The Philippine People of Pre-Spanish Times
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A generation ago little was known of Philippine history in pre-Spanish times, but today it is difficult to summarize what we know of it within the brief space available in an article. Our present knowledge of the Philippines' pre Spanish past may be considered under three heads: Stone-Age times; the Prehistoric Iron-Age; and the protohistoric contact with surrounding Oriental nations which we sometimes refer to as the Porcelain-Age.
The Old Stone-Age
Philippine history before the use of metals, practically nothing was known prior to 1923 yet today it is evident that the Islands were inhabited from some remote period in the Old Stone-Age down to the end of the New Stone-Age, here, shortly before the beginning of the Christian Era. The Old Stone-Age (or Palaeolithic) people are thought to have been mostly primitive pygmies who reached these Islands by land-while there still were connecting links with Asia, or at least with the larger Malaysian islands to the south.
Of their life we know but little, and the first people of whom we have real chronological and extensive knowledge are a Middle Stone-Age group who came into the Islands from Borneo or thereabouts some eight to ten thousand years ago-and whom today we call the Proto-Malay.
The People of the Middle Stone-Age
This type is still living in the Islands in large numbers constituting at least ten per cent of the present population, and is represented by the short stocky round-headed straight haired type so common in the hilly and mountainous regions particularly of Luzon and Mindanao. Their Mesolithic ancestors lived chiefly by hunting and trapping; and they manufactured quantities of stone arrow-heads and implements flaked from obsidian, flint, chert, and other similar materials-of which we find great numbers still scattered over the lower foothills of Rizal and Bulacan provinces.
Our first relatively advanced folk, however, were the Neolithic (or New Stone-Age) people who entered the Islands by sea, and who spread over wide areas here mostly from 6000 or 8000 down to 1000 B.C.
The Progressive People of the New Stone-Age
These New Stone-Age people were of two distinct types. The Early-Neolithic people flourished chiefly around 3000 to 4000 B.C. and are easily distinguished by the type of stone axe with a round or oval cross-section which they made. They were the first people to practice dry-agriculture, and we have found their remains in most of the broader river valleys in the hillier parts of Rizal and Bulacan provinces.
The Late-Neolithic people were still more advanced. They were readily distinguished by the type of rectangular or trapezoidal stone axes and other tools which they made. They practiced a more extensive and sedentary agriculture-building sizable villages and being able to use the land continuously through the art of fertilization and turning of the soil. They flourished chiefly from about 2000 B.C. down to the beginning of the Christian Era-and lived over a large part of southwestern Luzon. We have studied the remains left by these people chiefly in Batangas, Rizal, and Bulacan provinces-Batangas furnishing the greatest variety and best examples of their culture.
The Late New Stone-Age People Came From Indo-China
We now think that the late New Stone-Age people came to Luzon directly from Indo-China-from somewhere around the Gulf of Tonkin-and that they had already been in contact on the mainland with the relatively cultured people of the Bronze-Age. We actually found three bronze celts in Batangas Province associated with typical stone implements of this period-and the shape of the stone tools themselves suggests a derivation from earlier metal forms. These later Stone-Age people used a great variety of bark-cloth, and we find many examples of the tools with which they manufactured and decorated it. They also had what we call a "jade-cult"-attaching great importance to small tools, amulets, beads, and other ornaments, made either of various kinds of true jade or of a variety of softer green stone of local origin. Certain of the small images and ornaments found suggest that these people had very interesting religious beliefs of a well developed character. A whole volume could be written about the details of their culture; but time forbids us to go further into it here.
The Prehistoric Iron-Age
We now come to the second phase of our ancient history that of the Prehistoric Iron-Age. The Iron-Age people seem to have entered the Philippines both from the south and the north shortly before the beginning of the Christian Era. Those who came into Luzon directly from South China or northern Indo-China brought in what we call the "rice-terrace culture"-characterized by the use of irrigated agriculture and the building of stone or earthen walled rice-fields. They also possessed many other arts of which more will be said hereafter. Those who came from the south brought, among other things, the use of the betelnut-and we often refer to them us the "betel-using group". They were village-dwellers already possessing the arts of metal-working, pottery-making, glass-making, and weaving at the time they entered the Islands.
The Varied Arts of the Iron-Age People
In the Novaliches district of Rizal Province, the early Iron-Age people not only mined and smelted their own iron ore, but also mined and worked other metals-particularly gold and a limited amount of copper. Earrings, bracelets, amulets, and similar jewelry were manufactured from the gold. Very good pottery was made in a great variety of shapes and sizes, and the decoration of certain pieces shows a close kinship with that found in the Early Iron-Age graves of Japan and Korea, which are also of southern origin. Perhaps the most interesting art during this period, however, was the working of artificial glass. We were at first loath to believe that the artificial glass found was made in the Philippines at so remote a time-but the finding of glass-slag, and of numerous partly-worked or unfinished pieces, soon made us realize that this art was actually practiced in Novaliches and elsewhere. Only two kinds of glass were made, a green variety colored with iron, and a blue glass with a color derived from copper. The articles chiefly manufactured were beads, bracelets, and ear-pendants-of which some very fine specimens were recovered whole from the Iron-Age graves.
