Preliminary
Report on the Excavation of Mabangog Cave, San Mariano,
Lal-lo,
Cagayan, Northern Luzon, Philippines
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Introduction.
Lalo-lo
Shell middens are containing archaeological materials and located on the river
bank of Lower Cagayan River in the northern Luzon, Philippines, extending for a
distance of 40 kilometers upriver. These shell middens distribute within the
administrative area of the town of Lal-lo and Gattaran, Cagayan State. More
than twenty shell middens are explored and excavated since the archaeological
study of this area had been started from early 1970乫s (see the site
distribution map). Site locations of shell middens vary basically in four
categories; river bank, limestone hill, inland and coastal sand dunes. Site
areas of the shell middens are also varying differently, from the small shell
midden having 50 meters diameter to the big one extending 500 meters long, 100
meters wide and more than two meters deep. In these thick deposited shell
middens, the present people continue to gather shellfishes from the Cagayan
River. The enormous amount of shells had been gathered from the prehistoric
time in this area, but the shell species forming those middens are quite
limited (except coastal middens). These shell middens are predominantly
composed by locally called Kabibi, fresh water bivalve shell. Two other fresh
water bivalve shells, and four spices of fresh water conical shells and land
snails also form the shell middens. Until this stage of research, Carbon 14
dating of the shell middens are from 3,000BP to 1,000BP (1).
The first stage
of the shell middens research in Lal-lo was conducted in 1970乫s at the Magapit
sites by the National Museum of the Philippines. Red-slipped potteries of
different shapes with decoration of dot punctuation and incision, clay pendants
or earrings, stone adzes, animal bones and bivalve shells were collected by the
excavations (Cabanilla 1972, Aoyagi 1977, Thiel 1989). The chronological
studies were continued through 1970乫s, and it was recognized that those shell
middens produced two types of potteries, Red-slipped and Black pottery, and
that these potteries were never found together from the same cultural layer
(Aoyagi 1981, Aoyagi and Tanaka 1985).
From 1986,
National Museum started the extensive explorations on the Lower Cagayan River
about 40 km upriver from the river mouth. Data from the shell middens such as
size, depth, location, artifacts and ecofacts derived from each site were
collected during the exploration (Ogawa and Aguilera 1992). The excavations
were also conducted in the three sites, Catayauan, Magapit and San Lorenzo
(Aoyagi, Aguilera, Ogawa and Tanaka 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, Aoyagi, Ogawa and
Tanaka 1998). Twenty one shell middens containing the archaeological materials
are recognized along the Lower Cagayan River and coastal sand dune by the
research. Beside this lowland exploration, the hinterland exploration did not
carry out until 1996 because of the political situation of the area. Artifacts
collected from the surface of these sites indicate the several cultural phases
among those shell midden sites. The results of pottery analyses indicate that
shell middens which produce the red-slipped pottery don乫t produce black pottery
at the same time; Magapit shell middens produce red-slipped pottery with
decorations, but the river bank shell middens produce black pottery.
The excavation of
Catayauan shell midden was conducted for the data collection of ecofacts;
faunal and floral remains. It was also conducted for the reconstruction of
depositional process of shell midden formation, revealing each shell deposit,
layer by layer. Each shell layers revealed were processed by water separation
and floatation to collect the ecofacts like animal bones and plant remains.
Different species of shells were counted by each piece and percentage of
materials revealed from each layer was calculated (Table 2). Beside these
ecofacts, artifacts revealed were only black potteries in small fragments. The
results of Catayauan excavation delineated the characteristics of shell midden
formation and its possible depositional process by the disposal of food stuffs
and utensils of prehistoric people(Aoyagi, Aguilera, Ogawa and Tanaka 1988).
But new question came out from the results of the excavation; Did the
prehistoric people utilize those huge amount of shell only for their food
stuffs? Ethnoarchaeological research of the present shell gathering in
Catayauan had conducted after the excavation (Ogawa 1997).
