Tabon Caves
| Mga Kweba ng Tabon | |
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 Location of Tabon Cave in the Philippines
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| Alternate name | Tabon Cave Complex |
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| Location | Quezon, Palawan, Philippines |
| Coordinates | 9°16′48″N 117°58′53″E / 9.279882°N 117.9814°ECoordinates: 9°16′48″N 117°58′53″E / 9.279882°N 117.9814°E |
| Management | National Museum of the Philippines |
The Tabon Caves, dubbed as the Philippines' Cradle of Civilization, are a group of caves located on Lipuun Point, north of Quezon municipality, in the south western part of the province of Palawan on Palawan Island, in the Philippines. They are part of the Lipuun Point Reservation, which has been protected by the government of the Philippines as a museum reservation to protect the caves and immediate vicinity from deforestation and to preserve the cultural artifacts present there.
The caves are named after the Tabon scrubfowl. It is bordered on the south by the town proper of Quezon, Bgy. Panitian on the west, and the West Philippine Sea on the north and east. Out of 215 known caves, 29 have been explored and seven of these are open to the public. The seven include Tabon, Diwata, Igang and Liyang Caves. One of the oldest human bones found in the Philippines, the Tabon Man, was found here in 1962. Other excavated, unexamined remains are stored onsite.
The complex is managed by the National Museum and was declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the same institution in February 2011.
The caves were researched by Dr. Robert B. Fox and a team from the National Museum of the Philippines between 1962 and 1966. The greatest find of was the skull cap of the Tabon Man. It is believed to be approximately 22,000-24,000 years old. The team found over 1,500 burial jars. One jar in particular, the Manunggul Jar, is considered to be a National Cultural Treasure. Other finds included earthenware, jade ornaments and jewelry, many stone tools, animal bones, and human fossils dating back to 47,000 years ago, the earliest human remains found in the Philippines. The archaeological finds indicate habitation from 50,000 to 700 years ago. The limestone formations in the reservation date back 25 million years to the Lower Middle Miocene Period.
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