Inquirer
First Posted 00:07:00 12/13/2007
Filed Under: Archaeology, history, Regional authorities
NAGA CITY - A pre-Hispanic burial urn at the Museo de Concilliar de Naga
in Naga City speaks of Bicol?s Ibalon epic starring King Handiong,
according to a study of a Filipino anthropologist.
Dr. Zeus Salazar believes that the urn?s cover design also reflects the period when the inhabitants of the archipelago were starting to relate with their Indo-Malaysian neighbors.
A summa cum laude graduate of history from the University of the Philippines with a doctorate in ethnology from the University of Paris, Salazar interpreted the design figures to be characters and creatures of the Ibalon epic.
His study was published as a book titled; Liktao at Epiko, Ang Takip ng Tapayang Libingan ng Libmanan, Camarines Sur.?
The urn cover, with a 32-centimeter circumference, details enigmatic forms and figures around a pyramid-like center that convey lines from the ancient epic.
NO LIVING TRADITION
Salazar does not consider Handiong's story a real ethno-epic, or a living tradition intertwined with people?s beliefs and religious practices, like the Darangen of the Maranaw, Ulahingan of the Manobo, and Olaging from Bukidnon.
It narrates the mystical origins of the first man and woman of Aslon and Ibalon (now the provinces of Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Masbate), and the exploits of the warrior-leader Handiong, one of the heroes of Ibalon.
Handiong, as the epic goes, fought a giant cyclops for 10 months, defeated the winged Tiburon and the fierce Sarimao, and won over the seductive serpent Oriol before starting a village.
The place prospered. Soon, the inhabitants invented farm implements.
KING
According to curator Fabie Arejola, some historical buffs have speculated that the burial urn, unearthed in 1982 in Bigaho, Libmanan, might have contained the remains of Handiong himself.
In the epic, Handiong was the king of Libmanan who sent 1,000 warriors led by Bantong to kill the half-man, half-beast giant monster Rabot. Bantong slew Rabot while sleeping in a cave dwelling.
Handiong and his warriors came to Ibalon (Spanish colonizers once called Bicol the Tierra de Ybalon) to ?clear? the place and start planting, but the king was challenged by a serpent called Uryol or Oriol who later became a close ally in building the region?s civilization.
Arejola said the urn had yet to be carbon-dated to determine its age, but she said several experts had already examined and concluded its authenticity and prehistory, while others were skeptical.
Salazar traced the publisher of the ?fragmented? five-part Ibalon epic to Spanish friar Jose Castaño in the 1800s.
He ascertained that another friar, Bernardino Melendreras, wrote it in Spanish, using a European literary form in one part. But he finds the remaining parts ?more authentic.?
The anthropologist compared and correlated the designs and contents of the burial urn with those of similar artifacts found elsewhere in the Philippines to arrive at the period of 5000 BC to 10 AD when the burial urn cover was crafted.
Salazar traced its source from the villages of Poro or Bigaho in Libmanan, which the driver of artifact collector Dr. Ermelo Almeda said they frequented to buy artifacts in the 1980s. Almeda died in 1998 and left no catalogue of his large collection, ranging from fossilized dinosaur eggs and Stone Age instruments to Chinese porcelain wares.
Poro and Bigaho were mentioned by German-Russian ethnologist Fedor Jagor in 1851 archeological finds, such as human remains, deer horns, plates and pots, during a road construction, Salazar said.
DOUBTS
National Museum officials consulted on the burial urn cover, however, doubted the authenticity of the piece. It was bought from an artifacts digger and not discovered through scientific methods of archeology, they said.
Dr. Jesus J. Peralta, a retired anthropologist and archeologist of the National Museum, wrote that ?the burial urn with minaret-like cover with incised designs was bought from a vendor, so that it cannot be ascertained where it came from, which was more likely from Mindanao.?
