San Remigio dig yields Philippine Iron Age artifacts
ARCHEOLOGICAL artifacts dating back to more than 2,000 years ago were unearthed in San Remigio this month.
Jose Eleazar Bersales, co-director of the University of San Carlos and University of Guam Joint Archaeological Fieldwork in San Remigio, said that the artifacts would be sent to the United States for radio carbon dating to determine the “absolute date” of the materials.
“The samples from San Remigio would be the first to undergo radio carbon dating in the Philippines,” Bersales told Cebu Daily News over the phone.
Bersales said that they had unearthed around 4,000 specimens from their archeological dig in San Remigio, composed of 27 multinational archeologists.
Bersales said in a statement that they had uncovered six burials and 14 earthenware jars and some 3,000 accessioned artifacts believed to be dated back from the Philippine Iron Age, which is between 500 BC and AD 900.
Bersales said that it was the first time they had recovered artifacts dating from the Philippine Iron Age in Cebu.
“It strongly suggests that there’s already a thriving settlement in Cebu,” he said.
The Archeological team, lead by the University of Guam and University of San Carlos, ended their three-week excavation in San Remegio last Wednesday.
It was organized by Archaeologist Dr. Stephen Acabado as University of Guam’s field school for 2011 and was conducted in collaboration with USC, National Museum of the Philippines, University of the Philippines-Diliman, and Cebu Provincial Tourism and Heritage Council.
Their recovered artifact include one burial interred with six different types of earthenware jars near its feet, an iron tool near its chest and the jaws of a wild pig placed near its left wrist.
Bersales said that many of the earthenware from the burials had bodies that angled sharply to create a hip, which are typical to the sa Huynh-Kalanay Pottery complex, which was also recovered in Vietnam and in Masbate.
The rest of the specimen are stored and displayed in the Museo Sugbo.
