After Backfill

The first San Remigio Archaeological Fieldwork Project and the 2011 USC-NM Archaeological Field School officially ended today with the departure for Manila of the National Museum team led by Dr. Ame Garong.

Last Sunday, we left the site, with two vehicles courtesy of Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia and the Cebu Provincial Tourism and Heritage Council, our partner in this project.

All the excavation units have been backfilled and all that is left of the largest unit with the six burials are the tents generously provided to us by the Municipal Government of San Remigio, which also defrayed the cost of accommodations of the team, courtesy of Mayor Jay Olivar. Our thanks to the governor, the mayor and to Fr. Fritz Malinao as well as Fr. Tata, his assistant, and also to Archbishop Jose Palma and Msgr. Carlito Pono of the Archdiocesan Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. Kudos to the people of San Remigio. We hope to return soon.

No more excavations. The soil is back where it belongs.

Finishing Touches

Accessioning was finally completed yesterday and the packing of artifacts and bones into crates began. Photography of almost all the important and significant finds, whether as sherds, fish and other animal bones or as associated potteries and metal implements, was also carried out yesterday and today. This was proceeding while our local laborers began the inventory of tools and equipment we used during the excavations (mainly mason trowels, picks, pails, stools, paintbrushes, whisk brooms and dustpans.

A six-page preliminary report on the highlights of the project has also been sent to Mayor Jay Olivar and a similar report also submitted to Fr. Fritz Malinao.

Tonight we will be making a public presentation at the void deck below our quarters, the San Remigio Cultural Center. Tomorrow we return to the city and deposite everything at the National Museum Branch located in Museo Sugbo.

Tools of the trade: our equipment. (Look, Ma, no detector!)

Photographing of artifacts.

The Metal in Metal Age

Among the artifacts we recovered that were associated with two of the six burials were metal implements or tools. These, and the earthenware, are what make us suspect that the site is of the Iron or Metal Age in the Philippines, which runs between 1,000 B.C. to A.D. 900.

Metal implements retrieved from Burial 3, the burial with the incised red-slipped carinated pottery.

A small "guna" or weeding tool retrieved very near the right pelvic region of Burial 4.

Samples

To aid us in the analysis of our finds, charcoal and soil samples have been collected for laboratory processing in the United States, if plans and funds permit. These samples were carefully collected to avoid as little possible contamination as possible.

The soil and charcoal samples are even accessioned and carry their own particular database numbers.

Back-Fill Time

The back-filling of the final excavation units where all six burials, 11 earthenware potteries and 5 iron tools were uncovered finally began today and will continue tomorrow. This was going on as students from the local TESDA training school began cleaning the church grounds and the streets to be used for the processions that will mark the Holy Week, which starts on Sunday, the day we leave San Remigio.

The back-fill, one of the most important "rituals" in archaeology, where all excavation units are covered over with plastic garbage bags. Coins as well as other time markers (like plastic wrappers) are then thrown over the plastic in order to indicate that the site has already been excavated. Then the original soil that was removed during the excavation process is returned to the unit.

Three Monsignors and a Hope

Our excavation project was honored by the visit last April 12 of three monsignori from the Archdiocese of Cebu, namely: Msgrs. Rudy Villanueva, Joseph Tan, and Arthur Navales, Fr. Allan Delima as well as Dr. Hope Yu of Cebuano Studies Center. Fr. Frttz Malinao and Fr. Tata were, unfortunately, not in San Remigio at that time since they were in the city to attend the annual renewal and retreat for parish priests and their assistant pastors.

Msgr. Shongho Tan shares a joke with Jojo Bersales

Dr. Hope Yu and Msgr. Rudy Villanueva just outside the excavation unit.

Fr. Allan Delima and Msgr. Arthur Navales. At the background is our preliminary report printed on tarp.

All the archbishop's men: Msgrs. Tan, Villanueva, Navales and Delima with Jojo Bersales outside the convent near the excavation site. Note the brewed coffee, newsppaers and the gift of wine from Dr. Yu (the photographer).

Kabilin on the San Rem Finds

The Sugbo TV Channel 14 crew of Jojo Bersales' show, Kabilin, visited the site to do an episode explaining the significance of what we have uncovered and how it related to other Iron Age or Metal Age sites in the Philippines.

Jojo R. Bersales starting the show.

Dr. Ame Garong of NM explains the significance of the Iron or Metal Age in the Philippines.

Joe Santiago of NM explains the mapping of the site. No detectors needed.