One ofthe places that I have beenwa ting to go to ever since is the Maitum Anthropomorphic Jars Museum located at the Municipal Hall of the town of Maitum in the Province of Sarangani Philippines.
What’s so special about this place?
It was in the 90′s when several secondary burial jars were discovered in Piñol Cave. But these jars are like no other: they hace very intricate human-like designs that cannot be found elsewhere.
Maitum burial jars
Once inspected you would easily notice the fine carvings of the eyes, mouth, nose, and the ears. It is said that id the deceased is a woman, the burial jar would have a breast, but id the dead person is a male,a small protrusion symbolizing the genitalia can be found at the base of the jar.
When a deceased person’s body has fully deconposed, all its bones are then transferred to the secondary burial jar. These are the kinds of jars that was discovered in the caves of Maitum Sarangani.
Through carbon dating process, it was suggested that these anthropomorphic burial jars are more or less 2000 years old, or during the Metal Age. It is said to be the second oldest evidence of human civilization in the Philippines, second only to the ones found in Tabon Cave in Palawan.
Today these burial jars arenon display at the Maitum Municipal Hall museum. Two of these jars have already been declared by the National Museum as a National Cultural Treasure of Philippine Archaeology.
Maitum secondary burial jars
© Enrico Dee for BYAHILO, 2014. |
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