In the
perspectives of prehistoric cultural relationships with other areas in South
China Sea like Taiwan, South China and Vietnam, Stone and Clay pendants
excavated from the Hill Top site of
Magapit shell middens show its similarities in typology and dating
(Aoyagi, Aguilera, Ogawa and Tanaka 1991). Also the same inquiries were made
about the red-slipped pottery from Magapit site by Oceanic archaeologists in
the relationship with Lapita pottery (Kirch 1997:48). For the study of cultural
relationships with adjacent area, further research and more data are needed,
but the significance of our results are recognized. Shell Middens in Southeast
Asia and South China had been the major issue of study for archaeologists
belonging to the Japan Society for Southeast Asian Archaeology since 1992 to
1993, and they recognized its importance. Especially, Lal-lo Shell Middens are
noticed as one of the biggest shell middens in Southeast Asia and South China
(2).
Another three
years research in the Lal-lo area was started from 1995. The explorations and
excavations were continued and another shell middens were excavated in the
villages of Catayauan, Santa Maria, Bangag, San Lorenzo and Catugan, on the
both sides of the Cagayan River (Ogawa 1998, Tanaka 1997a, b, 1998). The
research area was also extended to the limestone hilly area adjacent to river
bank lowland area. Mabangog Cave excavation is the first excavation of our
project in the hilly area of Lal-lo. By the excavations of river bank shell
middens, four cultural phases are recognized. Two cultural phases were already
recognized as red-slipped pottery and black pottery by the former studies of
Lal-lo shell middens. Another two cultural phases were recognized at the river
bank shell middens. Red-slipped pottery without decoration was found in silty
clay layer under the shell midden. Also black pottery cultural phase was
devided into two phases by typological analyses (Ogawa 1998).
The analyses of data from the excavations of
this field term (1995-97) are not yet fully finished. This preliminary report
of Mabangog Cave excavation is also limited in analyses, but for the study of
prehistoric interdependent relationships between hunter-gatherers and farmers
in this area, this is the first step to collect data in the hilly area of
Lal-lo.
1.
Research objectives.
The research area
of our project had been, so far, limited to the river bank shell middens. But one
of our objective of the research project is to interpret and explain the
economic, social and political relationships of prehistoric people occupying
the different micro-environments and having the different technological
background, like hunter-gatherers and farmers. When we started the Lal-lo
archaeological project since 1986, the question arises what is the reason why
the hunter-gatherers still exist until the present day in this area together
with other people of the different subsistence background. Karl Hutterer
suggested the possibility that the different groups having the different
technological background, like hunter-gatherers and farmers, had existed
contemporaneously in one area with the economic and social interdependent
relationships even in the prehistoric time (Hutterer 1976). In the research
area, so-called Negrito people, locally called Agta or Ita people, are living
in the hinterland of Cagayan River alluvial plain, and established the economic
and social relationships with lowland farmers. Same situation of
hunter-gatherer/farmer exchange of food stuffs and labor was reported in the
Sierra Madre Mountain, in Cagayan and Isaberra Province (Peterson 1978,
Peterson and Peterson 1977, Hutterer 1982, Headland 1986). How had the economic
and social mechanism of this hunter-gatherers/farmer relationships elaborated
and continued from the prehistoric time to the recent? It must be one of the
biggest problems not only in our research project, but also in Southeast Asian
archaeology.
