Misamis Oriental can be found in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. It is divided into twenty-three municipalities and two main cities. Its capital, Cagayan de Oro, is an urbanized location and independently governs itself from Misamis Oriental.
Different parts of Misamis Oriental are endowed with archaeological questions that remain unanswered until today. This includes the five caves namely: Amboy Cave, Liyang Cave, Salvan Cave, Huluga Cave, and Tagbalitang Cave.
Different artifacts and archaeological remains were found inside these caves. These could help fill in the gaps of the chronology of past life in the province of Misamis Oriental once dat
The Amboy Cave is located in barangay Dansolihon in Cagayan de Oro. Its mouth is around 4 meters high and 3 meters wide. Human remains and artefacts such as earthenware and porcelain shards and metal fragments were discovered inside the cave. The cave is currently owned by Pelik Bongtong.
The Liyang Cave was discovered in Sitio Nilintian in El Salvador. The property where the cave site is located is owned by Jake Abesamis. Earthenware shards and possibly hammer stones were found inside the cave. The mouth of the Liyang Cave is 1.2 meters high and 6 meters wide.
The Salvan Caves is located in Barangay Bacogboc. No archaeological materials were found inside the cave except for a stone mortar found near the mouth.
The Huluga area, where the cave is located, is over 80 feet high with a surrounding area of 40 meters from the western to eastern part of the cave and 50 meters from south to north. The northern and southern borders are covered with cogon grass and huge Balete trees. The Huluga Cave is located about 8 kilometers south of the city poblacion of Cagayan de Oro, in the sitio of Taguanao. It is composed of two main caverns, situated on the Cagayan de Oro River along the brow of a vertical limestone cliff.
Fr. Francisco Demetrio, SJ published in 1971 an article entitled “The Huluga Caves and the Prehistory of Cagayan”, which presents the practice of burial in the caves before the 17th century. He also stated that the Huluga cave site contains evidence of recurring human presence from the late Neolithic period until the Sung and Ming dynasties.[ citation needed ]
In the 1970s, authorities from the Philippine National Museum, led by Historical Commission member Erlinda Burton, went to Cagayan de Oro to research on the prehistoric fossils and artifacts found near the Cagayan River. The report about the fossils and artifacts was proven to be true. The skeletal fragments which have been found inside the cave were believed to be that of a woman and a child who inhabited the place during prehistoric times. The incomplete remains of a woman was found in a niche of the cave, along with associated material cultures which consisted of obsidian flakes and chips, chert flakes, pot shards, and some porcelain shards. The skeletal fragments were dated 377 A.D. based on the acid racemization done by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, USA.[ citation needed ]
According to the Heritage Conservation Advocates, it is "the home of the original native people of Cagayan de Oro". The cave is considered by many people, to be a sacred site which lacks protection and guidance by the government. Inside, they have found native tools such as glass beads, spoons, pendants, bracelets, stone tools, axe tips, and pieces of iron. [1]
However, Dr. Victor Paz, director of the Archaeological Studies Program of the University of the Philippines, said that as of 2004, they have not found evidence to prove that the Huluga cave site is indeed a settlement site. There were excavations and explorations conducted in the Huluga site and Paleolithic stones in Mindanao were recovered. The explorations were done to help the local government of Cagayan de Oro establish a local museum in the city.[ citation needed ]
Today, both caves at Huluga have been left in their primordial conditions. Each cave is marked with a Philippine National Museum code number. The first cave is marked with the code “NM X-91-R2” while the Open Site is code numbered “X-91-Q2”. On the other hand, many artefacts can be found in the Museo de Oro of Xavier University and the archaeological records division of the National Museum in Manila continue to keep the records of the site.
The Tagbalitang Cave in the municipality of Villanueva has produced several Neolithic finds by previous researchers (Cabanilla 1970; Peralta 1968).
Several remains found in the different caves found in Misamis Oriental gave various archaeological dates. Liyang cave and Huluga cave presented a relatively early time period dating from the Paleolithic to the Metal Age. The limestone formation is composed of Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments of both marine and terrestrial depositions (DENR 1999; Sajona et al. 2000:175). Huluga cave is by far oldest of all the archaeological sites in terms of archaeological evidence and presented artefacts which were dated to be from the Neolithic period.
The materials in Amboy Cave were dated to be from the early 15th to 17th centuries CE. The date of the found human remains remain unidentified. The cave, unfortunately, is exploited by many treasure hunters and guano collectors. Salvan cave needs further investigation regarding its archaeological remains.
