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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, 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.

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. 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. 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.

Glover and Henderson place the date of glass bead trade in Southeast Asia at no later than 400 BCE. Alastair Lamb states that the most common type of bead for around that time was the Indo-Pacific beads. According to Francis, the beads could be named “Indo Pacific Monochrome Drawn Glass Beads”. These Indo-Pacific beads can be found to occur everywhere in Southeast Asia. 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. 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. 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. 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."


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