This problem has
a long history of discussion in Southeast Asian archaeology. Isolate model for this problem was
presented by Heine Gelderun(1932). The reason why hunter-gatherers continuously
exist until present day was explained by the isolation from the influences of
outsiders who had more developed technology. Hutterer appreciates Heine
Gelderun乫s endeavor to explain the present situation of the contemporaneous
existence of hunter-gatherer and farmer. But he denied the isolate model,
because inter-social relationships or economic exchange was observed in many
cases of the Philippine Negritos (Huterer 1976). Peterson and Peterson brought
the inter-social relationships observed between hunter-gatherers and farmers
into the prehistoric situation and presented the exchange adaptation model (1977). Headland and Bailey individually
presented the question of scarcity of carbohydrate food in tropical rain
forest, and advocate that if hunter-gatherers had no relationships with
farmers, they could not find their way to rain forest. They proposed the interdependence model of tropical rain
forest hunter-gatherers with farmers(Headland and Reid 1989, Headland and
Bailey 1991). These archaeologists and anthropologists working in the
Philippines have delineated the prehistoric relationships between
hunter-gatherers and farmers in the perspective of interdependence or mutualism
for last two decades. But this model or hypotheses have never tested by the
archaeological materials. Our project in Lal-lo area is conducted to collect
data and approach to this problem for the testing of these hypotheses.
We started at
first, for this purpose, to excavate the different shell middens on the Cagayan
River bank. It is for the establishment of local chronology by the
archaeological materials. And for the comparison of archaeological data between
lowland and hilly area, we started from 1996 to explore the archaeological
sites in the inland or hilly area on the east bank of the Cagayan River. The
excavation of Mabangog Cave is the first step of our project to collect data
from the hilly area behind the lowland area of Lal-lo.
2.
Location of the cave.
The cave is
situated on the limestone formation hill about 40 meters above M.S.L., about
four kilometers away from the Cagayan River bank. The cave is surrounded by the
secondary forest which deforested in 1950乫s. The vegetation is changed to the
secondary forest by the slash and burn cultivation after the deforestation.
Around the cave, the cassava was planted in summer 1996, but the field was overrun
with weeds when the excavation was conducted in 1997. The shrubs are scattered
in grassland, cogon bush. The limestone formation run from north to south in
this area. Covered by the vegetation, caves are formed in the limestone
formation.
The opening of
cave can be recognized from the provincial road started from Magapit to the
northward, Gonzaga. The houses are built along the road. But the density of
settlement is low and the population of the Mabangog village is about 600. The
subsistence of the village is mostly the swidden cultivation. Almost 40 years
since the people started to settle here after the deforestation by logging,
people continue their subsistence of swidden cultivation and collect forest
products like rattan or fire wood to sell at the market of Lal-lo Centro or
Magapit. Ita people, Negritos, hunter-gatherers are also living vis-à-vis with
those farmers, and utilizing same secondary forest together. Ita people are
also living this hilly area to cultivate like corn, cassava, and collecting
rattan and fire wood for sale in the market. The provincial road was under
construction to broaden and cement during our excavation, and will be a short
cut to go to the Port Ailine at Santa Ana, which is newly constructed
international port. When it will be constructed, the economic and social
condition of this village will greatly change; population and settlement,
socio-economic relationships between farmers and hunter-gatherers must be
changed.
The entrance of
cave is situated 35 meters east from the provincial road (Fig. 1). At the
outside of the cave mouth, the relative gentle slope was formed. The spring
water comes out from limestone at six meters below the entrance of cave. The
water of spring becomes small stream and people utilize this water for daily
life.
3.
Dimension and characteristics of the Mabangog Cave.
Mabangog Cave has
the relatively small dimension (Fig. 2, 3). The entrance is measured 7.25
meters wide and 2.85 meters high. The cave has two chambers, main chamber
extends to eastward and 20.65 meters long. The chamber 2 has a small entrance
hole which cannot go through, but the inside has a ceiling high enough to stand
up and can be measured about six to seven meters deep. The width of cave is six
to seven meters, and the cave keeps the width constantly until the deeper
portion. The height is two to 2.5 meters unless the stalactite prevent us to
arise. The stalactite grows from the ceiling and the floor is covered by the
stalagmite in the cave, but at the entrance, both of them are heavily damaged.
