Above: Chinese ceramics — a large dish and a jarlet — dating to between 1567 and 1620. The dish was used to cover the head of the dead during a burial, a practice among pre-Hispanic natives. (Photo courtesy of Jobers Bersales)

Pieces of Chinese ceramics were again found in another pre-Hispanic burial in Boljoon. Archaeologist Jose Eleazar Bersales who led the diggings near the Patrocinio de Maria Church found Zhangzhou and Anxi-type wares among fragmented burials. The most unique of the find is a double-gourd jarlet which Bersales describes as “extremely rare and not found in catalogues so far.” Anxi and Zhangzhou are places in Fujian Province, China where these ceramics originated at a precise period between 1567 and 1620. The natives acquired the ceramics through traders.

The diggings, now on its fifth season, are part of the Boljoon Archaeological Project organized by the University of San Carlos with support from the Cebu Provincial Government.

More photos below courtesy of Mr. Jobers Bersales:

A team from the National Museum will start archaeological excavations in the old Spanish center of Argao, the Pueblo, on December 3, 2008. Whatever important finds that will be uncovered will be presented to the public on December 22. This project is funded by the committee on sites, relics and structures of the Cebu Provincial Tourism and Heritage Council and is also supported by the University of San Carlos, through the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, as well as the University Museum.

Argao, like Boljoon and Daanglungsod (Oslob), is a fortified settlement that still retains parts of its old stone walls including three gates that open to the north, south, and east (towards the sea). Within this fortified settlement are the church of St. Michael the archangel, built in 1783, the main town square, the Casa Real or municipal hall, and other important edifices.

Below: A chapel and a gate that opens to the sea.

When the Spaniards ruled the Philippines, they established large Christian communities called “reducciones” in order for the natives to live in one compact area within hearing distance of the church bell to facilitate Christianization and Hispanization. As time went by, these communities eventually developed into towns and parishes. Such communities or “reducciones” may have also been the site of prehispanic settlements. The archaeological diggings aim to prove this.

Below: The parish church built in 1783 and dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.

The Cebu Provincial Government through Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales, the Capitol consultant on heritage affairs, signed a custodial agreement with the parish of Boljoon, represented by Fr. Milton Medida, to ensure the preservation of the artifacts that were uncovered during a series of archaeological diggings that were conducted near the centuries-old church of Boljoon. The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Boljoon Mayor Deogenes Derama.

A series of archaeological diggings were conducted in Boljoon in February and May 2007 and in March this year which yielded prehispanic human remains, earthernwares, a gold necklace, a gold tubular ring, among others. The artifacts were presented during an afternoon exhibit at the Cathedral Museum of Cebu last June.

With the signing of the agreement, the artifacts will now be displayed at the Boljoon Parish Museum. Part of the agreement says “The Parish of Boljoon will display the artifacts in a careful, prudent, dignified and respectful manner. The Parish of Boljoon will provide reasonable and adequate care for the artifacts in its possession.“

Above: The burial with the ceramics. (JERB)

Here are some photos of the pre-hispanic ceramics that were recovered in Plaza Independencia as a result of the monitoring of the excavations of the road tunnel project. Thanks to Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales, the deputized officer of the National Museum tasked to monitor the diggings and an archaeologist from the University of San Carlos, for posting these photos in Skyscrapercity Forums.

These artifacts prove that Cebu was indeed a thriving settlement teeming with trade from various parts of Southeast Asia and that Ferdinand Magellan was just a mere “tourist” when he arrived at our shores. It also enables us to appreciate what we read in history books about Cebu’s pre-hispanic history.

The ceramics were found along with burials since it was a practice of the pre-hispanic Cebuanos to accompany their dead with these earthly goods. The dead were also buried beneath the houses so the area where these burials and artifacts were dug was most probably a pre-hispanic settlement.

Below: The pre-hispanic ceramics. (JERB)

Below: The ceramics superimposed on a page of the book “Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics found in the Philippines” by Rita Ching Tan, et al.

Above: The set of gold earrings which was excavated recently in Plaza Independencia. (Photo by Jose Eleazar Bersales)

A fragment of another gold death mask was found in Plaza Independencia which brings to three the total number of pre-hispanic death masks found. Also, a set of gold earrings was found on a probable male individual who was buried with plenty of ceramics including a huge, planggana-sized celadon.

Above: The burial mask made of gold.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales

Aside from the earthenwares which were unearthed two days ago at Plaza Independencia, a pre-hispanic death mask made of gold was also found.

According to Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales, the deputized officer of the National Museum tasked to monitor the ongoing excavations at Plaza Independencia, this is the second time in the history of Philippine archaeology that a gold burial mask was found in a controlled or scientific excavation. The first was in Oton, Iloilo which was recovered in 1973.

There were actually two masks which were found although only one was complete. The burial wearing the gold mask was found alongside with ceramic dishes and tiny jarlets.

Pedro Chirino SJ in Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Rome, 1600) said that Bisayans who could afford would cover their dead’s eyes, nose and mouth with gold so that they would be welcomed well in the next world. He also said that the dead with this gold mask would also be buried with lots of ceramic dishes.

