On the Midst of Two Rivalries: The Philippine Earthenware on Multi-regional Peopling The Philippines history before the arrival

of the Spaniards in 1521 is still shrouded in mysteries and an endless maze of ideas. It is like a thousand-piece puzzle that had challenged numerous minds to complete and yet, still in the level of failure. Though, it cannot be denied that there has been an innovation regarding of how we appreciate the importance of knowing the culture of the Filipinos before being colonized. Details keep on popping up from everywhere and every now and then to accompany us in uncovering the truth of our past. In accordance to Republic Act No. 10066 or the National Cultural heritage of 2009 signed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arrroyo, the Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars of Maitum, Sarangani are now one of the National Cultural Heritage of the Philippines. These anthropomorphic jars have caught the attention of international media as it almost turned into trading items by the rebels who roamed around the area of Ayob Cave in Brgy.Pinol Maitum, Sarangani in 1991. According to Dr. Eusebio Dizon, Scientist III of National Museum who has came immediately to rescue the artifacts; they have found more than 100 heads of 2000 years old anthropomorphic jars as well as few others and some faunal remains in the neighboring Sagal Cave. On April 9, 2009, 17 remaining of the 22 sacks of cultural artifacts which were similar to Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars and that have been seized by the police on August 19, 2008 have been transported to the National Museum for inspection, as Dizon hypothesized that they were different from the Maitum Jar, basing upon the different structures of faces and fingers. Nonetheless, according to Dizon, this discovery may help to evidently prove that there was once a habitation site or most probably, a settlement in that area of Mindanao (Alix, Jr. and Torres III, 2011) Dizon considered it as unparalleled in Southeast Asia as no similar style of pottery has been found anywhere ever since. Maitum Anthropomorphic pottery is an exceptional archeological assemblage (Casal, 1996). But, what is anthropomorphic? Several debates has been done throughout the centuries and yet, there still a hunt for the exact meaning of this word. From Anthro, which relates to human beings, and morphe, meaning form (Beyer, n.d.), Anthropomorphism, is at most general, the assignment of human characteristics to objects, events or nonhuman. Anthropomorphizing is a natural human tendency,

thought to be the result of perceptual system (Horowitz, 2007). According to Waytz, et al (2010), who examined the psychology of anthropomorphism, the term itself was coined by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes (c. 570- c. 450 B.C.) when describing the similarity between religious believers and their gods. It has many implications, such that thinking of a nonhuman entity in human ways renders it worthy of moral care and consideration. Also, an entity is moral care and consideration. Also, an entity is more likely to be anthropomorphized, the more similar it appears, influenced by, in example, lacking social connections with other people might motivate lonely individuals to seek out connections from non human items or to simplify and make more sense of complicated entities. Archeological pottery and jars from excavations isnt unusual in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, the discovery of Manunggul Jar by Dr. Robert Fox in March 1964 was one of the most remarkable events in the history of the archeology of Philippines. It is considered unique in all respects. Dating back to the late Neolithic Period at around 710 B.C. (Bautista, 2004), Dr. Fox described it as a vessel that provides clear example of cultural link between the archeological past and the ethnographic present
Fig. 1 Manunggul Jar of Palawan Source:http://www.nationalmuseum. gov.ph

(Fox, 1970). Numerous pottery has been discovered in different parts of the country particularly in Kalanay, Masbate; Bacong, Negros Oriental; Hayup-hayupan, Albay and Kulaman Plateau

in southern Mindanao. However, anthropomorphic motifs are seldom encountered in archaeological sites. Manunggul Jar of Palawan; sketchy faces that appear on the pots from Calatagan sites; a tiny head featuring enormous eyes from Camalaniugan, Cagayan; a head measured 19cm high with very defined facial features in Tayawan, Bayawan, Dumaguete, Negros Oriental; a head from Huyo-hoyopan Cave in Camalig, Albay (Peralta Files, 1985). Earthenware jars covers with anthropomorphic motifs were also recovered from the Inatao Cave in Barrio Salangsang, South Cotabato (Kurjack, 1971). Also, one of the most unusual is the earthenware vessel excavated in Magsuhot, Negros Oriental with which, Tenazas (1982) advances the idea that it was used fro fertility due to the swollen belly depicted by the two terracotta female figurines suggesting pregnancy or pregnant women.

