Invitation: The Palawan Island Road Transect Project

The Wilhelm Solheim II Foundation for Philippine Archaeology is seeking crew members and funds (approximately USD$7,000) for the Palawan Island Road Transect Project 2011. I’ve included excerpts from the project description document in this post, and the full document can be downloaded at the end, along with the itinerary. Those interested to serve as field crew or to help fund the project should contact Mr Danny Galang at db.galang [at] yahoo.com

photo credit: badchick804

The Palawan Island Road Transect 2011
Project Description
Itinerary (9-22 April 2011)

The Palawan Road Transect 2011 is a fund raiser for the benefit of The Wilhelm Solheim II Foundation for Philippine Archaeology in support of its advocacy to further the practice and study of archaeology. The Transect will need at least PhP312, 000.00 to cover the cost of the project. The medium and long term community impact of the project may be gleaned from the emergent heritage consciousness of the people in the surrounding communities of Dewil Valley in particular and the enrichment of archaeological knowledge of Philippine Archaeology in general.

The Island of Palawan in western Philippines is physically the longest island province, in fact the longest province, in all of the Philippines. It lies on a general north-south axis with a westerly drift going south. The northern parts of Palawan are geologically older than any part of the country having once been a part of Sundaland. This fact gave the island province pre-imminent role in shedding light on Philippine prehistory like the Tabon Caves in Quezon has shown and the continuing archaeological excavations in El Nido enriches even more. It also made the province unrivalled in biodiversity from deep antiquity to the present.

More contemporary resource exploitation practices have had serious consequences to the Palawan ecosystem that placed many of its flora and fauna under threat of extinction and its natural physical features in continuing degradation. More recent years, however, have been replete with commendable efforts by citizens, official and private sector alike to arrest and reverse the process.

It is in the light of the foregoing that The Palawan Island Road Transect 2011 would be carried out.

Concept:
As its primary route this transect shall span the whole south-to-north main road system that serves the whole island province from Brookes Point in the south to Sibsaltan, El Nido to the north. Selected left and right laterals from this trunk road shall be included in so far as they inform the objectives of the project or shed light on some points related to geology, indigenous people, environment, etc. It shall be staged in time for the archaeology field season between April and May.

The road transect means to acquaint participants and the larger public that would be reached by communications media of the rich diversity that underlie Palawan’s uniqueness among Philippine provinces – its tapestry of peoples and their material culture, the twenty-first century community-based environmental conservation and restoration effort, the visual feast that characterize its geology and landscape, and most especially Palawan’s rich prehistory as has already been gleaned from the Tabon Caves and continues to be immeasurably enriched by the Northern Palawan Palaeo-Prehistoric Archaeological Project. In a fitting start and finish it shall officially commence from the Field Station of the National Museum in Quezon and terminate on the Ille Cave Platform and Base Camp in the Dewil River Valley in New Ibahay, El Nido.

To be able to realistically give the foregoing a fair chance to succeed it shall involve professionals and students with background in archaeology, anthropology, history and photography. A book writing project is contemplated to leave behind a more lasting account and photographic documentation of the project.

Download the full project description
Download the itinerary (9-22 April)
Contact: db.galang [at] yahoo.com