Prehistoric beads in the Philippines

The Philippines, like other Southeast Asian countries, is an archipelagic body of land and thus, commonly comes in contact with natural resources found in bodies of water. Many of the decorative pieces and tools that they possess, as well as their culture, seem to reflect this maritime characteristic. Tools such as choppers made of shell as well as decorative pieces like shell beads are common in Southeast Asian archaeological records due to this characteristic. According to Hughes,^[1] unlike glass beads, trade of shell beads usually occur from the shore line towards the interior of the land mass. Shell beads in the Philippines are generally either whole or cut. Various sites have been found to contain shell beads, including Sucgang Barrio in Bohol; Sibale Island, near Surigao; Suluan island, south of Samar; Lagen Island in Palawan; and Camotes Islands.^[2]

Various studies have been conducted on these shell beads. Studies on the method of cutting, use, location and whether these were taken whole or broken apart were used as characteristics to define these shell beads. It is also of note that shell beads are of different characteristics throughout the archipelago of the Philippines. Research shows that most of the shell beads found in sites were actually cut beads.^[2] This shows that there was a significant development of technique and method to be able to design these shell beads, as modification after the cutting process would have been substantially difficult.^[2] Francis discussed in his study of the Philippine shell bead collection that the beads may have been around since the Late Neolithic period and were later replaced by glass and other inorganic beads from about 200 BCE – 1200 CE.^[2]

Southeast Asian Bead Trade

Glover and Henderson place the date of glass bead trade in Southeast Asia at no later than 400 BCE.^[3] Alastair Lamb states that the most common type of bead for around that time was the Indo-Pacific beads.^[3] According to Francis,^[3] the beads could be named “Indo Pacific Monochrome Drawn Glass Beads”. These Indo-Pacific beads can be found to occur everywhere in Southeast Asia.^[1] Other than these, there could be found at that time, Chinese beads (which were traded generally either by non-Han Chinese, other Southeast Asians, or Westerners depending on the time period), Muslim beads, Java beads, and Indian beads.^[1][3] Clues as to the nature of bead trade in South East Asia could be found in the Pandanan Shipwreck, placing the history of the finds here to about the 15th century CE. It can be seen from the shipwreck that tradeware from Vietnam, Thailand and China were being passed around to other Southeast Asian nations.^[3] Early trade centers such as Sungai Mas in Malaysia give us a clue as to where trade of beads may have originated from or where they developed. In fact, studies by Cayron point to the fact that the beads found in the Pandanan shipwreck actually originated from Sungai Mas.^[3] Trading routes taken were generally inland to avoid pirates and thus, pillaging of their cargo. Sarkar discusses Wheatley's eleven main trade routes: "The three Pagodas between Moulmein and Tavoy, and the three Cedis route; the Tenasserim River route in Burma; the Kra Isthmus route; the Takuapa River route in Thailand; the Trang River rout in Thailand; the Kedah-Patani route; the Perak-Petani route; the Kelantan-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan in Malaysia; the Pahang-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan; the Sembrong route; and the Bernam-Pahang route."^[3]

Archaeological finds in the Philippines

Ille Cave

Ille site can be found in El Nido in Palawan along with other cave complexes. According to Szabó , characteristics of the shell beads that were found in the site were that they were all whole beads and belonged to the following species of mollusks: Cypraea annulus, Strombus canarium, Strombus luhuanus, Nassarius arcularius, Nassarius globosus, Nassarius albescens, Nassarius pullus, Pictocolumbella ocellata, and Pyrene scripta.^[2] Together with these beads were other, larger decorative pieces. Other modified shell décor were the microperforated cut shell beads which were much more uniform than the previous two types.^[2]

Ille Cave Shell bead analysis

Of the beads in the Ille, these were of two main types, the organic and inorganic types. Of the organic beads, majority of them were whole, Neolithic-type beads. Formation of these beads were characteristically formed by percussion and grinding.^[2] Of the organic shell beads, a small percentage of them are cut shell beads and not all of them were as uniform as the microperforated cut shell beads; the beads that do not display the use of technologically advanced techniques were shells of Tridacna rolled into a barrel shape.^[2] The microperforated cut-shell beads are generally less than 2 mm in diameter, and thus appear to require a great amount of effort and technique to produce; these can thus be said to belong to the Metal Age.^[2]

The microperforated cut shell beads were studied to have been formed in the following manner. Bead blanks were first formed from the raw shell followed by perforation by use of a drill with what is proposed to be a bow or pump drill. The blanks are then attached to a string and specific appliqués were added to complete the shell beads.^[2]

What these latter shell beads tell us is that there was indeed a high level of technique around the time that these shell beads were being made. A specific set of developed tools, specific processes and a very concise plan are required to form these beads.^[2] Mere selection of the raw material itself would require extensive knowledge and experience as not all shells could undergo the different modifications without breaking. A coloring process by the addition of appliqués also shows us that the methodology to come up with such beads was very well developed and ingenious.^[2]

References

1. Francis, P. (2002). Asia’s Maritime Bead Trade: 300 BC to the Present. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
2. Basilia, P.G.A. (2012). Morphological and Technological analysis of the Microperforated cut shell beads from Ille site, El Nido, Palawan (Unpublished Master's dissertation). University of the Philippines Diliman Archaeological Studies Program, Quezon City.
3. Cayron, J. (2006). Stringing the Past: An archaeological understanding of early Southeast Asian glass bead trade. Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press.