• My last post of the year on the main website is a bumper issue on the highlights from this past year in Southeast Asian Archaeology. Link in the bio or here:https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2020/12/29/southeast-asian-archaeology-2020-year-in-review/
#southeastasianarchaeology #yearinreview
  • Non-archaeology post, BLACK FRIDAY SALE: A couple of special deals for @adobe products and @expressvpn until 28 November. These are software that I actually use in my day-to-day work, so they might be useful to you too. 24% off for Adobe Creative Cloud (more if you’re a student or teacher!) and 3 months free for a 12-month subscription to Express VPN. Link below and in bio:
https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/blackfriday2020/
  • 1) Bangles from Burial 49, Ban Chiang early-middle period. 2) Bent spear tip from Burial 76. 3) The latest volumes from White and Hamilton on the archaeology of Ban Chiang, a significant Unesco World Heritage Site in Thailand. I’m looking for reviewers for the SPAFA Journal @seameospafa (ideally a Thai and/or a professional archaeologist) if you’re interested, send me a PM. #banchiang #thailand #bronzeage #udonthani #book #upenn #booksforeview #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #prehistory #neolithic #thaihistory #บ้านเชียง #unescoworldheritage
  • Entry to Wat Chedi Luang is not much, 40 baht for adults or $US1.30 - but when we entered there was nobody at the booth and the groundskeeper told us to go right in - the lack of tourists meant the inability to pay for ticketing staff. Heritage sites dependent on tourism are taking a beating, like the rest of the industry. We left a small donation to the temple, and at every temple we visited, to help for its upkeep. #covid19 #heritagetourism #archaeotourism #chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins
  • Check out my story for the Night at the Museum event at the Bangkok National Museum - in conjunction with Thai Museums Day on September 19. The museum hosted a tea party with musical and dance performances, followed by guided tours at the galleries. It was a good opportunity to catch the new exhibition ‘San Somdet’ - an exploration of Thai history, archaeology and culture through the correspondence of two princes. #bangkok #thailand #nationalmuseum #nationalmuseumbangkok #nightatthemuseum #sansomdet #thaimuseumday #thaihistory #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
  • In Chiangmai yesterday and today and most of my trip was concentrated in the old city of Chiangmai. Wat Chedi Luang, located close to the centre of the city, is easily the largest stupa in the area despite it incomplete state. Built at the end of the 14th century and damaged by earthquake in the 15th century, the chedi once housed the Emerald Buddha that had previously resided in Luang Prabang and is now in Bangkok. H/T to @pathsunwritten for his guides to Chiangmai. The history and archaeology of northern Thailand is unfamiliar to me, what else should I visit, during my next trip to Chiangmai?
#chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins #emeraldbuddha
  • Chedi Chiang Lom, the oldest building in Wat Chiang Man วัดเชียงมั่น, itself the oldest temple in the old city of Chiangmai. The temple was built in 1297, while King Mengrai was building his new city of Chiangmai. The Chedi is similar to Wat Chang Lom in Sukhothai. #วัดเชียงมั่น #chiangmai #chedi #stupa #elephant #thailand #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #lanna #buddhism #oldcity #ancientarchitecture
  • The Big Bad Wolf book sale might sound familiar if you live in Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia and Thailand), and this year due to the pandemic they
  • Gold leaf relic from the 11-12th century, found inside one of the Khmer temples in Northeast Thailand (I
  • Wat Phra Si Sanphet was one of the most significant temples of Ayutthaya, being located in the grounds of the royal palace. The three chedis here house the remains of three 15th-century kings, Trailok, Ramathibodi II and Borommarachathirat III. The Ayutthaya Historical Park is now reopen to the public, with safe distancing measures in place! #watphrasisanphet #วัดพระศรีสรรเพชญ์ #ayutthaya #royalpalace #ayutthayahistoricalpark #thailand #ruins #chedi #unescoworldheritage #tourismthailand #travelthailand #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
Thursday, January 21, 2021
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Home » Philippines » The Huluga controversy continues

The Huluga controversy continues

Tags: Archaeological Studies Program (University of the Philippines)ceramicsHeritage Conservation Advocates (Philippines)Huluga (site)Kapisanan ng mga Arkeologist sa Pilipinas (KAPI)miningMisamis Oriental (province)National Museum of the Philippinesshells
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21 August 2007 (MindaNews) – Elson T. Elizaga of the Heritage Conservation Advocates writes his account of the events surrounding the destruction of the Huluga Open Site in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, and HCA’s bone (pun intended) with the National Museum of the Philippines.

Trash
Elson T. Elizaga

One important lesson I got from a news reporting class in Silliman University came from Dr. Crispin Maslog. He said that if you want to study a man, you take the contents of his wastebasket.

