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| Feb. 26, 2011 photo released by the Philippine National Museum. Filipino archeologists gather items around a limestone coffin at Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, eastern Philippines. Archeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on the jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Philippine National Museum, Joe Santiago) |
From AP The Big Story Sept. 20, 2012 by Jim Gomez
"Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a
1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with
limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation,
officials said Thursday.
"National Museum official Eusebio Dizon said the village on Mount
Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, could be at least 1,000 years
old based on U.S. carbon dating tests done on a human tooth found in one of 15
limestone graves he and other archaeologists have dug out since last year…
"The
archaeological site is part of 280 hectares (692 acres) of forest land that was
declared a government-protected area in 1998 to keep away treasure hunters and
slash-and-burn farmers. Treasure hunters looking for gold exposed some of the
limestone tombs years ago, but it was only last year that Manila-based
archaeologists started to unearth the graves and artifacts and realize the
significance of the find.
"Treasure hunting has
damaged many archaeological sites in the country. In the early 1990s, Filipino
archaeologists led by Dizon discovered that 2,000-year-old burial jars with
unique human face designs had been destroyed by treasure hunters in a cave in
Maitum town in southern Sarangani province.
"Archaeologists worked
for a few years to glue the sack loads of clay shards piece by piece and
restored more than 150 ancient burial jars to shape. Some of the Maitum jars
are displayed at the National Museum in Manila with a plan to exhibit them in France
next year, Dizon said.”
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| Mulanay is a neighboring town of island-Marinduque. |
New treasure-hunting activities in Marinduque
Meanwhile, new
reports of treasure hunting activities in Marinduque have resurfaced with
diggers active again in another site believed to be hiding buried treasures. They
reportedly come equipped with hand-held jackhammers to drill holes at the site.
As in an earlier case concerning the digging of a suspected treasure site in
Gasan that raised official concerns from the town’s local officials, the same group
of people is apparently engaged once again in such digging in the new suspected
treasure site with the knowledge of certain high-ranking local government officials.
