The history of archaeology in the Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, has been affected by many significant figures and the multiple chronologies associated with the type of artifacts and research conducted over the years.
The Philippines have had a long legacy of Spanish colonization of over 300 years. To begin to understand the archaeology of the Philippines, colonization by the Spanish must be factored in and understood. As Carl Guthe puts, as he excavated the Philippines during the 1920s, "The Filipinos have been under Christian influence for such a long period that all recollection of pre-Spanish inhumations has passed." Thus, linking the past and present through Philippine archaeology can be an issue when it comes to understanding artifacts from before Spanish colonization.
In addition to Spanish Colonization, the Philippines have also suffered in more recent history from American colonization that still persists to this day. On December 10, 1898, Spain surrendered the Philippines to the United States through the Treaty of Paris. This began a long period of American colonization, which played a huge role in Philippine archaeology as it enabled American anthropologists to explore vast archaeological sites with profound evidence of human occupation and evolution. Later, archaeologists like H. Otley Beyer were able to put the Philippines in the archaeological record through events such as the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, which initiated the development of archaeology in the Philippines.
Significant figures in Philippine archaeology
H. Otley Beyer
H. Otley Beyer was a cultural anthropologist and archaeologist who founded Philippine archaeology and became head of anthropology at the University of the Philippines. His Waves of Migration Theory relied on phenotypic and linguistic variability. He explained how he believed that people migrated into the Philippines in "waves," with each wave getting lighter in skin color and more culturally sophisticated. Beyer's theory showed the first wave as the negritos (25,000–30,000 YBP), the second wave as the Indonesians (5,000–6,000 YBP), and the third wave as the Malayas (2,500 YBP).
Beyer conducted archaeological surveys in Luzon, Palawan, and the Visayan Islands and suggested that terraces were constructed as early as 2000 years ago.
Robert Fox
Robert Bradford Fox was an anthropologist and leading historian of the pre-Hispanic Philippines. He led excavations in 1958 at Calatagan, Batangas, where he found 505 graves in two sites. Fox also became the head of the Anthropology Division at the National Museum of the Philippines, where he led a research project in Palawan from 1962 to 1966. Fox later delivered the only Pleistocene human fossils found in the Philippines through his excavations at the Tabon Cave complex.
Wilhelm G. Solheim II
Wilhelm Solheim conducted the first archaeological excavations in the Philippines after World War II. His fieldwork was mostly conducted in mainland and island Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands. Solheim was a professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii from 1967 to 1991.
Stephen Acabado
Stephen Acabado is an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Acabado researches the relationships among Southeast Asian agricultural complexes, landscapes, and society. He has led research projects focusing on Ifugao, such as his Ifugao Archaeological Project.
Traditional comparative chronologies
The Three-Age System
The Three-Age System is a common periodization system that divides history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. These periods have been used throughout European archaeology to label artifacts into recognizable chronology. Despite this periodization being common in archaeology elsewhere, the Philippines has adopted various comparative chronologies that more accurately and efficiently categorize artifacts throughout history.
Comparative chronologies according to Victor Paz
Pre-archaeology: 19th century
According to Victor Paz, the Pre-Archaeology period is the longest among the five identified periods. As the name suggests, it is characterized as a time before archaeology as a discipline evolved. During this period, there was no evidence that antique material culture had any value. The exact dates of the pre-archaeology period are still debated, due to the discovery of human burial sites containing associated objects that demonstrate value.