This article covers the history of the Philippines before the first arrivial of Europeans in 1521. This article is about the continent. ...

Stone-Age humans arrive 30000 BC

Human fossil records indicate that the Philippines may have been inhabited for thousands of years. According to recent archaeological findings, the first man in the Philippines came around islands with Asia which Professor H. Otley Beyer, eminent American authority on Philippine archaeology and anthropology, dubbed the "Dawn Man". Yet the oldest human fossil found in the Philippines thus far is the 22,000-year-old skull cap of a "Stone-Age Filipino" discovered by Dr. Robert B. Fox, American anthropologist of the National Museum, inside Tabon Cave, Palawan, on May 28, 1962 and dubbed the "Tabon Man". A fossil Ammonite Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally having been dug up) are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. ... Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the Southern Tagalog region. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... The Tabon cave in Palawan was a burial site of homo sapiens. ...

The Tabon caves of Palawan indicate settlement for at least 30,500 years; these hunter-gatherers used stone flake tools. (In Mindanao, the existence and importance of these prehistoric tools was noted by famed José Rizal himself, because of his acquaintance with Spanish and German scientific archaeologists in the 1880s, while in Europe.) Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the Southern Tagalog region. ... In archaeology, a lithic flake is a thin, sharp fragment of stone that results from the process of lithic reduction. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines and one of the three island groups in the country, with Luzon and Visayas being the other two. ... Dr. José Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo Realonda (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), variously called the Pride of the Malay Race, The Great Malayan, The First Filipino, The Messiah of the Revolution, The Universal Hero and The Messiah of the Redemption. ...

The custom of Jar Burial, which ranges from Sri Lanka, to the Plain of Jars, in Laos, to Japan, also was practiced in the Tabon caves of Palawan. A spectacular example of a secondary burial jar is owned by the National Museum of the Philippines, a National Treasure, with a jar lid topped with two figures, one the deceased, arms crossed, hands touching the shoulders, the other a steersman, both seated in a prao, with only the mast missing from the piece. Secondary burial was practiced across all the islands of the Philippines during this period, with the bones reburied, some in the burial jars. Seventy-eight earthenware vessels were recovered from the Manunggul cave, Palawan, specifically for burial. Plain of Jars: Site 1 The Plain of Jars is a large group of historic cultural sites in Laos containing thousands of stone jars, which lie scattered throughout the Xieng Khouang plain in the Laotian Highlands at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. ... Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the Southern Tagalog region. ... Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the Southern Tagalog region. ...

Southeast Asia, as seen on the display globe at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois

About 30,000 years ago, the Negritos, who became the ancestors of today's Aetas, or Aboriginal Filipinos, descended from their northernly abodes in Central Asia passing through the Indian Subcontinent and reaching the Andamanese Islands. From thereon, the Negritos continued to venture on land bridges reaching Southeast Asia. While some of the Negritos settled in Malaysia, becoming what is now the Orang Asli people, several Negrito tribes continued on to the Philippines through Borneo. They had a Paleolithic culture, and have no community life, government and laws, arts, science and technology, and writing and literature. They live a nomadic lifestyle, roaming the forests and living in crude dwellings consisting of leaves and sticks. But they were skillfully adept in using the bow and arrow as a primary defense weapon. They also gathered wild plants for consumption. Landforms of Southeast Asia. ... Location of Southeast Asia // Prehistory Early Agricultural Societies Agriculture was a natural development based on necessity. ... Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago The Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as Museum Campus Chicago. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... The Aeta are an indigenous people who live in the northern part of the Philippines on the island of Luzon. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Orang Asli is a general term used for any indigenous groups that are found in Peninsular Malaysia. ... The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (Greek παλαιός paleos=old and λίθος lithos=stone or the Old Stone Age) was the first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. ...

Nesiots arrive 3000 BC

After the last Ice Age, the sea level rose an estimated 35m (110 feet), which cut the land bridges, filling the shallow seas north of Borneo. Thus the only method of migration left was the dugout prao, built by felling trees and hollowing them out with adzes. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... Borneo (left) and Sulawesi. ... Adze The tool known as the adze [pronounced adds] serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. ...