During the earliest part of the Iron-Age, the metal was still scarce and its use was largely confined to the wealthier class. No iron tools or weapons were found in the poorer graves-and the common people appear to have continued to use chiefly stone tools. Knives, spearheads, and daggerblades, and occasionally small iron axes, were found in the graves of the chiefs and wealthier men; while only small working knives of beautifully curved forms were found in the graves of the well-to-do woman. The men also used larger beads, bracelets, and earrings-while the similar articles found in women's graves were always of much smaller size and somewhat different type. The Iron-Age people were all good agriculturists, understanding the art of irrigation and intensive cultivation of the land.
The So-Called "Porcelain-Age" People and the Extensive Trade of that Time
We now come to the last phase of our pre-Spanish history — that in which the so-called Porcelain-Age people entered the Islands. This period-covering chiefly the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, A. D. was marked by extensive trade, especially with China, Siam, ancient Cambodia, and Annam. The Chinese traders came directly down from the north; but those from the other places mentioned came to Luzon from the south-probably usually touching at various points in Borneo and the southern Philippines on the way. Sulu, Palawan, and Mindoro are known to have been great trading centers in those days; while in Luzon, the Gulf of Lingayen, the Manila-Bay region, and the areas around Laguna de Bay and Taal Lake were the places most frequently visited by foreign traders. After the fourteenth Century, however-down until the beginning of the Spanish period-many Chinese traders also visited the east coast of Luzon. They traded around Polillo Island and Lampong Bay, at Paracale, and around the Island of Catanduanes. Two of the chief products sought by them in southeastern Luzon were gold and pearl-shell-although the finest pearls always came from the Sulu Sea and were traded for in the Sulu Islands. In northeastern Luzon, the chief products sought by the Chinese were raw-cotton and indigo, of which great quantities were obtained from the natives of the Ilocos coast, Pangasinan, etc. In the early sixteenth century and after, the Japanese also began to come down both to northern Luzon and to the Paracale district, seeking cotton and gold. They also sought a kind of pottery which they called "Rusun-yaki" or "Luzon-ware". The search by the Japanese for this was continued after the beginning of Spanish times down to the middle of the seventeenth century-and its history forms one of the romantic chapters of the Philippines' past. Actually, most of the pottery so diligently sought by the Japanese was probably not manufactured in the Philippines-but consisted of porcelain and stoneware made in Siam, IndoChina, and south China, which had come into the Philippines in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and had been buried in native graves. These wares were really the product of the extensive trade with Siam and Indo-Chira which we have previously referred to.
New Culture Traits
That several new types of people came into Luzon and other islands during the early Porcelain-Age, is clearly indicated by study of the old village sites and burial grounds that have been examined particularly in Rizal Province and in the central Visayan islands. Some of them practiced cremation of the dead, while others placed the bodies in coffins made of heavy slabs of wood put together without nails or other fastening. In the villages where cremation was practiced, scarcely any of the pottery, jewelry, or iron tools and weapons are of types known among the older Iron-Age folk. Many of the new types show obvious contact with Chinese culture. The "kalan" clay stove, heavy pottery jars, crocks and pans, are quite unlike anything which the Iron-Age people possessed. The iron tools and weapons are also heavier and of different shapes. The Porcelain-Age folk who used coffin-burial had other curious customs. For example, at Santa Ana and Tagig in Rizal Province, deer were sacrificed and laid over the coffin lid. A very large town-almost a small city in fact-existed along the Pasig River near the present Santa Ana from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. This was probably the Kingdom of Sapa referred to in ancient documents and traditional history, and was the seat of the most important ruling families of this part of Luzon.
Relations with Surrounding Countries
These Porcelain-Age folk maintained extensive trade and political relations with other surrounding countries. Frequent voyages were made to lands as distant as Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China, Formosa, and China itself-and traders from all those countries came in turn to the Philippines. Political relations were maintained in ancient times with Sumatra and in later times with Java, on one side, and with China on the other. Some time in the late fifteenth century, most of Luzon and the southern islands came under the dominion of the powerful Mohammedan state of Brunei on the west coast of Borneo — and the Rajahs Suliman and Lakandula who were ruling in Manila at the time of Legaspi's arrival were off-shoots of the Borneo royal house. If the Portuguese in the south and the Spaniards in the north had not brought European dominion and checked the further spread of Mohammedan influence, it is probable that a new Mohammedan state as powerful or perhaps even greater than the Malaccan empire would have grown up in Borneo and the Philippines-but fate willed otherwise.
Source
- The Philippine People of Pre-Spanish Times, Henry Otley Beyer, Philippine Magazine, Volume 32, Number 10, October 1935