All of the caves are profound repositories of artifacts and many other remains that could fill in the gaps of Philippine archaeology that is why they should be protected. The people in Misamis Oriental should feel the responsibility of preventing hunters to loot inside the caves to preserve everything that is found inside the caves. Lastly, further investigation may be conducted in order to improve the present knowledge about the history of Misamis Oriental.
A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The microliths were used in spear points and arrowheads.
Misamis Oriental, officially the Province of Misamis Oriental, is a province located in the region of Northern Mindanao in the Philippines. Its capital, largest city and provincial center is the city of Cagayan de Oro, which is governed independently from the province and also the regional center of Northern Mindanao.
Catanauan, officially the Municipality of Catanauan, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Quezon, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 72,752 people.
Initao, officially the Municipality of Initao, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Misamis Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 33,902 people.
Laguindingan, officially the Municipality of Laguindingan, is a 4th class municipality in the province of Misamis Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 26,363 people.
Tabon Man refers to remains discovered in the Tabon Caves in Lipuun Point in Quezon, Palawan in the Philippines. They were discovered by Robert B. Fox, an American anthropologist of the National Museum of the Philippines, on May 28, 1962. These remains, the fossilized fragments of a skull of a female and the jawbones of three individuals dating back to 16,500 years ago, were the earliest known human remains in the Philippines, until a metatarsal from the Callao Man discovered in 2007 was dated in 2010 by uranium-series dating as being 67,000 years old. However, some scientists think additional evidence is necessary to confirm those fossils as a new species, rather than a locally adapted population of other Homo populations, such as H. erectus or Denisovan.
The legislative districts of Misamis Oriental are the representations of the province of Misamis Oriental in the various national legislatures of the Philippines. The province is currently represented in the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines through its first and second congressional districts.
Cagayan de Oro (CDO), officially the City of Cagayan de Oro, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Northern Mindanao, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 728,402 people, making it the 10th most populous city in the Philippines and the most populous in Northern Mindanao.
Macahambus Cave is a scenic cave in the Misamis Oriental province, part of Cagayan de Oro, in the Philippines. The area of the cave is part of the tropical Macahambus Forest nature reserve.
The Taghlar cave is an archaeological site that was inhabited by prehistoric humans of the Mousterian culture during the Paleolithic. The cave is located in Azerbaijan, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the southern part of Boyuk Taghlar village, on the left banks of the Guruchay River.
Dewil Valley, located in the northernmost part of Palawan, an island province of the Philippines that is located in the Mimaropa region, is an archaeological site composed of thousands of artifacts and features. According to the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program, or UP-ASP, the closest settlement can be found in New Ibajay, which is covered by the town capital of El Nido, which is located around 9 km (5.6 mi) south-east of Dewil Valley. Physically it measures around 7 km (4.3 mi) long, and 4 km (2.5 mi) wide. It is in this place which the Ille Cave, one of the main archaeological sites, can be found. It is actually a network of 3 cave mouths located at its base. It has been discovered that this site in particular has been used and occupied by humans over multiple time periods.
Minori Cave is part of the Callao limestone formation, located in Barangay Quibal, Municipality of Peñablanca, Cagayan Province in Northern Luzon. The said cave has two openings. One, designated as Mouth B, is located at 17° 43' 17" N latitude and 121° 49' 42" E longitude. The other opening, Mouth A is located 17° 43' 21" N latitude and 121° 49' 44" E longitude. The cave has an average elevation of about 200 m (656.2 ft) above sea level, and length and width of 147 m (482.3 ft) and 7 to 11 m, respectively. The cave is divided into four chambers with mouth A as chamber A and mouth B as chamber D. Chambers B and C are in between the two mouths.
The Initao–Libertad Protected Landscape and Seascape is a protected area in western Misamis Oriental, Philippines. At 1,300.78 hectares, the park includes the limestone forests of the old Initao National Park, locally known as Lasang, as well as their adjacent marine waters in the municipalities of Initao and Libertad. Established in 2002, it is home to the Lasang Secret Adventure Park, a theme park which is being promoted by the provincial government as an eco-tourism and corporate events destination. The park is 27 kilometres (17 mi) southwest of the Laguindingan Airport and 59 kilometres (37 mi) west of the provincial capital Cagayan de Oro.
Betal Rock Shelter, a karst cave located on the south-eastern edge of the Lower Pivka river valley on a slope just above the road from Postojna to Bukovje is a site where rich cultural sediment layers with remains of stone tools, artifacts, and numerous fossilized bones of contemporary animals were found. Its entrance was formed by the collapse of the 174 m (571 ft) long cave's ceiling, carved out by the waters of the Pivka River.
The archaeology of the Philippines is the study of past societies in the territory of the modern Republic of the Philippines, an island country in Southeast Asia, through material culture.
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