About 3000 BC, a loose confederation of peoples known as 'Nesiots', from what today is Indonesia, came to the Philippines. They were to become the ancestors of the present-day Luzon and Mindanao hill tribes. There were two waves of successive Nesiot immigration. The first wave saw a people who have light complexions, aquiline noses, thin lips, and deep-set eyes. The second wave of migration were shorter and heavier in physique, having darker complexion, thick lips, large noses, and heavy jaws. Those of the second wave of migration had epics and folk stories mixed with superstitions. From these people came the Luzon hill tribes.

Austronesian-speakers arrive 2000-4000 BC

Starting 2000-4000 BC [1], Austronesian groups descended from Yunnan Plateau in China and settled in what is now the Philippines by sailing using balangays or by traversing land bridges coming from Taiwan. Most of these Austronesians primarily used the Philippines as a stepping stone to the outlying Pacific islands or to the Indonesian archipelago further south. Those who were left became the ancestors of the present-day Filipinos. The Cagayan valley of northern Luzon contains large stone tools as evidence for the hominid hunters of the big game of the time: the elephant-like stegodon, rhinoceros, crocodile, tortoise, pig and deer. The Austronesians pushed the Negritos to the mountains, while they occupied the fertile coastal plains. The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Land bridge is essentially a historical term; it refers to dry land exposed during periods of low sea level (see regression), connecting what are now separate continents or islands. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. ... Ancient stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. ... Genera and Species Elephantidae (the elephants) is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea. ... Stegodon is a genus of the extinct subfamily Stegodontinae of the order Proboscidea. ... Genera Ceratotherium Dicerorhinus Diceros Rhinoceros Coelodonta (extinct)Elasmotherium (extinct) The rhinoceros (commonly called rhino for short) is any of five surviving species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. ... Genera Mecistops Crocodylus Osteolaemus See full taxonomy. ... Genera Chersina Dipsochelys Furculachelys Geochelone Gopherus Homopus Indotestudo Kinixys Malacochersus Manouria Psammobates Pyxis Testudo A tortoise is a land-dwelling reptile of the order Testudines. ... Species Sus barbatus Sus bucculentus Sus cebifrons Sus celebensis Sus domesticus Sus heureni Sus philippensis Sus salvanius Sus scrofa Sus timoriensis Sus verrucosus Pigs are ungulates native to Eurasia collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae family. ... Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ...

One museum artifact, a ceremonial jade adze, almost 7 cm. long, of extremely fine workmanship, for such a fundamental tool, may indicate source for some of the wealth from the Philippines, since, in general, it is not known just what was traded by the sea-faring traders, except perhaps, porcelain, jade and gold.

The fragmented Philippine tribes built numerous city-states or barangays, in which a datu was the ruler. In the southern Islamic areas, sultanates were founded by Malayan and Arab princes and missionaries. Since at least the 3rd century, the indigenous peoples were in contact with other East Asian nations. They were, to varying extents, under the Sri Vijaya and Majapahit empires, Brunei, and other kingdoms of Borneo. Starting the 13th century, the independent city-states or barangays of the Philippines became vassals of the Ming Dynasty of China. A thalassocracy, or rule from the beaches prevailed. Srivijaya (-jaya meaning success or excellence) was an ancient kingdom on the island of Sumatra which was to influence much of the Malay Archipelago. ... The Majapahit Empire was based in eastern Java and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali from about 1293 to around 1500. ... The Míng Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: Míng Cháo) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. ... The term thalassocracy (from the Greek Θαλασσο-κρατία) refers to a state with primarily maritime realms—an empire at sea, such as the Phoenician network of merchant cities. ...

A Tagalog couple of the Maharlika nobility caste depicted in the Boxer Codex of the 16th Century. By the 9th century, a highly developed society had already established several castes with set professions, as well as trading links with China, India, Arabia and Japan.