This is caused by frequent use of cave for local people乫s activities such as
sawing or shed. Therefore the sawdust and water buffalo乫s foot prints were
observed on the floor. Three hearths were observed near the entrance and the
ceiling above the hearth is sooty. The broken bottles were discarded near the
wall. The inner portion of cave was not heavily damaged, and the stalagmite is
developed on the floor, the broken bottles of glass were scattered along the
wall. But the most violent damage of cave is the treasure hunters hole dug near
the entrance(Fig. 2). The diameter of this hole is about three meters, and is
dug until the surface of limestone bedrock, but a small hole of 80 centimeters
diameter was dug into the bedrock, two meters deep. Total cave area of floor
has about 200噓.
4. Method
of excavation.
The excavation of
Mabangog Cave started from the making agreement with Department of Energy and
Natural Resources(DNR). All the caves are under the management of Natural
Museum and DNR, the former is in charge of cultural resources and the latter
supervises the ecological resources. Usually the research can begin as long as
either one or the other notify of its start. But it was the first case to
conduct the cave excavation in Lal-lo Project, therefore, we started to examine
the cooperation with DNR officers before the excavation. Consequently we came
to an agreement, and two officers of DNR of Region II(Northern Luzon) were sent
to the cave as observers. The contents of agreement in detail concern to the
research method, dimension of excavated area, duration of research, restoration
after the excavation and report submission. And the excavation area was also
decided for four噓 to limit
the least damage to the cave. To make good use of this area for excavation, two
excavation spots of 2 x 1 meters were set in the different spot. After the 2 x
2 meters grid system was set by the surveying of cave, the excavation area was
set at the both side of the hole disturbed by the treasure hunters (Square 8
and 17, Fig. 2).
The excavation
was started from the digging of disturbed hole to observe the stratigraphy of
natural layer at the periphery of hole. Unexpectedly the natural soil deposit
was not thick, about 30 to 40 centimeters, and reached to the bedrock.
Observing the stratum, the excavation began to dig the soil deposit remained
about one square meters between disturbed hole and Square 17. This area
corresponds to Square 10. After the excavation of Square 10, we proceeded to
Square 17 and Square 8. The excavation of each square were performed to remove
each layer of natural stratum. If the thickness of one layer would be over ten
centimeters, the layer was divided into two portions(Spit 1 and 2). The
materials revealed were recorded by its layer and spit numbers.
Both artifacts
and ecofacts revealed were recorded its stratigraphy. All the soil dug were
processed to pass through a 7 mm mesh screen to recover the small materials.
All the materials(pot sheds, stone flakes, shells and bones) were segregated by
the category and put in each bag together with cards recorded its layer and
square numbers. The artifacts were washed and dried in laboratory, classified
into the different categories. The water floatation spots (20 x 20 centimeters)
were set in each excavation square and the soil samples were collected by each
layer. The charcoal samples for C14 dating were also collected during the
excavation. The research term of Mabangog Cave was from August 21 to September
second.
5.
Stratigraphy丗
The soil
stratigraphy observed in the excavated area of Square 8 and 17 is basically
similar. Their major division of the strata is as follows (from the top to the
bottom);
Surface
: Humus, 7.5YR 3/3,
decomposing organic materials.
Layer
I : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry, containing small fragments of
shells,
limestone and stone flakes (chert and
limestone).
Layer
II : Blackish brown silty clay soil (7.5YR
3/3), hard and dry, containing many shells (bivalve and
conical ), limestone and stone flakes (chert
and limestone).
Bedrock
: Limestone
bedrock.
丂The details of stratigraphy of each square
will be explained later.
6.
Excavation of Squares
Square 17
Before to begin
the excavation of Square 17, the remained portion of Square 10 between Square
17 and the margin of disturbed hole was excavated. The area of Square 10
excavated was about one噓. After
that, the west half of Square 17 was excavated(2噓). At the following report, Square 10 and 17
are reported together, but the table of materials shows these two squares
separately (Table 1).