Nevertheless, Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars is very unique to the point that no similar types of anthropomorphic jars have emerged. What makes it unusual is that they are like portraits distinct individuals- of specific dead persons whose remains they guard. Some faces are thin with pointed chins and shriveled puckered mouth associated with the toothless or the aged. Other heads wear a smile displaying a full set of teeth. A patch of black paint on the head indicates where hair should be. Others will perforations suggest a more realistic portrayal (Dizon and Santiago, 1996). They are like the unusual art form discovered from the ruins of the ancient Jericho and other parts of the Asia, decades later, where in, the skulls of the dead were decorated and were used as decorations in the houses of the citizens. This is still practiced in modern Southeast Asia. According to Dizon, these jars were considered as secondary burial ones which are subsequent use of the remains as the focus of a ceremony during which the survivors alter the spiritual condition of the deceased (Miles, 1965). This secondary burial jars and/or often associated with well decorated jarlets, also made by earthenware, glass, beads and bracelets and shell implements and ornaments. Some of the human teeth and phalanxes were deposited inside the jarlets. Some of them were plain, others were decorated with incised geometric designs with cord marks or paddle- impressed designs as recorded by Solheim, Legaspi and Neri (1979). The main motifs used for the pottery are paddle-impressed, cod-mark impressions, geometric and angular designs, cut-out footprints, black and red pigments with dominant curvilinear scroll design, etc. According to the analysis of the red and black pigments conducted by Engineer Orlando Abinion, Head of the Chemistry and Conservation Laboratory of the national Museum, the red color pigment are created from naturally occurring red clay called hematite while the black one is an organic carbon derived from burned plant materials (Miksic, 2003). This red and black pigments has been noticeable since 27 out of 136 recovered Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars were painted on faces, others were faces and heads which may be significant beyond mere decoration but rather, a symbol of status in the community or in the group.
Fig. 2 Maitum Anthropomorphic Jar No. 13 Source :http://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph

of

Similarities have been noted in the forms and designs of the pottery from Sa-Huynh, Vietnam; Gua Cha, Malaysia and Niah Cave in Borneo and the potteries found within the archipelago, particularly, Palawan (Manunggul Jar), Mindanao (Maitum Jars), Kalanay and Negros Oriental. They exhibit various designs from whorls to sinuous lines; or tightly coiled pattern; S-scroll motifs with punctuated dots; slanting S-rolls, etc. The similarities between Maitum and Manuggul Jars are also highly noted as they have common design elements-scroll S-design, application of hematite, incised and impressed designs. Their difference is that, Manunggul figures were already removed from this life, while, as of Maitum Jars, it portrays the subjects during their lifetime. Moreover, the larger size of Maitum Jars gave greater scope to their potters in detailing their facial expressions and features. Both Jars have the characteristics belonging to Developed Metal Age in the country, circa 190 B.C. A.D 500. In connection to this, some of the design elements of these earthenware shards are similar to those found in Tambler, General Santos City, South Cotabato (Dizon, et al., 1991) The practice of having smaller jars or jarlets placed inside bigger jars was also practiced in Leang Buidane in Indonesia, though; Leang Buidane pottery is more comparable to Kalanay ceramics of central Philippines in terms of form and decoration. Kalanay is a group of pottery complex found in Kalanay Cave, Masbate, and Central Visayas done by Wilhelm Solheim III in the fifties. Leang Buidane larger burial jars were either round or of rectilinear shape and generally undecorated. Round vessels appear to have had cylindrical or globular bodies with reverted or thickened rims. The smaller offering vessels from this site are often much more complete, and comprise round-bottomed carinated1 vessels, either plain or with decoration in horizontal bonds above the carination. Lids are present too, perhaps for the large burial jars. The decorated patterns on this small earthenware are red-slipped, impressed or incised. Red-slipping and incision often occur together, with the former being inside of the pot. The incision is nearly done with a single-point, and compromises the normal spiral, rectangular meander, crossed diagonal and triangular motif so well known from Southeast Asian sites (Bellwood, 1978). As you can remember, the Manunggul and the Maitum Jars, as we have mentioned, though theres difference, still have the same characteristics with the Leang Buidane Jars which may indicate cultural interconnection with this two places or, perhaps, between the South China Sea and the Philippine Archipelago during the Metal Age or even thousands of years before. The Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars are believed to be a pottery-product to give honor and
Carinated or carinate is a shape in pottery, glassware and artistic design usually applied to amphora or shape is defined by joining of a rounded base to the sides of an inward sloping vessel (Cooper, 2000).
1

respect to the dead. Soot or evidence of charred remains inside the vessels had been used over fire besides serving as receptacles for teeth and phalanxes. Dizon and Santiago believed that they are used for ritual offering and placed over fire. Some accounts on the use of pottery in Indonesia. It is believed that the use of earthenware in ritual, especially in burial has been present in this country at least 3, 500 years ago, evidences gathered from prehistoric site like Leang Buidane and Plawangan. By contrast precise data on the use of earthenware for daily utilitarian purposes in prehistoric times in Indonesia is completely absent, except for Buni, Bekasi, West Java were the earthenware was also used as utilitarian ware (Seojono, 1976). In connection to this, the relationship of burial ritual and disciplines between the ones found here in the archipelago and in the South China Sea Bound lands such as Indonesia have quite similarities. Based on the past excavations from various parts of the Philippines, the collection of associated material cultural remains such as shell ornaments, glass beads, bracelets and iron blades found in this assemblage also shows that the prehistoric people of the Philippines were no different from other civilizations in the world such as Egypt and especially in Asia. Plawangan Paleolithic Site in Indonesia shows significant artifacts such as earthenware jars, beads and various materials which were believed as burial gifts. Plawangan Site was once occupied by a paleometallic community. Associated remains consist of animal bones, metal objects, beads, bronze bracelets, beads made of stone, glass shell, etc (Santoso, 1995). Same thing with Gilimanuk sites where shellfish was used as basic material to make equipment. Shells were used to make jewelry such as bracelets and necklaces. Beside shells, the community also produced items of burnt clay. Metal and items from glass or stone were also included. There are also jewelry and items from glass or from stone such as bracelets, beads, stone crushers and cleaver (Santoso, 1995; Soejono, 1976; Wiwin Djuwita, 1988). This practice of respecting the deaths may be somewhat a way of people to overcome their fears. According to a documentary show How Art Made the World: To Death and Back hosted by Dr. Nigel Spivey in which documented some of the most disturbing places in the world that includes sculpture and form of arts to depict death and why does the ancient civilization do that: to be disturbed, to feel the safety or both. In the case of the Southeast Asian sites, particularly here in the Philippines, the process of depicting those who were dead is the way of the living to respect the dead, the ancestors and the gods. And pottery and jars, as two of the little technological advancement during those periods, has been used to do such thing.

