TABON CAVE

ROBERT FOX
ROBERT
FOX
Galveston, Texas
May 11, 1918 –
May 25, 1895
ROBERT
FOX
He was a distinguished
American anthropologist
who made substantive
and enduring
contributions to
Philippine anthropology
through his research,
publications, teachings,
and public service.
CAREER
• Chief Anthropologist of
the Philippine National
Museum
• University of the
Philippines professor
• Presidential Assistant for
National Minorities
• Presidential Adviser on
Anthropology under then
President Ferdinand E.
Marcos
WORKS
For some four years
and eight months,
Fox conducted field
research among
numerous folk and
mountain peoples in
the Philippines.
WORKS
He spent more than
six years of cave and
open-site archaeology
in Albay, Batangas,
Palawan, Pampanga,
Sorsogon, and
numerous brief
periods of explorations
in other areas
WORKS
With colleagues at the National
Museum of the Philippines, Fox
excavated the Tabon caves in
Palawan, which led to the
discovery of the late
Pleistocene human fossil
remains which represented
more than just one individual
and better known as the
“Tabon Man,” and associated
stone implements.
 MAJOR PUBLICATIONS

• “The Pinatubo Negritos : Their Useful Plants

and Material Culture,” The Philippine Journal
of Science (1951);
• “Religion and Society Among the Tagbanuwa
of Palawan Island, Philippines,” (1954);
• “The Tabon Caves : Archaeological
Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines
(1962-65),” Philippine Journal of Science.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
of the documents
TYPES OF DOCUMENT: MONOGRAPH, VIDEO RECORDING
AND ARTICLE (online)

EXCAVATION: 1962-1966 (project of the National Museum

of the Philippines and the participating professional
personnel )
• summarizes the results of the excavations in a number of
limestone caves-now known as the Tabon Caves
• establish an exhaustive cultural chronology for this area
which could provide the basis for a more thorough
understanding of the long and dramatic prehistory of the
Philippines
INTRODUCTION
TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY
OF PALAWAN
Map of South China and Southeast Asia, showing the location of the ·
archaeological sites discussed in the text.
Palawan Island and Past
Archaeological Research.-
The island of Palawan
stands as a natural bridge
between the Philippine
Archipelago and Borneo
and, indirectly, the
mainland of Asia. During
glacial periods, Palawan
formed a land bridge with
Borneo or between
Borneo and the
Philippines, allowing
Palaeolithic men and
animals to drift into the
Islands.
In 1951, the writer [Fox
(1954) 274-275]
collected a large
polished stone tool
from the Tagbanwa of
Aborlan Municipality
which was being used
as a charm. This tool
was described by Beyer
as an "Early Neolithic
Oval Adze." This is the
first record of a
Neolithic implement
from the island of
Palawan.
To date, twenty-nine caves used for habitation and/or
burial have been discovered on Lipuun Point. These
caves, as noted, contained an astonishing wealth and
an extensive time-range of cultural materials: a flake
tool tradition which dates from the Late Pleistocene
and early post-Pleistocene periods, including fossil
human bones and the bones of a deer now extinct in
Palawan; a highly developed jar burial complex which
first appeared during the Late Neolithic and
continued into the Developed Metal Age; and finally,
in two caves, porcelains and stonewares indicating
local trade with China during the Sung and Yiian
Dynasties.

The excavations have revealed more than 50,000

years of Philippine prehistory
TABON CAVE:
AN UPPER PALAEOLITHIC
HABITATION SITE
 - located at the base of a
towering limestone cliff at the
northeast corner of Lipuun
Point facing the South China
sea
- mouth of the cave,
approximately 110 feet above
sea level, is large being eight
meters in height and sixteen
meters in width
- small cliff lies directly in front of
the mouth of the cave
- The dome-shaped entrance
chamber is nearly forty-one
meters in length, being dry and
bathed by sunlight throughout
the day
- Stalactites continue to grow at
the right rear of the cave, their
tips sloping toward the mouth,
but even in this area the cave is
The Tabon Cave now dry.
 Tabon cave provides a perfect
setting for habitation in
contrast to the hundreds of
other caves on Lipuun Point
which have narrow openings
and dark inner chambers. The
ideal physical features of the
cave explains why Ancient Man
chose Tabon Cave as a dwelling
place during, at least, 40,000
years of the Late Pleistocene.