Stratigraphy:
Square 17 is set
at the six meters inner from the entrance and adjacent to the north wall of
cave(Fig. 2). As shown at the figure , The west half of Square 17, 2 x 1 meter
square was excavated. The stratum of Square 17 was thick at the north wall of
cave, attaining to the depth of 40 centimeters. But at the east wall of Square
17, the stratum was only 20 centimeters thick(Fig. 4). Further, the
stratigraphic profile of west wall showed 40 centimeters of thickness at the
north and 30 centimeters of thickness at the south. Therefore, the surface of
the Square 17 showed the inclination from the north to the south and from the
west to the east. The major division of strata of this square is as
follows(from the top to the bottom);
Surface : Humus, Blackish
brown silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), decomposing organic materials.
Layer
I : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry, containing small fragments of
shells,
limestone and earthenware sherds and stone
flakes (chert, andesite and limestone).
Layer
II : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry, containing many shells (bivalve and
conical ), limestone and earthenware sherds
and stone flakes (chert and limestone).
Bedrock : Limestone bedrock.
Soil characteristics
is almost same in these cultural layers, blackish brown color and hard and dry
soil. Archaeological materials were revealed from the Layer I and II. The
difference between these two cultural layers derived from the amount of
materials. Artifacts and ecofacts were revealed from both two cultural layers,
but the amount of these materials is bigger in Layer II than Layer I. These
materials revealed are bivalve shell (locally called Kabibi), conical shells(
locally called Agurung), animal bones, red-slipped pottery sherds, chert,
andesite and limestone flakes. Shells from Layer I are mostly fragmental and
scattering sparsely, but the ones from Layer II have complete shape and form
the shell midden. Also the artifacts like chert flakes and large fragment of
earthenware sherds are rich in Layer II.
Features:
The significant
feature was not revealed from Square 17, but the possibly burnt portion on the
bedrock was found near the east wall of square. This portion has about 40
centimeters diameter. It can not be estimated as the trace of hearth because
the charcoal, fired soil and ash were not found during the excavation.
Artifacts:
The artifacts of
Square 17 were revealed from the layers of Surface, Layer I Spit 1, Layer I
Spit 2 and Layer II. These artifacts are classified as chert flake, limestone
flake, red-slipped pottery sherd, animal bones and teeth, fresh water bivalve
shell and conical shell. The table 1 shows its distribution.
The chert flakes
are revealed 20 pieces from the lower portion, Layer I, Spit 2 and Layer II.
Andesite flake is found only one piece from Layer I, Spit 1. Dacite flake also
revealed one piece from Layer I, Spit 2. Limestone flakes were discovered five
pieces from Layer II, but it is difficult to estimate whether these limestone
flakes were used as stone tool or not. So far, as there is no example of
limestone flake tool found in the Philippines, further study is needed for the
estimation as the stone tool(there are instances of limestone flake tools in
Thai and Malaysia). All of these flakes have the amorphous shape and its small
size(length and width are within less than five centimeters). To recognize
these flakes as tools, the technological studies of flaking and functional
studies on size, position/angle/use-wear of edges are needed.
Red-slipped
pottery found from Layer I and II are all fragmental in different size. These
sherds have no decorations like dot punctuation or incision which are
characteristics of red-slipped pottery from Magapit site. The feature of Mabangog
Cave red-slipped pottery is similar to the one from the Cagayan River bank
sites like Santa Maria, Catugan, San Lorenzo and Bangag rather than Magapit.
Although the red-slipped pottery of the river bank sites are found from the
silty clay layer under the shell midden, the red-slipped pottery sheds of
Mabangog Cave are revealed from the shell layers. The shell species of Mabangog
Cave are same as the ones from the river bank shell middens.