The culture of pottery has been widely used in order to assemble the thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle of prehistoric Philippines. The late Dr. Henry Otley Beyer had attributed the introduction of jar burial practice to migration of people from South China to Northern Philippines: from Batanes, Babuyan Islands; Tayabas, Quezon, Mindoro and Camarines Sur; Sorsogon, Camarines Norte; Masbate; Marinduque; Samar; Negros; Zambaoanga and Basilan (Solheim, 1960). This process is somewhat related to Out-of-Taiwan theory, wherein, the Austronesian people populated the Mainland and Island Southeast Asia all the way towards Oceania, particularly, Melanesia and Polynesia, following the migration of pre-Austronesian speaking people from continental Asia, approximately 10,000-6000 B.C. (Gray and Drummond, 2009; Blust, 1999). According to mainstream out-of-Taiwan model, a largescale of Austronesian expansion began around 5,000-2,500 years ago. Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers may have landed in northern Luzon, intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands, then Celebes Sea, Borneo and Indonesia then to Oceania around 1200 B.C. 500 A.D. (Gray, et al (2009); Pawley, 2002). Though, later scholars, notably Dr. Robert Fox, Professor Alfredo Evangelista and Dr. Wilhelm Solheim III, attribute that the practice of burial jars as part of cultural diffusion which entered the Philippines from Borneo, Malay Peninsula, Thailand and Indochina due to the similarities in shapes and decorative elements (Evangelista, 1966; Fox, 1970; Solheim, 1970). Thus, the culture of jar burials came from the South to North. Out of Southeast Asia theory was supported by new scientific evidence presented by HUGO (Human Genome Organization) that points to single Asian migration from SEA northward, populating East Asia. Thus Southeast Asia Civilization was older than those in East Asia. However, Fox pointed out that though data indicates that the practice of jar burial entered Palawan through actual migration from Northern Indo-China and South China, the great variation in the practice of jar burial in the Philippines from stiff directions and time (Fox, 1979). In example to this is the relation between the potteries found in Chamber A of Manunggul Cave, a Neolithic site (890 B.C.710 B.C.) bear several diagnostic traits typically found in Sa-Huynh, And Kalanay which are both Iron Age Sites (Fox, 1970; Finn 1958). Then, the absence of carved paddle impressions and cord markings in Kalanay may suggest that it may have faded out as a major type of surface treatment while diffusing to the central and northern Philippines during the Metal Age (Fox, 1970). Also, the shared motifs between Kalanay and Bacong in Negros like the lenticular cuts and notches on the vessels, as well as the fluted trimmings on jar covers and angular forms of pots with tall necks and everted rims suggested some kind

of affinity which is highly possible due to the geography of the two islands. Though, the absence of cocks head as trimmings for jars covers and the open-ended cylinders and colander-type pots not found in Kalanay. Tenazas (1982) attributes the differential distribution of the Magsuhot pottery complex outside its centre to trade and the intermarriage of women members outside its group. This may explain why the more esoteric ritual vessels of Bacong, whose manufacture was exclusively a male area, according to Tenazas, appeared not to have spread farther. With this kind of events that triggers conflicts in terms of time and place, Fox argues for establishing a historical typology by means of systematic archaeology. Typology classifies attributes like make, form, size and ornaments to determine a type series which then provides the basis if types are related whether closely or distantly (Joukowsky, 1980). Continued emphasis on pottery traditions and broad relationships tends to disguise the highly complex local ceramic development, as is found in the Philippines where local pottery complexes may or may not have recognizable genetic ties with a single pottery tradition (Fox, 1979). These archeological excavations which aimed to define our nationality of being a Filipino continues to develop through time as they continue their great contribution to out own identity as race. Philippine pottery, like Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars is one of those key hole that shall open for us the door toward the truth of our history before written historical records has been done. Pottery is among like prehistoric scrolls that shall continue to surprise it and to wonder how our race has began its history and how the people dominated the world.

FRAULINE C. TADLE BA POLITICAL SCIENCE 2011-04813

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