Timeline of Precolonial Filipino Culture and Society

This brief timeline recounts the development of precolonial Filipino culture and society before the arrival of colonial Spain. The intention to highlight only the important stages of precolonial culture and society is to make the incomplete timeline open ended. Hoping the readers to complete the timeline according to intended narratives in relation to their own findings.

In this timeline I focused mostly on archaeological artifacts to tell the culture and society of precolonial Philippines in history. Some of these artifacts were pictures I took from Samar Archaeological Museum during my field research in the islands of Samar and Leyte. These artifacts, I believe, are not in the inventory of National Museum of the Philippines.

Paleolithic 14,500 BCE

The dawn of precolonial history in the Philippines started during the discovery of Tabon Man. According to archaeologists who found the remains of a hominid inside the Tabon Cave in Palawan, the Tabon Man coexisted with the Homo Erectus from Europe, Indonesian Java Man, and Peking Man from China. But, physical anthropologists argued that Tabon Man belonged to Homo Sapiens based on their examination of its mandible and skull cap.

Together with the remains, archaeologists also found rich materials for making simple stone tools. And the stone tools found in the cave were characteristics to the globe-trotting aspect of  Tabon Man, which slightly concurs with the migration theory of American anthropologist H. Otley Beyer. His Waves of Migration theory, however disputable, could be relevant to the idea of Tabon Cave as a stone tools factory and temporary shelter for the itinerant Tabon Man.

Since the Tabon cave implies as an important place of Paleolithic stone tools production, archaeologists also found in here artifacts that marked the indication of Neolithic age.

Neolithic 6,000 BCE – 1,200 CE

Near the Tabon Cave, archaeologists found advanced stone tools in Guri Cave and other cave complexes around Palawan’s Lipuun Point. The tools they found were used to shape and form advance adzes and axes that developed early boat technology and agriculture.

Shell beads were also found in the cave complex, which indicated an advance stone tool technology and skills. Together with these finds were burial jars and pots such as the famous Manunggul Jar. And, it is important to take note that the advance stone tools production from Neolithic age also indicated the period of conceiving the idea of afterlife, ancestor worship, and, thus, the beginning of animist tradition in the Philippines.

According to archaeologists, Kalanay pots found in Masbate were similar to the clay pots found in Sa-huyn from South Vietnam. Given this evidence it proves the claim that precolonial Filipinos has already established interrelation with other cultures throughout Southeast Asia, which marked the advance culture of Austronesian boat building tradition.

Here are the photographs I took from Samar Archaeological Museum in Calbayog. These are pot shards found in Samar that possibly indicates a Sa-huyn/Kalanay pottery complex:

Broken pieces of Sa-huyn/Kalanay pottery found in Samar island.

Rope technique is characteristics to Sa-huyn/Kalanay pottery design.

Metal Age 225 CE – 1500 CE

Archaeologists believed that the development of iron tools in precolonial Philippines started from the production of jade stone jewelries or the Lingling-O found in Batangas. These finds were also similar to the earrings found in 1908 at Sa-huyn, South Vietnam.

The historical mark of maritime culture and civilization of precolonial Philippines was during the Metal Age. This explains the reason why the flow and exchange of culture was very common on this period. And the highlight of this advance era was the gold tradition – an important trade and everyday adornment in the spiritual and cultural life of precolonial Filipinos.

Moreover, gold tradition did not only establish a complex societal relations as evidenced by the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, but it also installed complex trade relations with different advance cultures around the world, namely, Indians, Arabs, Japanese, and Chinese, etc. The multicultural relations further enriched the cultural development of precolonial Filipinos.

Aside from the gold tradition, there was also the amazing textile tradition and tattooing practice. Textile and tattooing complemented together with gold jewelries. Imagine how fashionable precolonial Filipinos were. And, it was the top caliber precolonial Filipino artists and artisans who contributed to this era.

In this photos I took from the collection of artifacts from Samar Archaeological Museum were bladed weapons or Kampilan designed with repeated patterns of rosettes and palmettes. The design patterns were complex and was similar to the more advance Sa-huyn and Kalanay pottery:

Metal arrow/spear heads and elaborately designed bladed weapon resembling its pattern with the Naga serpent very widespread in Southeast Asia.

Repeated rosettes and palmettes pattern with crocodile head handle.

This timeline, however incomplete and brief, celebrates the long vibrant history of Filipino culture and society. It demystify the common belief that Philippine history only began during the colonial Spain. But, according to pessimists, it was the end of history. However, postcolonial theorists would argue that history has continued as proven by the eclectic cultural evolution of the Filipino amidst the unceasing strife to decolonize.

Jong Pairez
20 October 2013