The datings of
these two cultural layers of red-slipped pottery are not available yet and it
is not sure yet that the characteristics of those two red-slipped potteries are
same. But if these two red-slipped potteries would be belonged to the same
cultural phase, another question comes out; why Mabangog Cave people could
gather shells when the river bank people could not gather shells from Cagayan
River ? and where did Mabangog people gather shells ? When the Lower Cagayan
River formed the swamp, fresh water shells could not inhabit there, and could
not be gathered as mentioned at the chapter of geological settings. The river
bank shell middens could be formed after when the swampy ecological condition
changed to fluvial. But the Mabangog red-slipped pottery revealed from the
shell midden formed by the fresh water shells, and the shell species are same
from the river bank shell middens. Did Mabangog Cave people had gathered the
fresh water shells at the tributary of Cagayan River when the river bank people
could not collect shells from the Cagayan River ? The similarities and
differences of cultural materials and ecological settings of the archaeological
sites must be further studied for the red-slipped potteries among different
sites and the palaeoenvironmental data.
Square 8
The west half of
Square 8, 2 x 1 meters, 2噓, was
excavated. After this excavation, the remained area of east half of Square 8 (1噓) was revealed (Fig. 2). Total area excavated
is almost 3噓. Table 1
shows the distribution of artifacts and ecofacts from these two areas(Table 1).
Stratigraphy:
The thickness of
soil from surface to the bedrock is thin, 15 to 20 centimeters. Their major
division of the strata is as follows(from the top to the bottom, Fig. 5);
Surface : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry. This soil remained only at the
northeast
corner
of the Square 8, but almost the Square was covered by yellowish brown soil
containing ash and charcoal. At the west half of the Square 8, this yellowish
brown soil reached until the surface of Layer II. This soil is estimated as the
disturbance by the recent activities at the entrance of cave. 丂丂
Layer
I : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry, containing small fragments of
shells,
limestone
fragments and stone flakes (chert limestone). The west half of the Square 8 was
covered by the yellowish brown soil.
Layer
II : Blackish brown
silty clay soil (7.5YR 3/3), hard and dry, containing many shells (bivalve and
conical
), limestone fragments and stone flakes (chert and limestone). Earthenware
sherds revealed are very limited. This layer covered all the area of the Square
8.
Layer
III : Mixture of
limestone and brown soil (10YR 6/6). This layer was observed at the south end
of the
Square
8. This portion must be the transitional part of the bedrock and soil deposit.
Cultural materials are sterile.
Bedrock : Limestone bedrock.
The matrix of
soil in Square 8 is also composed by the blackish brown silty clay, same as the
one in Square 17. Layer I contained the shell fragments like Kabibi and
Agurung. Layer II is formed by the mixed layer of blackish brown silty clay
soil and shells. The disturbed layer covered the surface and reached to the
Layer I. The thickness of soil stratigraphy of Square 8 is 15 to 20 centimeters
from the surface to the bedrock.
Feature:
The feature was
not recognized in this Square 8.
Artifacts:
The artifacts
from Square 8 are same as revealed from Square 17, such as chert flake,
limestone flake, red-slipped pottery sherd, animal bones and teeth, fresh water
bivalve shell and conical shell. The charcoal samples were collected for C14
dating from this square, otherwise the Square 17 did not produced. The table 1
shows its distribution.
17 chert flakes, 20
limestone flakes and one basalt flake were revealed from this square. For the
estimation of these flakes as the stone tools, the technological and functional
analyses are needed as mentioned above.
In contrast with
the affluent stone flakes, only one piece of pottery sherd were collected from
the Square 8. Square 17, only four meters away from the Square 8, produced the
abundant red-slipped pottery sherds. The scarcity of pottery shreds in the
Square 8 could not be happened only by the disturbance of the excavation area.
The Layer II had still the ten centimeters thickness of stratum and covered all
over the square. So, what is the reason for this scarcity of pottery sherds in
the Square 8 ? We don乫t have enough answer for this problem at this moment, but
it would be predicted that this situation was caused by the functional
difference of places for the activities in the cave; at the entrance, near the
Square 8, the activities were performed frequently, therefore the pottery
sherds or other kind of refuse were discarded to the outside of the cave or the
cave wall. This prediction must be tested by the results of further studies and
analyses of materials revealed.
