Ancient village uncovered in the Philippines
Archeologists unearth remnants including 15 limestone graves
MANILA, PHILIPPINES— Archeologists 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 archeologists have dug out since last year.
The discovery of the rectangular tombs, carved into limestone outcrops jutting from the forest ground, is important because it is the first indication that Filipinos at that time practised a more advanced burial ritual than previously thought and that they used metal tools to carve the coffins. Past archeological discoveries have shown Filipinos of that era used wooden coffins in the country’s mountainous north and earthen coffins and jars elsewhere, according to Dizon, who has done extensive archeological work in the Philippines and several other coun- tries over the past 35 years. Aside from the tombs, archeologists have found thousands of shards of earthen jars, metal objects and bone fragments of humans, monkeys, wild pigs and other animals in the tombs. Archeologists have only worked on a small portion of a five-hectare forest area, where Mulanay officials said more artifacts and limestone coffins could be buried. A preliminary National Museum report said archeologists found “a complex archeological site with both habitation and burial remains from the period of approximately 10th to the 14th century . . . the first of its kind in the Philippines having carved limestone tombs.”
The site is part of 280 hectares of forest land that was declared a government-protected area in 1998. Treasure hunters exposed some of the limestone tombs years ago, but it was only last year that archeologists were notified and began to unearth more.