologist Armand Salvador B. Mijares and Sheldon 58(August):732-3. Clyde Jagoon are both museum researchers Fox, Robert B. 1970. The . Manila: at the Archaeology Division of the National The National Museum. Museum of the Philippines

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