Below: The covering for the eyes, 10 cm in length.

Below: The covering for the mouth, 5 cm in length.

Above: A Thai bluish-green “guan” celadon, a very, very good copy of guans produced in China. The bluish-green and the etched designs give it away as Thai.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales.

Several artifacts were unearthed during the monitoring of the excavations of the ongoing road tunnel project at Plaza Independencia yesterday. A team from the National Museum arrived to observe the excavations and retrieve whatever artifacts that could be located. The team along with Mr. Jose Bersales, the deputized officer of the National Museum and an archaeologist from the University of San Carlos, uncovered important local earthenware with intricate incised designs which are among a collection of Chinese (Yuan and early Ming) and Thai ceramics that were retrieved earlier.

In June 2006, the National Museum conducted an archaeological “rescue dig” in anticipation of the start of the construction of the 0.97 kilometer road tunnel that will pass beneath Plaza Independencia. The “rescue dig” however did not cover the entire plaza and only certain strategic sites were dug. Among those recovered were pre-hispanic human bones and some earthenware. Just recently, however, news reports resurfaced about artifacts being uncovered by workers at the project site and sold to the black market. This prompted the National Museum to send a team to monitor the final phase of the road tunnel project.

Plaza Independencia and some strategic parts of downtown Cebu is a rich archaeological field owing perhaps to its history as a prehispanic settlement and trading port. Bruce Fenner’s book entitled “Cebu Under the Spanish Flag, 1521-1896: An Economic-Social History” mentions that Cebu was a thriving port with several trading ships from southeast Asia plying in it even before the arrival of the Spaniards. Previous archaeological diggings conducted in certains parts of the old downtown area in the 1980s which yielded artifacts are proof of this. Artifacts were also uncovered during the construction of the Heritage of Cebu monument in Pari-an in the mid-1990s, the recent construction of a comfort room at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño, among others.

Some of the archaeological sites are actually burial sites since it was the practice of prehispanic Filipinos to bury the dead right beneath their homes. It was also a practice to accompany the dead with jars, jewelry, and other earthly possessions.

Below: A view of the final third of the excavations for the road tunnel.

Below: A large “planggana” type of celadon, destined for the Arab market, retrieved in situ.

Below: The same celadon distinct for its Arab-inspired bracketed rim is typical of large celadon wares that were originally made for the Arab markets but were also bartered in Cebu and elsewhere.

Below: A pumpkin vase, most probably Yuan or early Ming celadonware. Beside it is a late Yuan or early Ming jarlet (ca. 1300s-1400s).

I was pleasantly surprised by the swift and positive outcome of my column (and my calls to the National Museum) last week regarding the looting of artifacts at Plaza Independencia. The National Museum (NM) immediately sent a team, led by its assistant director, Noel Cuevas, to meet with Vice Mayor Mike Rama, as well as the management of the subway project at the plaza, to check the reports.

Last Tuesday, Angel Bautista, officer-in-charge of the NM Cultural Properties Division, came over to Cebu to hand in official deputization papers to me and Malou Samson, curator of the University of San Carlos’ University Museum, authorizing us to monitor all excavation activities not just in the plaza but all over the province of Cebu. It was also timely that the monthly meeting of the Metro Cebu Development Project (MCDP) was held that same day so that we were able to attend, together with Mr. Bautista. We were briefed with the efforts of Kajima Corporation, the Japanese contractor for the project, to investigate, confiscate and apprehend the culprits behind the looting of artifacts.

More surprises came as we read the minutes of the previous month’s meeting, where among the issues tackled was, in fact, the illegal removal and selling of artifacts by some workers who were caught by security guards. Apparently, the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (CIIB) has already been requested to conduct an investigation on the matter. We were also presented with reports they submitted of the artifacts recovered on the site, coupled with photographs. These artifacts were then submitted to Edrick Miano, the curator at the NM branch in nearby Fort San Pedro.

Just how much has slipped through the security cordon set up by Kajima is difficult to ascertain, pending the CIIB investigations. But I must commend the Japanese project management team, led by engineer I. Maeda, for taking the time to ensure that archaeological evidences that were photographed and recorded on site before these were removed and packed.

That no gold has been retrieved on record is intriguing, especially when compared to the gold jewelry we recovered in Boljoon. The Magellan and Legazpi expeditions mentioned the presence of much gold worn by the natives in the port of Cebu. Yet, we are not finding any in controlled excavations in the downtown area. Does this mean that unscrupulous collectors have already “cut us to the chase” and forever pillaged the evidence? Or is this absence a proof that the port of Cebu was more hype than reality?

A training session for engineers and construction personnel will be conducted very soon at the site so that protocols for the recovery of more archaeological evidence will be carefully observed. One-third of the plaza is due for excavation and it would be great to see what surprises await the world of heritage and archaeology.

It was called plaza de armas in the early 1600s, alluding to generic term for a public square used as military training and parade grounds. Later it was widened, bordering the properties across the Cathedral of Cebu, and was aptly called plaza mayor. Toward the twilight of Spanish colonial rule, it was landscaped, with borders finally defined and was christened Plaza Maria Cristina, in honor of the queen regent. When the Americans came, it was called Plaza Libertad, as the Americans were asserting that they had liberated Cebuanos from the yoke of Spanish oppression. Still, when the colonial masters had all left, it became what it has come to be called now: Plaza Independencia.

