Unravelling prehistory : the archaeology of North-eastern Luzon

Abstract

Northern Luzon is an important area for understanding and reconstructing the prehistory of the Southeast Asian region. From archaeological work undertaken in the 1970s, we can see the potential of the area in contributing to our understanding of the peopling of the Philippine Islands, from the Pleistocene foragers to the migration of the early Austronesians. This thesis attempts to synthesize past and current archaeological research in the area, as well as to present new findings from archaeological excavations in the Pefiablanca caves. The excavations of Callao, Dalan Serkot, and Erne caves provide fresh data for reconstructing the transition from the Preceramic into the ceramic periods. Several analytical approaches are used to reconstruct past culture and subsistence strategies. Analysis of cultural materials includes lithic and ceramic analysis. In order to reconstruct past diets and environments, specialists have conducted a suite of analyses, such as phytolith analysis, macrobotanical analysis and faunal identification. A soil micromorphology analysis has been conducted in order to understand cave depositional histories and estimate degrees of post depositional disturbance,. The recent excavations in the Pefiablanca caves have provided the earliest dated evidence of human occupation in Luzon, at c. 25,000 BP. Evidence from faunal identification, macrobotanical and phytolith remains shows that a broad spectrum subsistence strategies employed by these early foragers. The lithic analysis shows some changes from Late Pleistocene into early Holocene technology. Interaction between the foragers of the Pefiablanca cave sites and the early Austronesian farmers of the Cagayan Valley was established by at least 3500 years ago. Farmers exchanged earthenware pottery, clay earrings, spindle whorls and shell beads with foragers, possibly for forest products. This exchange, however, did not on present evidence include cereal-based foods such as rice. The botanical evidence from the cave sites shows a heavy reliance on wild and arboreal food sources. This thesis therefore proposes a general culture history of northern Luzon from the late Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene period. Show more