But Salazar said the absence of a scientific archeological process could be satisfied with ?topologically comparing and correlating a piece with pieces discovered in situ.? He cited the museum?s burial urn with a conical cover which was excavated in Calatagan, Batangas, as one example of one authentic piece not obtained in situ.
The National Museum even declared the Calatagan urn a national treasure and the ?first artifact ? to contain evidence of ancient Philippine writing,? he said.
FINDING MEANING
Trying to interpret the figures and the tableau on the cover of the Libmanan urn, Salazar followed the three triangular divisions joined by a central pyramid-like figure. Each division contains figures that he believed were characters of the Ibalon epic or depictions of people?s life in pre-Hispanic Bicol.
Salazar named the groupings ?Ang Tatsulok ng Bungo (Triangle of the Skull),? ?Ang Tatsulok ng Araw (Triangle of the Sun),? and ?Ang Tatsulok ng Bibig (Triangle of the Mouth),? based on the differentiating figure in each of the three sides of the tower-like structure. He considered them episodes of the epic.
?Ang Tatsulok ng Bungo? has a miniature head-like figure that Salazar sees as a skull. He explained that it lacked features to represent a human head, like hair, discernible face, teeth, ears, while its discernible eyes were mere points.
A container before the skull with two elongated figures tries to depict a ritual offering to the ancestors practiced by pre-Hispanic Filipinos, he said.
REPRESENTATIONS
Ang Tatsulok ng Araw has carabao and sun representations, with at least 21 discernible rays drawn on one side of the central tower-like figure and four, points on the surface on the right side of the animal.
Salazar inventoried the figures as indicating what were lost. He explained that the scene reflected the prehistoric time because, he said, the carabao had no nose ring and did not pull a plow. The Spanish colonizers introduced the plow, he said.
He considers the Ang Tatsulok ng Bibig the most complete composition. He identified a crawling human figure holding in the right hand a crocodile; another human figure that seemed to be kneeling, head toward the mouth-like opening; two deer-like figures and another animal-like figure.
Salazar interpreted those to refer to an episode in the epic in which Handiong consulted the serpent. The mouth-like opening, he said, was actually a cave entrance, the protruded ?tongue? a serpent, and the kneeling figure, Handiong.
Source:
Dr. Zeus Salazar believes that the urn?s cover design also reflects the period when the inhabitants of the archipelago were starting to relate with their Indo-Malaysian neighbors.
A summa cum laude graduate of history from the University of the Philippines with a doctorate in ethnology from the University of Paris, Salazar interpreted the design figures to be characters and creatures of the Ibalon epic.
His study was published as a book titled; Liktao at Epiko, Ang Takip ng Tapayang Libingan ng Libmanan, Camarines Sur.?
The urn cover, with a 32-centimeter circumference, details enigmatic forms and figures around a pyramid-like center that convey lines from the ancient epic.
NO LIVING TRADITION
Salazar does not consider Handiong's story a real ethno-epic, or a living tradition intertwined with people?s beliefs and religious practices, like the Darangen of the Maranaw, Ulahingan of the Manobo, and Olaging from Bukidnon.
It narrates the mystical origins of the first man and woman of Aslon and Ibalon (now the provinces of Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Masbate), and the exploits of the warrior-leader Handiong, one of the heroes of Ibalon.
Handiong, as the epic goes, fought a giant cyclops for 10 months, defeated the winged Tiburon and the fierce Sarimao, and won over the seductive serpent Oriol before starting a village.
The place prospered. Soon, the inhabitants invented farm implements.
KING
According to curator Fabie Arejola, some historical buffs have speculated that the burial urn, unearthed in 1982 in Bigaho, Libmanan, might have contained the remains of Handiong himself.
In the epic, Handiong was the king of Libmanan who sent 1,000 warriors led by Bantong to kill the half-man, half-beast giant monster Rabot. Bantong slew Rabot while sleeping in a cave dwelling.
Handiong and his warriors came to Ibalon (Spanish colonizers once called Bicol the Tierra de Ybalon) to ?clear? the place and start planting, but the king was challenged by a serpent called Uryol or Oriol who later became a close ally in building the region?s civilization.