In the earliest times, the items which were prized by the peoples included jars, which were a symbol of wealth throughout South Asia, and later metal, salt and tobacco. In exchange, the peoples would trade feathers, rhino horn, hornbill beaks, beeswax, birds nests, resin, rattan.² Image File history File links Boxer_codex. ... Image File history File links Boxer_codex. ...

By 5,000 BC, an especially potent and versatile culture combining fishing and gardening had developed on the south coast of China. As well as growing their food on land, these maritime gardeners were accomplished at fishing the waters in the Straits of Taiwan from boats with hooks and nets. Between 4,000 and 3,000 BC, these fishermen-farmers crossed the 150 km of the Straits and settled on Taiwan.

It is important to note that the fishermen-farmers who crossed the straits to Taiwan were not the Sino-Tibetan speaking Han Chinese who today make up the great majority of the Chinese population. Linguistic evidence from Taiwan suggests that they spoke an Austronesian language closely related to the Tai-Kadai language family that is the dominant language group today in Laos, Thailand and the north and east of Burma.

On Taiwan, the Austronesian speaking fishermen-farmers honed their sea-faring skills. They soon embarked on one of the most astonishing and extensive colonizations in human history known as the Austronesian expansion. By about 2,500 BC, one group, and just one group of Austronesian speakers from Taiwan had ventured to northern Luzon in the Philippines and settled there. The archaeological record from the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon shows that they brought with them the same set of stone tools and pottery they had in Taiwan. The descendants of this group spread their language and culture through the Indo-Malayan archipelago as far west as Madagascar off the east coast of Africa and as far east as Hawaii and Easter Island in the central Pacific Ocean.

For the most part, the Austronesians encountered unoccupied coasts and islands. Where they met hunting and gathering cultures, their horticultural productivity and population growth soon overwhelmed the aboriginal occupants. All the surviving Aeta populations in the Philippines speak Austronesian languages. Where they met established agrarian cultures, such as along the coasts of Vietnam (Champa) and Indo-China, their incursions were limited.

The speed of the Austronesian expansion was also a consequence of their maritime culture. Under the pressure of an expanding population, adventurous colonizers would prefer to settle new lands on coasts and islands before pressing inland and away from the sea. Furthermore, the Austronesian kinship system gave higher status, prestige and authority to the lineages most closely related to the society's founder. Austronesian culture put a premium on founding new colonies that gave an additional incentive to continued expansion. As it was, there were many new coasts and islands available for occupation and settlement.

Over the next thousand years to 1,500 BC, the Austronesians spread south through the Philippines to the Celebes, the Moluccas, northern Borneo and eastern Java. One branch went east from the Moluccan Island of Halmahera about 1,600 BC to colonize eastern Melanesia (1,200 BC) and Micronesia (500 BC). The migration had continued well into Polynesia by 0 AD and on to Hawaii and Easter Island by 500 AD. The Austronesians finally reached the last uninhabited land on earth, New Zealand, sometime around 1,300 AD.

Other Austronesians continued west through Borneo and Java to Sumatra and settled the coasts of the Malay peninsula and southern Vietnam by 500 BC. From Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, they learned to master the semi-annual winds of the Indian Ocean monsoons. Around 100 AD, they crossed the Bay of Bengal and made contacts with Sri Lanka and southern India. The western branch of the Austronesian expansion reached its furthest extent by 500 AD plying the monsoons to colonize Madagascar.

From Taiwan to New Zealand and Madagascar to Easter Island, the Austronesian language family is made up of more than a thousand languages and dialects. (Estimates vary from 900-1200 according to how dialects are distinguished from languages.) Measured by geographical extent, number of languages or number of speakers it is one of the world's largest language groups. In the Philippines there are some 87 Austronesian languages. The five largest, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon and Bicolano account for three-quarters of the population.

