History of the Philippines: Encyclopedia II - History of the Philippines - Prehistoric Times

History of the Philippines - Prehistoric Times

Main Article: Pre-colonial History of the Philippines

History of the Philippines - Human Arrivals

Human fossil records indicate that the Philippines may have been inhabited for thousands of years. According to recent archaeological findings, the first man in the Philippines came around islands with Asia which Professor H. Otley Beyer, eminent American authority on Philippine archaeology and anthropology, dubbed the "Dawn Man". Yet the oldest human fossil found in the Philippines thus far is the 22,000-year-old skull cap of a "Stone-Age Filipino" discovered by Dr. Robert B. Fox, American anthropologist of the National Museum, inside Tabon Cave, Palawan, on May 28, 1962 and dubbed the "Tabon Man".

The Tabon caves of Palawan indicate settlement for at least 30,500 years; these hunter-gatherers used stone flake tools. (In Mindanao, the existence and importance of these prehistoric tools was noted by famed José Rizal himself, because of his acquaintance with Spanish and German scientific archaeologists in the 1880s, while in Europe.)

History of the Philippines - Jar Burial

The custom of Jar Burial, which ranges from Sri Lanka, to the Plain of Jars, in Laos, to Japan, also was practiced in the Tabon caves of Palawan. A spectacular example of a secondary burial jar is owned by the National Museum of the Philippines, a National Treasure, with a jar lid topped with two figures, one the deceased, arms crossed, hands touching the shoulders, the other a steersman, both seated in a prao, with only the mast missing from the piece. Secondary burial was practiced across all the islands of the Philippines during this period, with the bones reburied, some in the burial jars. Seventy-eight earthenware vessels were recovered from the Manunggul cave, Palawan, specifically for burial.

History of the Philippines - Migration of the Aboriginal Filipinos

About 30,000 years ago, the Negritos, who became the ancestors of today's Aetas, or Aboriginal Filipinos, descended from their northernly abodes in Central Asia passing through the Indian Subcontinent and reaching the Andamanese Islands. From thereon, the Negritos continued to venture on land bridges reaching Southeast Asia. While some of the Negritos settled in Malaysia, becoming what is now the Orang Asli people, several Negrito tribes continued on to the Philippines through Borneo. They had a Paleolithic culture, and have no community life, government and laws, arts, science and technology, and writing and literature. They live a nomadic lifestyle, romaing the forests and living in crude dwellings consisting of leaves and sticks. But they were skillfully adept in using the bow and arrow as a primary defense weapon. They also gathered wild plants for consumption.

History of the Philippines - Sinking of the Land Bridges and the Arrival of the Nesiots

After the last Ice Age, the sea level rose an estimated 35m (110 feet), which cut the land bridges, filling the shallow seas north of Borneo. Thus the only method of migration left was the dugout prao, built by felling trees and hollowing them out with adzes.

About 3000 BCE, a loose confederation of peoples known as 'Nesiots' (also called Indonesian) came to the Philippines. They became the ancestors of the present-day Luzon and Mindanao hilltribes. They are characterized as being of mixed Mongolian and Caucasoid origin primarily because of their light complexion and tall height- they ranged from 5'6 feet to 6'2 feet. There are two waves of successive Nesiot immigration. The first wave saw a people who have light complexions, aquiline noses, thin lips, and deep-set eyes. The second wave of migration were shorter and heavier in physique, having darker complexion, thick lips, large noses, and heavy jaws. Those of the second wave of migration had epics and folk stories mixed with superstitions. From these people came the Luzon hilltribes.

History of the Philippines - The Coming of the Austronesians

Starting 200 BCE, Austronesian groups descended from Yunnan Plateau in China and settled in what is now the Philippines by traversing land bridges coming from Taiwan. Most of these Austronesians primarily used the Philippines as a stepping stone to the outlying Pacific islands or to the Indonesian archipelago further south. Those who were left became the ancestors of the present-day Filipinos. The Cagayan valley of northern Luzon contains large stone tools as evidence for the hominid hunters of the big game of the time: the elephant-like stegodon, rhinoceros, crocodile, tortoise, pig and deer. The Austronesians pushed the Negritos to the mountains, while they occupied the fertile coastal plains.

In 1380, Makhdum Karim, the first Islamic missionary to the Philippines, brought Islam to the Philippines. Subsequent visits of Arab missionaries helped strengthen the Islamic faith of the southern Filipinos. Arabs founded vast sultanates, of which the Sultanate of Sulu is the largest. Because the first sultans were usually of Arab descent, most Muslim Filipinos, especially those of royal blood, have Arab blood.

History of the Philippines - Trade Items

One museum artifact, a ceremonial jade adze, almost 7 cm. long, of extremely fine workmanship, for such a fundamental tool, may indicate source for some of the wealth from the Philippines, since, in general, it is not known just what was traded by the sea-faring traders, except perhaps, porcelain, jade and gold. Many Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and Malayans settled in the Philippines, and from the result of mixing of these people with the already established Austronesian stock came the ancestors of the present-day Filipinos.

History of the Philippines - Thalassocracies

The fragmented Philippine tribes then built numerous city-states or barangays, in which a datu was the ruler. In the southern Islamic areas, sultanates were founded by Malayan and Arab princes and missionaries. Since at least the 3rd century, the indigenous peoples were in contact with other East Asian nations. They were, to varying extents, under the Sri Vijaya and Majapahit empires, Brunei, and other kingdoms of Borneo. Starting the 13th century, the independent city-states or barangays of the Philippines became vassals of the Ming Dynasty of China. A thalassocracy, or rule from the beaches prevailed.

In the earliest times, the items which were prized by the peoples included jars, which were a symbol of wealth throughout South Asia, and later metal, salt and tobacco. In exchange, the peoples would trade feathers, rhino horn, hornbill beaks, beeswax, birds nests, resin, rattan.²

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prehistoric Times", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki