ANCIENT CULTURES OF PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO: KEY TOPICS AND SUBJECT MATTERS
Archaeological materials from the Philippine archipelago in spite of their uniqueness, though unique, highly informative and unusual, have been for a long time out of interests of Russian archaeologists. Up to date Russian specialists have not studied Philippine topics, archaeological materials have been unknown, and publications in Russian on the ancient Philippine cultures are absent. Intensification of scientific-educational contacts among countries of the Asia-Pacific region along with mutual aspiration to the cooperation create favorable conditions for systematic studies of ancient cultures of the Philippines and joint archaeological projects. The article objective is an overview of key topics and subject matters of the archipelago archaeological exploration, and debatable issues of archaeological chronology and periodization. Pilot archaeological studies on the archipelago are connected with names of American scholars C. Guthe (1893-1974), H. Beyer (1883-1966), R. Fox (1918-1985), W. Solheim II (1924-2014), and Filipino A. Evangelista. The degree of the Philippines archaeological research is extremely uneven. Traditionally the main research objects are compact territories on the largest islands Luzon, Palawan, Negros, and Mindanao, while vast areas of small islands remain a “blank spot”. Nowadays archaeological periodization of the Philippines looks like that: - 67 - 11,000 BP - Paleolithic; - 11 - 4,000 BP - “Preceramic period” or “Early Holocene period”; - 4 - 2,000 BP - Neolithic; - 0 - 900/1,000 AD - “Metal period”; - 1,000 - 1,500 AD - “Tradeware ceramics period” The tradition of secondary “Jar burials” (“Urn burials”) in ceramic vessels is one of the most spectacular archaeological complexes. In the archaeological literature discussions on the origin and evolution of “Jar burials” on the Philippines is traditionally connected with the culture on the territories of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It seems to us that the “Japanese vector” deserves no less attention.