900 AD and onwards

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is from 900 AD which is Saka Era year 822. It was found in the Laguna de Bay of Manila. In 1989, the Philippines National Museum acquired it. The inscription forgives the descendants of Namwaran from a debt of 926.4 grams of gold, and is granted by the chief of Tondo (an area in Manila) and the authorities of Paila, Binwangan and Pulilan, which are all locations in Luzon. The words are a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Malay, Old Javanese and Old Tagalog. The subject matter proves the highly developed society that existed in the Philippines prior to the Spanish colonization, as well as refuting earlier claims of the Philippines being a cultural isolate in Asia; the references to the Chief of Medang in Indonesia claim the cultural and trade links with various other affiliated empires and territories in other parts of the Malay Archipelago. (See Nusantara) The Laguna Copperplate inscription, found 1989 in Laguna de Bay, in the metroplex of Manila, Philippines, has inscribed on it a date of Saka era 822, corresponding to April 21st, 900CE according to Vedic astronomy, containing words from Sanskrit, old Javanese, old Malay and old Tagalog, releasing its bearer, Namwaran... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 0s BC - 0s - 10s - 20s - 30s - 40s - 50s - 60s - 70s - 80s - 90s - 100s Years: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 Events Romans conquer the Ordovices, located in present-day northern Wales, as well as the Silures. ... Laguna de Bay is the largest lake in the Philippines and the largest inland freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. ... Manila (Filipino: Maynila) is the capital of the Philippines. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... A tondo is also a circular painting or relief carving. ... Pulilan is a 1st class municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. ... Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम् ; pronunciation: ) is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ... The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay peninsula, southern Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo. ... Old age consists of ages nearing the average lifespan of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle. ... The Javanese language is the spoken language of the people in the central and eastern part of the island of Java, in Indonesia. ... Tagalog (pronunciation: ) is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ... The Malay Archipelago refers to the vast group of islands located between mainland Southeast Asia (Indochina) and Australia. ...

One example of pre-Spanish Philippine script on a burial jar, derived from Brahmi survives, as most of the writing was done on perishable bamboo or leaves; an earthenware burial jar dated 1200s or 1300s with script was found in Batangas. This script is called in Tagalog Baybayin or Alibata. Brāhmī refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... Calatagan is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. ... Tagalog (pronunciation: ) is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ... Baybayin (sometimes called Alibata) is a pre-Hispanic Tagalog writing system that originated from the Javanese script Kavi. ...

Islamic connection

Around 1405, the year that the war over succession ended in the Majapahit Empire, Sufi traders introduced Islam into the Hindu-Malayan empires and for about the next century the southern half of Luzon and the islands south of it were subject to the various Muslim sultanates of Borneo. During this period, the Japanese established a trading post at Aparri and maintained a loose sway over northern Luzon. The Majapahit Empire was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ... For other uses, including people named Islam, see Islam (disambiguation). ... Hinduism in Southeast Asia influenced the Champa kingdom in Vietnam, the Srivijayan kingdom on Sumatra, the Singhasari kingdom and the Majapahit Empire based in Java, Bali, and a number of the islands of the Philippine archipelago. ... Aparri is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Cagayan, Philippines. ...

In 1380, Makhdum Karim, the first Islamic missionary to the Philippines brought Islam to the Archipelago. Subsequent visits of Muslim Malay missionaries helped strengthen the Islamic faith of the Filipinos, most of whom (except for those in the south) would later become Christian with the Spanish colonization. The Sultanate of Sulu, the largest Islamic Kingdom of South East Asia and the Malay Archipelago, encompassed parts of Malaysia and the Philippines. The royal house of the Sultanate claim descent from the prophet Mohammed. Makhdum Karim (14th century) was an Arab trader known for having brought Islam to the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines, in the year 1380. ... For the province, see Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu was a muslim state that ruled over much of the islands of the Sulu Sea. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Malay Archipelago refers to the vast group of islands located between mainland Southeast Asia (Indochina) and Australia. ... For other people named Muhammad, see Muhammad (disambiguation). ...