7.
Summary and Discussion
Even the limited
excavation area of this Mabangog Cave research, about five square meters, many
information are obtained. The location of Mabangog cave is different from the
river bank sites which have been researched. So far, our researches were
concentrated on the shell middens located on the river bank, about five to
seven meters above M.S.L.. From 1996, we started the research of the hinterland
of the alluvial plain of the river to intend to find the archaeological sites
which have the different characteristics of the artifacts, features and
settlements in the different ecological settings. The site exploration
performed in 1996 could find the three shell middens, situated in the paddy
field, two kilometers away from the Cagayan River bank, about seven meters
above M.S.L.. But we could not find the archaeological sites located on the
limestone hill area, eastward from the river bank, about 30 to 50 meters above
M.S.L.. The Mabangog Cave was found incidentally by the Geology and Palinology
group in the limestone hill area of 40 meters above M.S.L.. The results of the
excavation are as follows;
1. This
is the first excavation of the cave site in the project area. The location of
the cave is on the limestone hill about
40 meters above M.S.L.. Two excavation areas were set near the entrance, and
its total area was about 6噓.
2. The
thickness of soil stratigraphy was thin, 20 to 40 centimeters until the
bedrock. The lower layer contained the shell species same as found at the river
bank shell middens. The artifacts such as stone flakes, pottery sherds, animal
bones were revealed from shell midden.
3. The feature was not recognized
clearly.
4. All
the stone flakes revealed have the amorphous shape and the size is less than
five centimeters. The chert flakes were discovered mainly from the lower layers
of Square 8 and 17. The only one andesite flake was found at the upper layer of
Square 17. Other stone flakes revealed are the each one basalt and dacite
flake. The limestone flakes also found and its amount is next to the chert
flakes. The estimation of limestone flakes as stone tool is needed the
technological studies of flaking and the functional studies on size,
position/angle/use-wear of edges.
5. The
red-slipped pottery sherds were found both from the Square 8 and 17, but the
Square 8 produced the only one piece of pottery sherd. The pottery sherds have
not the decoration of punctuation and incision. This characteristic is similar
to the pottery from the river bank sites, not similar to the one from the
Magapit shell middens.
The specific
problems could be extracted from the results of excavation. We will discuss on
the problems later, but before that, it would be helpful to summarize the
context of the materials revealed for the extraction of the specific problems.
For this work, the artifacts must be considered in the chronological and
ecological context of all the research area.
1. Red-slipped pottery sherds, stone
flakes and fresh water shells were revealed from the same cultural layer in the
Mabangog
Cave. This is the first incident in the Lal-lo Shell Middens.
2. So
far, the red-slipped pottery were recognized at Magapit shell middens located
on the river side limestone hill, and at Bangag, Santa Maria, San Lorenzo and
Catugan sites on the river bank (Tanaka 1997a, 1998). This time, the red- slipped
pottery was discovered also at Mabangog Cave.
3. The
red-slipped pottery from Mabangog Cave has not the decoration like the
punctuation or incision and the forms of pottery
are jar and footed vessel. The red- slipped
pottery with no decoration was also found at the sites on the river bank, but this was not revealed
from the shell layer, but the silty clay layer under the shell midden. On the
other hand, the red-slipped pottery from Magapit sites has the decoration of
punctuation and incision on jars and footed vessels, and revealed from the
shell layer. Even though the difference on the decorations, the shapes of rim
sherds of the jars and footed vessels are recognized the similarity.
4. Beside
from Mabangog Cave, the chert flakes were discovered from the silty clay layer
of Santa Maria site. The number of the flakes are only five, but these flakes
are associated with the red-slipped pottery (Ogawa 1998). At the other sites,
so far, the chert flakes have not been revealed in the Lal-lo shell middens.
