Worked Shell from Leta Leta Cave, Palawan, Philippines

Abstract

The Leta Leta Cave burial site is a distinctive and enigmatic site of the Philippine Neolithic, excavated by Robert Fox. Containing a number of burials, its unusual earthenware pottery -including the 'yawning-mouth vessel', small footed goblets and a cut-out pedestalled bowl -have seen it recognised in the Philippines as an official site of national significance. In addition to the human remains and earthenware, Fox recovered a sizeable assemblage of shell artefacts which, as with other material remains recovered from Leta Leta, were only cursorily reported in print before his death. Recent analysis of the Leta Leta worked shell has revealed the deposition of unfinished as well as finished shell artefacts in mortuary contexts. As well as giving rare insights into manufacturing protocols in an island where the Neolithic and Metal Age records are characterised virtually solely by mortuary deposits, the deposition of unfinished artefacts opens new avenues for the discussion of Neolithic mortuary practices in Palawan. Results of a study of the worked shell assemblage, in addition to recent radiocarbon determinations for the site, are presented here.

Terrestrial hermit crabs (Anomura: Coenobitidae) as taphonomic agents in circum-tropical coastal sites

“…Shells manifesting such traces may have been deliberately brought to a site by humans for use as a raw material in artefact production (e.g. Szabó, 2008Szabó, , 2009b, but by virtue of their taphonomic signatures cannot represent food waste. To this list can be added markers indicating that the shell was inhabited by a coenobitid hermit crab rather than a mollusc.…”

Archaeology and the Austronesian expansion: where are we now?

“…Substitutes in clay and stone were made in Luzon, but the technology clearly continued to spread in coastal areas: thus we find Tridacna shell adzes of Neolithic type reappearing in Bukit Tengkorak and East Timor (Glover 1986: 117;Bellwood & Koon 1989: 618) and then in Lapita. Distinctive shell ornaments such as Conus rings have been found on Palawan at Leta Leta (Szabo & Ramirez 2009), at Krai near Surakarta on Java (van Heekeren 1972: 164, pl. 88), at Uattamdi on Kayoa near Halmahera and in the earliest Marianas and Lapita sites (Hung 2008: 222).…”

Preliminary study on the preservation of giant clam (Tridacnidae) shells from the Balobok Rockshelter archaeological site, south Philippines

“…At the same time, the first seafaring groups arrived, spreading Neolithic culture in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania (Bellwood, 1997(Bellwood, , 2002(Bellwood, , 2004Cameron, 2002;Garong & Toizumi, 2000;Green, 2003;Solheim, 2006;Spriggs, 2003;Tanudirjo, 2004). Archaeological evidence of this Neolithic dispersal is abundant in the Philippines (e.g., Anderson, 2005;Bellwood & Dizon, 2005;Hung, 2005;Mijares, 2005) and includes shell middens (Aoyagi et al, 1993;Cabanilla, 1972;Faylona, 2003;Garong, 2001;Garong & Toizumi, 2000;Ogawa, 2000;Tanaka, 1997;Thiel, 1989) that have provided important insights into culture and subsistence (Fox, 1970;Kress, 1978;Szabó & Ramirez, 2009). However, in the Philippines, paleoenvironmental studies conducted on shells, especially from archaeological contexts, have been limited.…”