Timeline to the Iron Age

Here is a brief timeline of Philippine history or actually pre-history through to the Iron Age.

67,000 BP 
 | The earliest evidence of Homo sapiens comes from Callao Cave in Penablanca, 
 | Cagayan.
 |
 | 
24,000 BP 
 | More evidence of early humans at Tabon Cave in Palawan.
 |
 |
8760 BP
 | Evidence of shell-working and stone-flaking is found in Balobok Cave, 
 | Sulu, at layers radiocarbon dated to between 6810-6050 BCE (8760-8000 BP).
 |
 |
7290 BP
 | Polished tools and earthenware pottery found at Balobok Rockshelter.
 |
 |
6590 BP
 | Shell tool and mound culture moves northward up the Philippine 
 | archipelago reaching the Chinese coast sometime before 5000 BCE
 | (6950 BP).  The Nusantao maritime trade network is established
 | around this time reaching as far north as Shandong.
 |
 |
4950 BP
 | The Nusantao interaction results in the widespread diffusion of
 | Lungshanoid Culture characterized by tripod and ringfoot pottery 
 | together with the practice of jar burial.  At around 4950 BP, rice
 | agriculture is introduced into the Philippines.  According to 
 | archaeologist Wilhelm Solheim, the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture 
 | may have developed sometime from around 4950 BP to 3950 BP. This
 | culture was apparently responsible for spreading the lingling-o
 | ornament, originally made mostly from nephrite.  The
 | Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture in Vietnam was the first Asian culture 
 | from which there is evidence of iron-working and it may be that
 | they were also responsible for the introduction of this metal
 | into the Philippines

Looking into the past

The Philippines history can be divided into the pre-colonial and colonial periods.  At this site, we will deal more with the period before the coming of the Spanish although we also have information on colonial Philippine history.

Here are the pages offered that delve into the history of the Philippines and Filipinos.

• Philippine Civilization -- A look into the state of Filipino civilization before Hispanic colonization.  The people were seafarers, metalworkers, gun-makers, ship-makers, merchant traders and more. The Spanish were astonished at the rate of literacy in Filipino society.
• Philippine Indigenous Religious Systems -- Explores the animistic, pantheistic and shamanistic beliefs systems of the inhabitants of the Philippines.  More focused on the original religion of the Christianized peoples. 
• Filipino Spirituality -- More information on spiritual beliefs including those related to healing.
• The Filipino Soldier -- Looks into the history of Filipinos as soldiers and warriors. 
• Toward a Philippine Philosophy -- How can the historical belief and cultural systems of the Philippines be forged into a modern Philippine philosophy?
• The Philippines:  Where Sex was Sacred -- The ancestors of the Filipino people thought of sex as something that was sacred and embedded in their religious belief system.

The Austronesian Connection

The pre-Hispanic history of the Philippines connects with that of our ancient Austronesian and other ancestors who came to these islands many thousands of years ago.

I explore these links in my blog:

Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan

The blog postings cover more specifically the Malayo-Polynesian peoples, a branch of the Austronesian language family, and the trade network of the seafarers known as the Nusantao.  There is abundant material related to the ancient Philippines in these blog posts.

You might also want to consider my two books that are based mostly on Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan blog.

Read about how Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan retraces mysterious ancient trade routes!

Author Paul Kekai Manansala has researched ancient and medieval history for decades traveling to far corners of the world for clues about little-known ancient maritime voyaging and oceanic trade networks.  He has collaborated and corresponded with recognized experts like Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer, author of Eden in the East and archaeologist Wilhelm Solheim in developing this ground-breaking study.

Manansala's book Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan explores the history of an ancient maritime trade thalassocracy founded by peoples called Nusantao.

The Nusantao were intrepid seafaring people who learned to master celestial navigation in very early times. These oceanic adventurers interacted with other peoples included the Neolithic Yayoi who the author suggests used Nusantao trade routes in migrating to Japan.

Catastrophic events like sea flooding and volcanoes stimulated Nusantao exploration and migration further and further abroad. In the course of these wide-ranging travels, Manansala suggests that these sea explorers altered history in wide-ranging areas in ways never before explored.

For example, he claims that the legendary king Prester John of the Indies was an historical and not-so-legendary Nusantao king. Also he provides evidence that the Holy Grail, which most medieval texts claim came from, and returned to the Indies, was related to Nusantao spiritual culture.

Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan has one-of-a-kind insights that you will not find any other history book!

 

Long ago, beginning in the New Stone Age, a people that included the ancestors of the Malayo-Polynesian people, known as the Nusantao, spread news of the world's center to the far reaches of the globe.

A great churning of the ocean -- a major volcanic eruption -- had left clues convincing these ancient navigators that they had discovered the axis mundi, the link between the three worlds of old mythology!

Author Paul Kekai Manansala searched deep into arcane archives, museums and other repositories to uncover the mysteries of these ancient argonauts. Sailing the Black Current is the successor work to Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan, described above.

Books -- How to find them

The Internet offers great tools for finding books on the history of the Philippines. Probably the best resource is books.google.com. While Google Books results now appear on regular search results, you probably want to search on the specific books search engine to get nothing but book results.

The great thing about this tool is that in many cases you can read much of the book right on Google. Older books that are already in the public domain can not only read entirely online, but you can even download the books in PDF form for reading on your computer or mobile device.

Books that are still copyrighted may allow you to read substantial portions of the book. It seems that often it randomly select pages not to show, or only lets you read so many pages in a row. To get past this, try searching for the book again after signing out from Google and emptying your browser cache.

In some instances, you will not be able to access books online, but at least you can use the site to find which libraries and online books have the publications. Other great resources for finding books on Philippine history include the websites of university libraries.

Magellan "discovers" Philippines (Video humor)

Check out this humorous YouTube video featuring a song by Yoyoy Villame on the historical encounter between Magellan and the King of Cebu, Lapulapu after the former "discovered" the Philippines.