Formerly an island, Lipuun Point is

now connected to the mainland of
Palawan by an extensive
mangrove development
The Tabon Cave
 The cave was
named Tabon
(scrubfowl) after
the large-footed
bird that lays eggs
in huge holes it
digs into cave
floors, many of
which have been
found in the cave
The Tabon Cave
ARTIFACTS
- FLAKE ASSEMBLAGE
- NO MARINE SHELLS
- ANIMAL BONES (small
birds, bats, pig and an
"extinct" deer
- NO BONE TOOLS
- JAR BURIALS
- FOSSIL BONES (TABON
MAN)
Tools from Tabon Cave: (a-m)
examples of flake tools
associated with Flake
Assemblage Ill. (n-o) basalt
choppers; (p) quartz hammer
stone.
 Tabon Man
June and July, 1962
Fossil bones of at least three individuals were excavated
The available data
would suggest that
Tabon Man may be
dated from 22,000 to
24,000 years ago. But,
only further
excavations in the cave
and chemical analysis
of human and animal
bones from disturbed
and . undisturbed
levels in the cave will
define the exact age of
the human fossils.
 The Tabon Cave: a key
archaeological site in
Southeast Asia
The Tabon human fossils are among the very scarce specimens that could
candidate to stand chronologically between the
latest Indonesian Homo erectus (such as Solo Man) and the earliest Homo
sapiens from insular Southeast Asia. The age of the former group is still
highly disputed, from more than 100 000 to less than 50 000 years BP

Despite their high significance, the human remains recovered from the Tabon
Cave had not been described and published after their discovery. Nor there
have been attempts to answer the numerous questions arising from the R.
Fox’s pioneering work until recent fieldwork was undertaken by the
Archaeological Division of the National Museum of the Philippine
 Human occupation layers and
human fossils
from the Tabon Cave
Archaeological context and fossil human remains

The recent discoveries

CRANIAL BONES: right
temporal bone, occipital
bone (unearthed in
2002)
POST-CRANIAL BONES: upper and lower limb bones,axial skeleton (UNEARTHED IN 2002)
 Direct dating of the fossil

New U-series direct absolute dating have been carried out on

two human fossils recovered from the Tabon Cave. The
results, ranging from 24 000 to 58 000 BP, point to older
ages than the one previously published for the frontal bone
and are consistent with Fox’s assumption that human
occupation in the Tabon cave dates back to the late Upper
Pleistocene, starting more than 30 000 yr BP ago
Discussion and conclusion: a promising
site for tracing modern humans history
in insular Southeast Asia

Questions arising from these new discoveries deal

with the relationships that could be traced between the
specimens of the fossil record.

Those preliminary hypotheses call for future exhaustive analysis of the Tabon
fossil remains within the Southeast Asian human fossil record.
Further excavations and studies will hopefully address some major parts of those
palaeoanthropological and chronological challenges, which presently make the
Tabon cave one of the most promising sites for tracing modern human
history in Southeast Asia since the Upper Pleistocene.
 CONTRIBUTION AND
RELEVANCE OF THE
DOCUMENT IN
UNDERSTANDING THE
GRAND NARRATIVE OF
THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Understanding history is like believing in
something that is out of reach or beyond
our understanding. That is why
historians looked for different kinds of
evidence or proofs. For example;
artifacts, fossils, concrete items that
was left behind, etc. which are the
primary evidences. While secondary
evidences are those secondhand
sources such as textbooks, wikipedia,
encyclopedia or the internet.
 Historians use these
evidences to develop an
accurate interpretation
and create a clear
timeline that explains
what, why or how a
particular event
happened.
 For an instance, the Tabon Caves. It
contained an astonishing wealth and an
extensive time-range of cultural materials:
a flake tool, a highly developed jar burial,
porcelains and stoneware. These artifacts
are primary evidences that helped the
historians to have an accurate
interpretation which leads to a discovery
that Tabon Cave is one of the very few sites
in Southeast Asia to have yielded
Pleistocene fossil Homo sapiens. These
evidences contributes highly for the
credibility of the subject matter and are
very relevant in understanding History.
REFERENCES
UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
BAGUIO (n.d.). Robert B. Fox, Sr. Papers. Retrieved from https://www.upb.edu.ph/robert-fox

Flores, A. (2018, Dec 9). PH HISTORY - ROBERT FOX. Retrieved from

https://prezi.com/p/ia7rcibgo84q/ph-history-robert-fox/

Fox, R. B. (1970). THE TABON CAVES: Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan
Island, Philippines. Retrieved from
https://pages.upd.edu.ph/sites/default/files/pawlik/files/fox_1970_the_tabon_caves_-
_archaeological_explorations_and_excavations_on_palawan_ocr.pdf

Détroit, Florent & Dizon, Eusebio & Falguères, Christophe & Hameau, Sébastien & Ronquillo,
Wilfredo & Sémah, François. (2004). Upper Pleistocene Homo sapiens from the Tabon cave
(Palawan, The Philippines): Description and dating of new discoveries. Comptes Rendus
Palevol - C R PALEVOL. 3. 705-712. 10.1016/j.crpv.2004.06.004.

Honolulu, Hawaii : Academics Hawaii (1981). The Philippine Story - Robert Fox and the Tabon
Caves. Retrieved from
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xM_hLVG7QWfEs1ftP85RBXqnsnfsrC8L/view

National Commission for Culture and the Arts (2006). The Tabon Cave Complex and all of
Lipuun. Retrieved from
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1860/?fbclid=IwAR2Vvy8aDwXv9fGxASGodkJ0TAvu
WiMHV5bYIGnZs7fCqMGwdsC4qyOUEmE