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Readings in Philippine History

A Critique Paper on The Tabon Caves Article by Robert Fox

Name: Coreene S. Loquinte

Year & Section: BMLS 2E

“The Tabon Caves” article by Robert B. Fox is probably one of the reliable compilation of
resources of the history of the first settlements in the Philippines as well as in Asia in general. The
contents on the part that we were assigned to read, specifically pages 40 – 44 and 109 – 119 contained
brief but very resourceful and informative writing. Although there are some difficulties encountered while
reading due to the shuffling of events, nevertheless, with patience will still be understood.

Pages 40 – 44 narrated the evidences for the exact epoch of the settlement of the Tabon Man in
Palawan and how they probably got there in the first place. The initial introduction of the Tabon Man was
clearly stated including the date of the discovery and the evidences found which includes the bones and
the artifacts. The argument in the article started after the presentation of the flakes recovered from the
cave which tells a lot more than just the date of the settlement of the Tabon Man. There is a confusion on
whether the Tabon Man was dated a Late Pleistocene or the Upper Paleolithic epoch due to various
evidences. The author stated the possibility of the Tabon Man coming from Borneo on the Late
Pleistocene due to the evidence that around this epoch, land bridges was still available and the sea water
level wasn’t as high as today, therefore travels across islands was easier. But the flakes discovered in the
caves says otherwise, because the characteristics of the flakes retrieved matched with the ones that are
commonly found in the Upper Paleolithic, which is according to Harrisson. On the other hand, the
characteristics of the flakes found in the cave according to Beyer’s is recognized to be under the
Mesolithic period. But the author further established evidences that proves that the Tabon Man is from the
Upper Paleolithic period. It is quiet difficult to understand honestly if you read the article fast without
actually trying to dissect the parts of the article because of the rotations of the dates and evidences
presented.
 The second part of the article read ranging from pages 109 – 119 is more understandable and has
a more plane presentation of evidences than that of the first one. The author introduced the another cave –
the Manunggul Cave – which is apparently part of the Tabon Cave Complexes that gives a more detailed
presentation of the lives of the Tabon Man. Burial Jars are discovered in this cave on both Channels A
and B which unravels the culture of the Tabon Man and hopefully their origin. Several artifacts, jewelries,
burial jars and flakes are found on both channels of the cave. The very distinct difference on both
channels which made researchers assume that Channel B was firstly inhabited was the state that it is in at
the moment of discovery because it looks ruined than Channel A. But they later on discovered that the
artifacts, flakes, stones, or even the burial jars that were recovered from the sites had different
characteristics that distinguishes them from each other and from different epochs. The discovered flakes
in Channel A were mostly stones and there is no sign of a presence of metal, while Channel B had
fragments of iron and glass accessories that Channel A doesn’t. Even the design of the potteries applied
on the burial jars have distinct differences that could not be reasoned out if not for the presence of iron in
Channel B. Also, the design of the burial jars indicates connections of the Tabon Man with other South
East Asian Nations. Evidences of the comparisons of the flakes used on both Channel A and Channel B to
other caves in the Philippines indicates that they are from very different periods. With this, the evidences
lead to the fact that Channel A was inhabited in the Late Stone Age while Channel B was inhabited on
Metal Age.

With the presented data in both parts of the article read, I think it is safe to conclude that the
Tabon Man inhabited the Tabon Cave during the Paleolithic period and brought with them cultures from
the countries that they came from which contributes greatly to the cultures of most indigenous people in
the Philippines that still exist today.