Archaeologists find lost tombs, village on Philippine mountain

Archaeologists find lost tombs, village on Philippine mountain

MANILA, Philippines – Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said Thursday.

National Museum official Eusebio Dizon said the village on Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, could be at least 1,000 years old based on U.S. carbon dating tests done on a human tooth found in one of 15 limestone graves he and other archaeologists have dug out since last year.

The discovery of the rectangular tombs, which were carved into limestone outcrops jutting from the forest ground, is important because it is the first indication that Filipinos at that time practiced a more advanced burial ritual than previously thought and that they used metal tools to carve the coffins

Now here is a very interesting find. Limestone tombs, the first of their kind found in the region. Filipino archeologists find limestone coffin at Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, eastern Philippines, where archeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop

Wow Slayer nice find. I had no idea that there were any kind of ancient remains in the Phillipines. I wonder if there is anything older. Shame they only found post holes and not stone buildings. That would have been something.

reply to post by SLAYER69

Southeast Asia has been populated for a long, long time. The people who first settled Australia and the Pacific Islands probably originated there.

Bronze Age artifacts in different parts of the region are dated from between 2100BC for the Ban Chiang finds to as recent as 300AD for the newest Dong Son drums. This shows us that various levels of culture and civilisation long coexisted in this part of Asia. Such was still very much the case until the Second World War, which forced many isolated island and jungle cultures into the twentieth century.

Cultures and civilisations would rise and fall with great rapidity in Southeast Asia. This was the hinterland of two high civilisations – the Indian and the Chinese – and cultural influences from both permeated the region. The land is fertile and well-watered, making rice cultivation easy; shallow seas strewn with islands facilitate trade as well as genetic and cultural exchange.

However, when cultures fell due to war or plague (malaria was a great scourge) or other causes, the jungle would return, often in less than a generation, ripping apart and covering over the remains of what men had made. Places like Angkor Wat were once surrounded by vast cities, of which scarcely a trace remains.

There may not be any other limestone tombs in the Philippines, but there are plenty of ancient stone remains in Southeast Asia. Borobudur on Java is older than these newly-discovered tombs; and Indonesia is full of Buddhist artefacts of much earlier date than Borobudur. Even on the unpromising island of Borneo – a byword for impenetrable rainforest wilderness even a generation ago – Buddhist artefacts dating to the 5th century AD have been unearthed; in fact, the earliest evidence of writing in Indonesia actually comes from Kutai in East Borneo.

The history and prehistory of Southeast Asia make for a complex, fascinating and as yet largely untold tale. But beware of imperfect or fraudulent scholarship; it is rife in this part of the world. Remember the Tasaday?

I wonder WHY Limestone?

How were others in that time, and that region buried?

I wonder if these particular tombs, maybe held someone of greater consequence, such as a king or queen?

S&F

I smell a FAUX NEWS hoax. i say this as i am in the philipinnes at the moment, and there has been NO WORD about this so called discovery here. one would think that a major find like this would be heavily publicized in the capital city as well as the rest of the country. can't find a thing, i have asked around and no one has heard anything about it. i did a quick search and the ONLY thing i was able to find was from faux news.

was it a slow news day or something so they needed to INVENT such a story?

Originally posted by generik
I smell a FAUX NEWS hoax. i say this as i am in the philipinnes at the moment, and there has been NO WORD about this so called discovery here. one would think that a major find like this would be heavily publicized in the capital city as well as the rest of the country. can't find a thing, i have asked around and no one has heard anything about it. i did a quick search and the ONLY thing i was able to find was from faux news.

was it a slow news day or something so they needed to INVENT such a story?

Troll much? Apparently you are a Fox News Hater, who lacks research skills.

The story originated with AP (Associated Press), and is being carried by the following:

The Seattle Times

The Telegraph (UK)

El Paso, Inc

NPR

Inquirer News

News Observer

NY Daily News

and that's just a sample of the article from AP, the list on Google goes on and on, and on.

reply to post by eriktheawful


interesting as original site i tried to search was the inquirer (not the same inquirer as north america). in fact it was THEIR search engine that i initially used and only came up with the fox news and ats sites. i had also tried google with the same results

still haven't found anyone here who has heard about it on tv/raidio news tho, which still strikes me as interesting. i tend to be interested in such things, and am wanting to find more info on it.

thanks for the links

reply to post by Astyanax


Howdy Astyanax

If you haven't read it already I can suggest Charles Higham's Early cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia

reply to post by Hanslune

Many thanks, Hans. No, I haven't read it, but it looks fascinating. The Wikipedia entry on Higham says he's dated some Bronze Age sites in SE Asia, including Ban Chiang, to 1100BC, not 2100 as I mentioned in my post. It seems there's some controversy about the dating – as one would expect in this part of the world!

I'm no expert on this subject, but I did once edit a book on collections in the Indonesian National Museum (a treasure-house par excellence) and my interest sort of grew from there.

reply to post by Astyanax


Yes that book is ten years old so the newest finds won't be in it. What it does have is good description of what is known about that area, a good foundation. You can look also at the work of Solheim for each more detail