My article about Pre-Colonial Gold in the Philippines came out in The Freeman and Philstar.com, Oct. 14, 2012
Pre-colonial gold in Cebu
By Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
(The Freeman) Updated October 14, 2012 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - In 2008, while construction of
the Cebu subway tunnel went on in the Plaza Independencia area, gold
jewelry started appearing in the antique collector's black
market. Pre-Hispanic gold jewelry was being offered to collectors; it
was a collector himself who blew the whistle and before long the Plaza
Independencia was secured from robbers and turned into an archeological
digging site. Enter Dr. Jobers Bersales from the University of San
Carlos Sociology and Anthropology, and Cebu's version of Indiana Jones.
Dr. Bersales supervised the diggings that unearthed Pre-Hispanic
ceramics and gold jewelry, including gold death coverings.
I was interested in the gold findings for two reasons. First, the
idea of having Pre-Hispanic people wearing these gold necklaces,
diadems, belts, arm and wristbands suggested a more sophisticated
culture than that promulgated by the Spanish who had arrived the
Philippines in 1521. Second, I had seen gold death masks in Lima, Peru
and in Egypt, and I wondered how ancient peoples, separated by a great
distance, ended up making similar items such as this.
I tried to see the Cebu gold findings, but since the diggings were
ongoing, could not. However I did have the chance to see the Ayala
Museum gold collection, a fabulous exhibit of over one thousand gold
items found in the Philippines, and yes, some of these came from Cebu.
The Ayala displayed numerous gold earrings, necklaces, sashes,
pectorals, diadems, finger rings, anklets, bowls, cups, death coverings
and masks, and a fabulous bird-woman figure.
Looking at all
these gold findings, I understood that Cebu's ancient people had a
social hierarchy, the wealthy wearing the extravagant pieces some of
which weighed a remarkable four kilos in gold. They had enough wealth so
that artisans could work on gold pieces to decorate their people and
homes. They had religious beliefs that called for them to treat their
dead with respect and love so much so that eyes, nose, mouths of the
dead were covered by gold pieces. In some cases, the death mask
consisted of one piece that looked like a small face, with etchings made
to look like eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth. This gold piece covered
the face of the dead. In other cases, pieces of gold were shaped and
decorated to look like eyes, nose and mouth pieces; and these too were
used to cover the face of the dead.
It wasn't until 2011 when I finally had the chance to see some of the
diggings from the Plaza Independencia in Cebu. By this time, the
findings had been catalogued by the National Museum of the Philippines,
and some were on display in the newly opened Museo Sugbo. There they
were, ceramic ware and some gold findings, including necklaces. The gold
findings were sparse compared to the Ayala Gold collection, but what
interested me most was encased in glass: it was a skull, found in the
Plaza Independencia, with the gold death facial pieces that had covered
it.
Talking about the actual digging of this skull, Jobers Bersales said,
he had a hunch when he told the men to dig in a particular spot. They
found what looked like candy wrapper, a bit of gold foil, which turned
out to be one of the gold death pieces. There apparently was a very
large plate covering the skull.
A year later, I visited the Boljoon Museum, a small sitio museum that
housed some findings from archeological diggings in front of the
Boljoon church. There were a few pieces of pottery and jewelry, but the
sparse display consisted mostly of pictures.
It was the Banco Central, where my friend Marily Orosa brought me,
which had an extensive collection of pre-Colonial pieces, breathtaking in fact
because of the quantity and artistry of the work. There were numerous
display cases of gold findings, the same type of artifacts displayed at
the Ayala gold collection (gold earrings, necklaces, sashes, pectorals,
diadems, finger rings, anklets, bowls, cups, death coverings and masks) -
but much more.
At some point I had asked historian Ambeth Ocampo why the Spaniards
had not treated the people in the Philippines in the same way they had
treated the people in Peru or Mexico - that is, the Spaniards had
systematically removed as much gold and silver as they could from these
places, destroying the social structure and cultures of both countries
in the process. Peruvian history relates that the Spaniards had captured
the Inca Emperor, Atahualpa, and had demanded a ransom in gold, the
amount of which had to fill a room said to be 17 feet wide by 22 feet
long, by 9 feet high. The Incas threw in silver that filled a smaller
room, and the weight of the ransom came up to 13,400 pounds of gold and
26,000 pounds of gold.
I believe Ambeth Ocampo's answer was that the Philippines did not have as much gold and silver as the New World did.
The gold in the Philippines did not originate just from the
Philippines, but from other places, as part of the trading that went on.
I also asked several academics if there was an explanation as to why
there is a close similarity between the death masks in Peru and the
Philippines. Their reply was that cultures will create similar things to
address the same problem. In other words, people from these ancient
cultures wanted to cover the faces of the dead for religious reasons,
and so they created masks or facial coverings made of gold, or wood, or
bone.
The archeological diggings continue in Cebu, thanks in large part to
Jobers Bersales. Historians will no doubt uncover more information about
the ancient people of Cebu, and with this a better understanding of
their culture and society.
(FREEMAN)
Read also
Life in Parian Now
Cebu's 1730 Jesuit House
The Secret Hall of Angels
A Story of Hope
Finding Jose Rizal in Cebu
Lola Remedios and her Sayas
Lunch with F. Sionil Jose
Pre-Colonial Gold in Cebu
~~
tags: Cebu, Philippines, Sugbo, history, gold, pre-colonial
A few days ago, Mexican Mayor Dr. Maria Santos Gorrostieta became still another victim of the Mexican drug cartel. She had survived two assassination attempts, but the third attack left her beaten, burned, tortured and dumped by a roadside. She had been driving her child to school at 8:30 in the morning when she was ambushed in the city of Morelia. In front of witnesses, she was physically assaulted; she had begged for her child to be spared; they took her away, leaving the child wailing. This happened on November 12, 2012.
There are many other instances of violence against women who have stood up to what they believe is right, including the young Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafrai, who was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban, simply because Malala spoke up for women's education. She survived and is recovering in London with her parents.
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