Today the plaza has aged with the unmistakable dignity of its acacia trees after seeing years of conflict interspersed with short periods of lull — an enduring mute witness to the comings and goings of colonial masters at nearby Fort San Pedro or, on the opposite side, the old Casa del Gobierno de Visayas, which until 1938 was the provincial capitol. This much some people know about the old plaza today where underneath is a subway under construction that will eventually connect the South Coastal Road to MacArthur Avenue leading to the North Reclamation Area.

What the general public does not realize are the secrets that lie beneath, the evidence of times long gone unearthed in four different periods of excavation within or adjacent to the plaza. My attention was called while I was on a brief vacation in Manila two weeks back when writers from this newspaper asked me if I knew about the artifacts that were alleged to have been surreptitiously removed and perhaps sold to unscrupulous collectors even as the subway project is going on. If this is true, then the Cebuano public missed its chance to see what secrets the plaza has yielded.

Fortunately, not all is lost. During the last three decades, four excavations have been conducted in and adjacent to the plaza, which have yielded tremendous information about the pre-colonial trading port called Sugbo, one of many that dotted the east coast of the island. The name “Sugbu,” which in old Cebuano language means to walk on or wade over swampy ground to reach dry land, is fully confirmed by the excavations that have been done in or near this 17,000-sq.-m. park. The 1984 University of Michigan excavations, as well as the 2000 and 2006 excavations by the National Museum — which were required as part of the archaeological assessment for the subway project — proved that four centuries of erosion from the nearby hills has raised this part of the city by an average of two meters.

Once you go that deep, the pre-colonial period begins, marked by a very sandy and wet swampland with burials accompanied by local earthenware and ceramics from China, Thailand and Vietnam. The 1971 excavations of the University of San Carlos inside Fort San Pedro, led by the late Dr. Marcelino Maceda, yielded Ming dynasty blue and white wares as well as Thai ceramics, dating most probably to between 1368 and 1500s. Magellan’s chronicler, Antonio de Pigafetta, mentioned a Siamese trading boat that had docked at the port three days before they arrived in Sugbo. The presence of Thai wares further reinforces his account. And reports I hear of artifacts being removed surreptitiously as the subway project progresses is very disheartening, to say the least. Whether true or not, the city government must ensure that this is looked into, if only because whatever artifacts are removed now will surely make for a good addition to the other artifacts that are now stored in the National Museum awaiting display in a future museum at Fort San Pedro.

More importantly, one of the recommendations made by the archaeological assessment team to the Department of Public Works and Highways, which supervises the subway project, is the stationing of a permanent monitor, an archaeologist, to observe the removal of earth as the project progresses. If this has not been followed through, then I can understand fully why these rumors about burials being uncovered and artifacts smuggled out persist even until today. Perhaps the plaza may be yielding some of her secrets but only to a select few. And this must stop.

Above: A gold earring, one of the artifacts found in the recent archaeological diggings in Boljoon, Cebu. This is the first time in the history of Philippine archaeology that a gold earring was found in a burial.

A presentation regarding the archaeological findings in Boljoon was presented just a while ago at the Cathedral Museum of Cebu by Mr. Jose Eleazar Bersales of the University of San Carlos. The program was divided into two parts the first of which was a lecture/presentation held at the audio-visual hall. The second part was the viewing of the artifacts at the Msgr. Virgilio Yap Memorial Chapel.

The artifacts presented during the afternoon exhibit included some ceramic plates, a gold earring worn by a male, a gold necklace, some iron daggers and spears, etc. All of these artifacts were found along with some skeletal remains at the plaza of the 18th century church of the Nuestra Señora de Patrocino in Boljoon, a southern municipality in Cebu. Religious medals dating back to the Spanish colonial period were also found.

The area where the artifacts and skeletal remains were found was once a settlement of pre-Hispanic Filipinos whose practices included burying the dead beneath their houses. It was from these pre-Hispanic settlements that parishes were established and massive stone churches built during the Spanish colonial era.

The presentation a while ago was attended by invited guests with no less than His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, archbishop of Cebu, gracing the affair. A bigger presentation that will perhaps be open to those interested will be conducted at the University of San Carlos later this month. The artifacts will also be displayed there for a longer period of time until it will be returned to the town of Boljoon for a permanent exhibition.

Below: The presentation of the findings at the audio-visual hall of the Cathedral Museum of Cebu.

Below: Viewing of the artifacts at the Msgr. Virgilio Yap Memorial Chapel after the presentation.

Below: Some of the artifacts.

A presentation by Mr. Jobers Bersales regarding the recent archaeological diggings at the Boljoon church plaza will be conducted at the Cathedral Museum of Cebu on June 6, 2008. This isn’t open to the public however and is only by invitation.

Another presentation will be conducted at the University of San Carlos and perhaps this will be open to those interested. There’s no definite date yet but I’ll be posting updates here soon.