5. The
similarity of Mabangog Cave site and Santa Maria site is the evidence of the
red-slipped pottery and the stone flakes, but the difference between two sites
is that these artifacts were revealed from the shell midden in Mabangog Cave,
but in Santa Maria from the silty clay layer.
The first
question arises from the association of the artifacts and shell; As mentioned
above, it would not yet be positively proved that the red-slipped pottery from
Mabangog Cave has the same characteristics to the ones from the river bank. But
if it could be proved that these red-slipped pottery belonged to the same
cultural phase, why was the shell midden formed in Mabangog Cave while the
shell middens had not been formed at the river bank sites ? And further the
second question is, as examined at the chapter on geological settings, where
did the Mabangog Cave people had gathered shells while the river bank people
could not gather the shells at the Cagayan River because of the swampy
ecological and geological settings at the lower river where the shells could
not inhabit ? At present, the fresh water shells like Kabibi which formed the
shell middens in Mabangog Cave does not inhabit in the tributaries of the
Cagayan River. But it can not answer whether the Kabibi had inhabited in the
tributaries at the prehistoric time or not. For the answer of these two
questions, the datings of cultural layers and the further analysis on the
red-slipped potteries both from Mabangog Cave and Santa Maria sites must to be
needed.
Secondary, it
would like to take notice of the association of the red-slipped pottery and
stone flakes. Until the excavation of Mabangog Cave, the flake assemblage had
not been found in the Lal-lo Project area, even the possible material resources
could be existed richly in the limestone formation area. In the Penablanca
Caves and Rock-shelters sites, 80km southward of Lal-lo, it is already known
that the pottery and the stone assemblage were associated in one cultural
layer. In this field season (1997), the stone flakes were revealed with the
association of the red-slipped pottery in the Santa Maria site in the silty
clay layer. But the number of the flakes revealed were very limited, only five
pieces, so that it can not recognize as a assemblage. On the other hand, in the
Mabangog Cave, almost 50 pieces of chert flakes and other stone flakes were
discovered from the limited excavation area. This is the first stone flake
assemblage found in the Lal-lo Project area, especially at the limestone hill
area, same location as the Penablanca Cave sites (Ronquillo 1981, Ogawa 1984),
and also associated with the red-slipped pottery. Aside from the Santa Maria
site, the river bank shell middens didn乫t produce so far the stone flakes even
a small number of evidence. If the excavations of the silty clay layer under
the shell middens on the river bank will be performed in a near future, there
is the possibility to be revealed the stone flakes. But its amount will be
limited like Santa Maria stone flakes. Contrary to the stone flakes, it can not
say that the amount of the red-slipped pottery in the Mabangog Cave is so rich
like in the Santa Maria site.
Then, the
conditions of similarities and differences on the association these two kind of
artifacts can be summarized as follows; the same association of artifacts but
the different location and the different amount or ratio, the association with
shells and no shells. The second question would be made; Is it able to seek the
reasons of these conditions for the difference of the ecological settings
between the river bank and the hilly area ? Answering to this question, the
working hypothesis will be presented as follows;
1. The different human groups with the different technological background and different way of environmental exploitation existed contemporaneously and utilized exclusively the environment around the site.
2. And these two groups had the
economic, social and political relationships through the exchange.
3. One human group had used these two
ecological settings properly.
These hypotheses can not be tested by the
archaeological data at this moment, but in a near future, must be tested
through the analyses of artifacts, ecofacts and datings.
Notes.
1: Two C14dating are available in Magapit Hill Top Site:2,800亇140BP乮N-5396丆half
life:5,730擭, 2,760亇125BP乮N-5397, half life:5,730擭乯, one in Catayauan:1,060亇290BP(N-5398, half life:5,730擭).
2: The results of these shell midden studies in Southeast Asia and
South China were reported in the volumes of the Journal of Southeast Asian Archaeology No. 13 and 14.
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