Diorama of archaeological discovery opens in Sarangani

The National Museum of the Philippines, local officials and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts on Tuesday opened for public viewing here a diorama of archeological finds with a miniature replica of Ayub Cave where anthropomorphic secondary burial jars were found in the 90s.

The opening of the exhibit at the town hall coincides with the May 4-7 celebration of the town’s 50th foundation anniversary, highlighted by the Binuyugan Festival.

This town, some 120 kilometers west of General Santos City, is where a National Museum team led by Dr. Eusebio Dizon and Rey Santiago unearthed at Ayub Cave in barangay Pinol anthropomorphic burial jars in 1991.

Called “Diorama of the Treasures of Maitum”, the exhibit showcases replicas of those burial jars that dates back to thousands of years in prehistory.

The original artifacts are now preserved at the National Museum.

“These treasures were declared as important cultural property by the National Museum,” Mayor Elsie Perrett said. “Every Maitum resident should be very proud of this.”

Declaring the Pinol Cave formation and the surrounding area of Maitum as an “important cultural property,” a National Museum resolution said “the archaeological sites in Pinol and surrounding area are in need of protection from treasure hunting and illegal excavation and should be preserved for the present and future generation of Filipinos.”

Maharlika Cuevas, Director III of the National Museum, said they are continually looking for non-renewable cultural resources that they have to protect and preserve.

A symposium that followed the ceremonial ribbon cutting of the diorama was packed by teachers from the Mindanao State University and local teachers.

Dizon and Santiago wrote in their book “Faces from Maitum” that the burial jars bore radiocarbon dates of “1930 plus or minus 50 BP (calibrated date of 5 BC to AD 225) and 1830 plus or minus 60 BP (calibrated date of AD 70 to 370).”

Dizon, head of the National Museum’s archeological division, presented a paper about Maitum burial jars at the 14th national Conference on local and National History in 1993.

“Our Southeast Asian neighbors have nothing of this type of archaeological find. We should be extremely proud as Filipinos in discovering the amazing anthropomorphic potteries, which could suggest the backbone of our own culture.”

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