Arejola said the urn had yet to be carbon-dated to determine its age, but she said several experts had already examined and concluded its authenticity and prehistory, while others were skeptical.
Salazar traced the publisher of the ?fragmented? five-part Ibalon epic to Spanish friar Jose Castaño in the 1800s.
He ascertained that another friar, Bernardino Melendreras, wrote it in Spanish, using a European literary form in one part. But he finds the remaining parts ?more authentic.?
The anthropologist compared and correlated the designs and contents of the burial urn with those of similar artifacts found elsewhere in the Philippines to arrive at the period of 5000 BC to 10 AD when the burial urn cover was crafted.
Salazar traced its source from the villages of Poro or Bigaho in Libmanan, which the driver of artifact collector Dr. Ermelo Almeda said they frequented to buy artifacts in the 1980s. Almeda died in 1998 and left no catalogue of his large collection, ranging from fossilized dinosaur eggs and Stone Age instruments to Chinese porcelain wares.
Poro and Bigaho were mentioned by German-Russian ethnologist Fedor Jagor in 1851 archeological finds, such as human remains, deer horns, plates and pots, during a road construction, Salazar said.
DOUBTS
National Museum officials consulted on the burial urn cover, however, doubted the authenticity of the piece. It was bought from an artifacts digger and not discovered through scientific methods of archeology, they said.
Dr. Jesus J. Peralta, a retired anthropologist and archeologist of the National Museum, wrote that ?the burial urn with minaret-like cover with incised designs was bought from a vendor, so that it cannot be ascertained where it came from, which was more likely from Mindanao.?
But Salazar said the absence of a scientific archeological process could be satisfied with ?topologically comparing and correlating a piece with pieces discovered in situ.? He cited the museum?s burial urn with a conical cover which was excavated in Calatagan, Batangas, as one example of one authentic piece not obtained in situ.
The National Museum even declared the Calatagan urn a national treasure and the ?first artifact ? to contain evidence of ancient Philippine writing,? he said.
FINDING MEANING
Trying to interpret the figures and the tableau on the cover of the Libmanan urn, Salazar followed the three triangular divisions joined by a central pyramid-like figure. Each division contains figures that he believed were characters of the Ibalon epic or depictions of people?s life in pre-Hispanic Bicol.
Salazar named the groupings ?Ang Tatsulok ng Bungo (Triangle of the Skull),? ?Ang Tatsulok ng Araw (Triangle of the Sun),? and ?Ang Tatsulok ng Bibig (Triangle of the Mouth),? based on the differentiating figure in each of the three sides of the tower-like structure. He considered them episodes of the epic.
?Ang Tatsulok ng Bungo? has a miniature head-like figure that Salazar sees as a skull. He explained that it lacked features to represent a human head, like hair, discernible face, teeth, ears, while its discernible eyes were mere points.
A container before the skull with two elongated figures tries to depict a ritual offering to the ancestors practiced by pre-Hispanic Filipinos, he said.
REPRESENTATIONS
Ang Tatsulok ng Araw has carabao and sun representations, with at least 21 discernible rays drawn on one side of the central tower-like figure and four, points on the surface on the right side of the animal.
Salazar inventoried the figures as indicating what were lost. He explained that the scene reflected the prehistoric time because, he said, the carabao had no nose ring and did not pull a plow. The Spanish colonizers introduced the plow, he said.
He considers the Ang Tatsulok ng Bibig the most complete composition. He identified a crawling human figure holding in the right hand a crocodile; another human figure that seemed to be kneeling, head toward the mouth-like opening; two deer-like figures and another animal-like figure.
Salazar interpreted those to refer to an episode in the epic in which Handiong consulted the serpent. The mouth-like opening, he said, was actually a cave entrance, the protruded ?tongue? a serpent, and the kneeling figure, Handiong.
Source:
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