Preliminary data for technologies and exchanges of copper-based objects during the Philippines’ Metal Period
Mélissa Cadet, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei
Kuan-Wen Wang, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei
Mary Jane Louise A. Bolunia, Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila
Camille Ann Valencia, Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila
During the Metal Periods of Southeast Asia, copper was among one of the far-voyaging mediums involved in complex and long-range exchanges systems along with other types of goods (ceramics, hard stone ornaments, glass etc.). Metallurgical research in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) has for the moment remained little studied, including the Philippines and Taiwan which are the focus of the current project. Copper/bronze metallurgy most probably dispersed through the South China Sea via contacts/exchanges with Mainland Southeast Asia, but we still have limited knowledge of how, when and why this occurred. In what forms did copper and its alloys arrive on the islands? What was exchanged in return? Also, Island Southeast Asia is a vast area with a wide variety of cultures and environments. Certainly, the ways in which metallurgy arrived, the means and the periods differed from one area to another. A postdoctoral project leads by the lead-author at the Academia Sinica in Taipei focus on copper metallurgy in Taiwan during the Metal Age and its potential relations to the Philippines by the application of an archaeometric approach involving compositional (SEM-EDS), microstructural (Optical Microscopy) and a study of the exchange networks (Lead isotope analysis).
The comparison between Taiwan and the Philippines
seems appropriate because contacts between these two areas have been known and
studied since the mid-20th century. These exchanges were in place from the Neolithic period
and may certainly involve the circulation of populations, raw materials and objects,
witnessed particularly by the presence of Taiwanese nephrite, similar styles of reddish
pottery and glass beads between Taiwan and northern Philippines. However, these
interactions are seldom attested through detailed material analysis on artefacts, apart from
nephrite objects which have been the focus of several studies. Supported by the SAS
research support award, a collaboration with the National Museum of the Philippines in
Manilla has been established to observed archaeological objects for comparison and
obtained scientific samples. Because copper alloyed objects were not systematically studied
before in the Philippines, our work consisted first in recording objects that might be of
interest for comparison with the Taiwanese artefacts. A total of 14 artefacts with different
typologies (mostly bangles and wires, gong, vessels, and some fragments) have been chosen
to be sampled for scientific analysis. The artefacts come from four locations in central
Philippines: Kay Thomas in Batangas, Mobo in Masbate, Butuan and Lubang island. Most of
the artefacts comes from old surveys and excavations, also donations, the context
information is for consequently poor due also to reorganization of the museum's collections.
Despite the lack of contextual information and the need to deal with the reality of the
collections, the scientific analysis can still give us some data on the objects studied, revealing
a majority of brass alloys among the corpus, which mean that they pertain to the late Metal
Age period or even the historical Period in the Philippines. Bronze, leaded bronze, high-tin bronze, unalloyed copper and one matte fragment had also been identified. Matte is
interesting because it represents an intermediate product of the copper production process,
usually re-used to obtained raw copper. The ongoing lead isotope analysis will permit a
comparison with the Taiwanese objects to discuss the potential exchange networks. The
corpus should also be extended next year with artefacts from northern Philippines, at
Nagsabaran and from Palawan Island.
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