Archaeological Background and Fieldwork Objectives

Pilanduk cave is an important Philippine site that contains a large and well-preserved faunal and lithic assemblage of Late Pleistocene antiquity. The site is particularly crucial to the thesis because it is the only site of reportedly Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) age in the whole archipelago that contains a sizeable faunal assemblage. Callao Cave in northern Luzon has a layer with a direct date that place it into the Last Glacial Period (ca. 26,000 BP), but the archaeological remains from this layer are minimal. On Palawan itself, Tabon Cave is the only other site with direct dates that place it well into the Pleistocene, but Fox’s excavations and more recent investigations have not yielded a big faunal assemblage. Ille Cave in northern Palawan, on the other hand, reveals cultural layers that date up to the Terminal Pleistocene only.

The first archaeological exploration of Pilanduk Cave was in 1962 under the auspices of the NMP. The first archaeological excavation was conducted in 1969-70 by a team led by Jonathan Kress. Kress (1980:60) reports that at the beginning of the excavation, the surface of the cave was partially covered by underbrush and that much of the centre had been disturbed by the activities of the tabon bird. Three radiocarbon dates taken from shell were reported by Kress (1980, 2000) that range from 25,000 to 18,000 uncal. BP (Table 4.4). Kress (2000) reports four Palaeolithic cultural layers from the excavations and corresponding ages for three of them. The deepest layer, Layer IV, was dated at 25,470 ±1000 BP. The youngest layers, Layers II and I, yielded dates at 18,340± 370 BP and 18,260 ±650 BP, respectively. During the time of Late Pleistocene occupation, the site would have been further inland because of the MIS-2 sea-level lowstand. GIS reconstructions place this at about 40 km distance from the coast (Robles et al. 2015). Kress (1980) reports that after the Late Pleistocene occupation, the site was rarely utilised until around 3000 years ago (or later) when it was used as a jar burial site.

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Table 4.4 Pilandok Cave cultural chronology from Kress (1977, 2000). Radiocarbon dates are uncalibrated and were taken from shell taxa with unreported taxonomic designations. Layer III is said to be more similar in composition to Layers I and II. Calibrated ages are shown in Table 4.3.

Layer Age/Dates* Dating sample number and

material

Jar burial layer Metal Period n/a

Layer I 18,260 ±650 BP I-5488 on shell

Layer II 18,340 ±370 BP I-5492 on shell

Layer III n/a n/a

Layer IV 25,470 ±1000 BP I-5490 on shell

The archaeological materials recovered in the excavation are described by Kress in three separate publications: the lithics and vertebrate fauna (Kress 1977), the ceramics (Kress 1980) and the mollusc assemblage (Kress 2000). Regarding the vertebrate fauna, there are no published faunal counts. Kress (1977) provides a very brief description, observing that bones of deer predominate in all four layers. Some wild pig, monkey, monitor lizard, porcupine and tortoise remains were also identified. The author interprets the abundance of deer as representing an economy with a relatively narrow subsistence base and specialised hunting.

Kress (1977:39) describes the lithic assemblage in Layer IV as a flake industry manufactured largely from flint. The flakes vary greatly in size and proportion and retouching was not observed. The lithic assemblage from Layers III, II and I is also a flake industry largely made from flint. Nonetheless, it differs from the Layer IV industry in that there is a much greater uniformity in flake morphology and extensive retouch is also apparent. Kress describes this industry as ‘specialized’, wherein knapping techniques appear more standardised and tools were manufactured with specific characteristics for specialised tasks (Kress 1977:42).

Kress (2000) also reports on the mollusc assemblage. Thirty-one species were identified in the assemblage, with 90% coming from freshwater and terrestrial taxa. This pattern is said to confirm the inland environment of the Palaeolithic levels of the sequence, which contrasts with the current coastal environment of the area. The author further notes that there is an increasing trend in abundance of total volume of molluscs. There is a 68% increase of material from the Layer III to Layer II and an 81% increase from Layer II to Layer I. Kress (2000:319) interprets this as evidence for the intensification of the use of the cave during this period.

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The ceramic assemblage from Pilanduk Cave derives from the uppermost levels attributed to the Late Neolithic/Metal Period jar burial phase. Kress (1980) reports that a total of 570 sherds were collected. These were categorised into two groups, ceremonial and utilitarian. The large burial jars are attributed to the ceremonial ceramics. The author also reports the presence of three shell ornaments associated with the ceramics: a Meretrix shell bead, an Arca shell pendant and a worked oyster fragment.

The radiocarbon dates from the Palaeolithic layers were taken on shell remains of unreported taxonomic designation. Due to the known limitations of radiocarbon dating technology during the 1970s, particularly as it was applied on shell, these dates are not well accepted in the literature. Stratigraphic details were also not published. The uncertainty in the dates and in the site records provide a tentative sequence for Pilanduk. Despite these limitations, the site has yielded an archaeological sequence that is important due to its attributed antiquity and the large volume of faunal and lithic material. In view of the existing archaeological data deriving from the work of Kress, the new work aimed to:

1. Provide a robust stratigraphic anchor to the existing faunal and lithic assemblage;

2. Recover archaeological remains from in situ deposits, especially in light of the constant threat of treasure-hunting in the area; and

3. Re-date the archaeological sequence of the cave.