The bone that could change Filipino history

Another piece of the Callao Man find, a small foot bone found in the Philippines that suggests humans were in the Philippines – and hence must have had the capability to cross water – as early as 67,000 years ago.

Ancient bone find may change human history
AFP, via Jakarta Globe, 03 August 2010

Archaeologists have found a foot bone that could prove the Philippines was first settled by humans 67,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought, the National Museum said Tuesday.

The bone, found in an extensive cave network, predates the 47,000-year-old Tabon Man that is previously known as the first human to have lived in the country, said Taj Vitales, a researcher with the museum’s archaeology section.

“This would make it the oldest human remains ever found in the Philippines,” Vitales told AFP.

A team of archaeologists from the University of the Philippines and the National Museum dug up the third metatarsal bone of the foot in 2007 in the Callao caves near Penablanca, about 335 kilometres (210 miles) north of Manila.