This advice is popular in other sciences, such as forensics, zoology, and archaeology. Put “midden important in archaeology” in google.com and you’ll find numerous references. Even if you insert “not” in the phrase, the result will be the same. One website is socialstudiesforkids.com. It says, “It might sound a little silly, but archaeologists can find out a lot about people by looking through their trash.” In 2006, trash middens in Alaska have changed a popular belief about Inupiat Eskimos.

Trash is encyclopedia.

On August 5, 2003, an archaeologist couldn’t contain her excitement when she found shells, animal bones, and earthenware sherds at the bottom of Obsidian Hill in Huluga. “Oh, we’ve found a midden, a kitchen midden!” Dr. Erlinda Burton exclaimed. Her companions were the wife and daughter of Atty. Maning Ravanera and myself.


A midden is “a mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement.” It’s garbage, in layman’s terms.

From the opposite side of the hill came archaeologists Leee Anthony Neri and Clyde Jagoon. They were examining the damage on the Huluga Open Site because of the road project of former mayor Vicente Y. Emano. Neri saw me holding a piece of bone and quickly but quietly extended a plastic bag in front of me. I was surprised. I hesitated, but since he was from the National Museum, I gave the piece to him. It looked like deer antler.

That was a beautiful day.

Two things Burton did immediately: She wrote to the National Museum, asking for a permit to dig at the midden site. She explained that her archaeology students would help. So, the project would be at NO COST to the government.

Then she requested the lot owner Wilson Cabaluna to protect the same area.

Strangely, however, the National Museum didn’t reply for weeks, despite government service rule that letters should be responded in 15 days. (A letter would reach Burton three months later.) And Cabaluna refused to cooperate, digging a pit in the midden instead. Alarmed, I sent pictures of the midden and found fossils to National Museum lawyer Trixie Angeles. No response.

In October 2003, Burton presented Huluga at the 4th annual conference of the Kapisanan ng mga Arkeologists ng Pilipinas (KAPI). She showed pictures of the midden and found contents. No big deal. No questions asked. Burton also suggested that the centralized National Museum should assign deputies in the provinces, but director Cora Alvina said the National Museum wasn’t mandated to do this. (Ma’am, a law can revise it.)

In November 2003, Burton proceeded with her planned excavation without a National Museum permit. She and her students, however, dug only in the lot of Danilo Bacarro, after getting his approval. Meanwhile, to Burton’s dismay, Cabaluna continued digging nearby and she had no authority to stop him. Burton’s team found only earthenware sherds in Bacarro’s lot.

Fast forward.

Enter the Archaeological Studies Program (ASP) in November 2004, hired by Emano to determine, among other objectives, if Huluga was a settlement site. They dug on top of the heavily eroded Obsidian Hill.

Two weeks later, they held a press conference, where they announced that the Huluga Open Site — which includes the hill — is a temporary campsite, not a site where people had continuously lived for a long time. They didn’t mention the midden. (The midden would be identified later in the ASP report as simply one of two “Treasure Hunter Pits”.)

Months later, ASP published a report of the excavations. The report states NO midden in Huluga. ASP also ignored the fossils and artifacts found by the Heritage Conservation Advocates in 2003 — such as the whale harpoon, which has counterparts in Siquijor, Bohol, Cebu and Lomblen Island of Indonesia. Lomblen is 2000 KILOMETERS south of Huluga. The Huluga whale harpoon has a National Museum accession number.

ASP also didn’t discuss the Copper 8 Maravedis coin. The coin is minted between 1788 and 1808, more than a century after Spanish missionaries landed in Cagayan de Oro in 1622. Although found only in the surface, three children told me several other coins were retrieved from the same site.

Somebody must have been happy about these critical omissions of ASP. He must have been pleased also that ASP did not consult Burton nor made her part of the team — which is dumb, because snubbing a resident archaeologist invites suspicion that visiting archaeologist have a purpose other than science.

What happened to our esteemed scientists from the University of the Philippines?

I don’t know, but these are the facts. Neri was leader of the ASP team. Her mother worked in the City Hall under Emano. In 2003, he told me that a two-week excavation in Huluga would cost P80,000. Emano gave his ASP group P700,000 for the same duration. Cabaluna is a City Tourism Office employee.

In August 2007, a reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer found two pits in the midden, each about 20 feet deep. Her article elicited criticism from ASP because she quoted me as describing the ASP report “a mock report”.

Actually, my original phrase was worse: “not scientific”.

Today, ASP maintains that the Huluga Open Site is a campsite — even though it’s still an archaeological site anyway. And they still score Burton for excavating “without a permit”. Meanwhile, without help from the National Museum, the midden in Cabaluna’s lot has turned into a black hole.

Such finesse truly impresses. In contrast, Emano’s destruction was quite crude.

Leee, you’re in the government. Why don’t you stop whining and call for a Senate investigation? Call everyone involved — including Burton, her students, and myself. Don’t worry. We can handle that.

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