Tabon Caves
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Coordinates: 9°17′22.48″N 117°58′37.92″E / 9.2895778°N 117.9772°E
The Tabon Caves are a set of caves north of Quezon municipality, in the south western part of the province of Palawan on Palawan Island, in the Philippines. The caves are named after the Tabon Scrubfowl. The complex has 29 explored caves, but 200 caves are known to exist on Lipuun Point. They are maintained by the National Museum,[1] and Diwata Cave and Liyang Cave are open to the public. The Tabon Man was discovered in the caves, one of the oldest remnants of human inhabitants found in the Philippines.
[edit] Archaeological discoveries
The skull cap remains of the Tabon Man were discovered in the Tabon Caves. The remains are approximately 22,000-24,000 years old.[1] They were discovered by Dr. Robert B. Fox and his team from the National Museum of the Philippines in 1962. The team also found burial jars, earthenware, jade ornaments and other jewelry, stone tools, animal bones, and human fossils dating back to 47,000 years ago;[2] the earliest human remains found in the Philippines.
The archaeological finds indicate habitation from 50,000 to 700 years ago while the limestone formation in the reservation dates back from 25 million years ago, or the Lower Middle Miocene Period, based on geological studies.
The Lipuun Point Reservation, covering a 138-hectare island connected to the Palawan mainland by a mangrove forest, was declared a Site Museum Reservation in April 1972 and was made a priority site for tourism development in 1991 for its natural and cultural heritage.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Tabon Caves: Site of an important Philippine archaeological discovery". Palawan Council for Sustainable Development. http://www.pcsd.ph/photo_gallery/wonders/Tabon%20Cave%20%20profile.htm. Retrieved on 1 February 2009.
- ^ "The Tabon Cave Complex and all of Lipuun". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 16 May 2006. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1860/. Retrieved on 1 February 2009.
