Exploring the Strange Skulls of Banton Island, Romblon

via Positively Filipino, May 2024: An account of a visit to the Guyangan Cave System in Romblon Province. Ancient skulls with bronze plates have been found on Banton Island, which suggest unique burial customs and advanced metalworking skills among the island’s early inhabitants.

Several coffins and skeletal remains have been excavated here since 1966. In 2013, the Guyangan Cave System was even designated as an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum. Despite these recognitions, the story behind these skulls still remains largely unknown. After all, these are not just regular skulls – many of them had been cranially modified to make the foreheads much higher than regular.

These specimens have been studied by Medrana (2005, as cited in Paz, 2009), identifying two kinds of cranial modifications: 1) fronto-verticooccipital — the frontal bone and occipital regions are flattened; 2) fronto-parietooccipital — the frontal, parietal, and occipital bones are flattened, resulting in the lateral enlargement of the skull.

Source: Into the Unknown: The Strange Skulls of Banton, Romblon — Positively Filipino | Online Magazine for Filipinos in the Diaspora