PRE-HISTORIC SHELTERS binding, weaving and lashing.

These shelters embraced the

life of the hunter-gatherer. But these structures also
-Cave Dwellings as the Early Human Shelter TABON CAVE IN PALAWAN
nurtured a new figure that would take the place of the
-Nomadism and Ephemeral Portable Architecture wanderer— homo faber , “man the maker,” architect, and The most antiquated and perhaps the largest cave dwelt in
builder. by prehistoric families periodically for 30 thousand years is
-Arboreal Shelter: Dwelling High on Trees
the Tabon Cave complex, situated on Lipuun Point,
-Rice Terraces – The Prehistoric Megastructure southwest of Palawan. It is a 138- hectares, of rugged cliffs
CAVES and deep slopes. A fossil of human bone tentatively dated
from 22,000 to 24,000 years ago was discovered in Tabon
Prehistoric cave shelters were the earliest form of human
Cave Dwellings as the Early Cave in the 1960s by a National Museum archeologist
inhabitation. The use of natural caves predates the
headed by the late Dr. Robert B. Fox. The cave’s portal is
Human Shelter emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens . Constructing cave
about 16 m. in width and 8 m. in height and extends an
dwellings only required minimal site-work and
interior depth of 41 m. Verified through findings from
modification as the shelters take advantage of the
archeological excavations and carbon-14 datings, the cave
Architecture began in nature. For the primitive who was structural properties of rock or earth in situ . The shelters
was found to have been suitable for human inhabitation.
defenseless before the violence of wind and rain, the cave were made via excavation rather than construction. Cave
In fact, the cliffs and slopes around the area are punctured
was a refuge, a serendipitous place of dwelling. For the spaces were hollowed out either by extending caves or
with more than 200 caverns. 29 of these caves were fully
most part, the said shelter had always been there ready burrowing into the recesses of the cliffs, yielding for its
explored and found to have been ideal for habitation or
for use, but it needed to be reclaimed and made safe from occupants a living space protected from heat, rain, and
burial by ancient Filipinos. The cave was named Tabon
predators. wind.
after the largefooted bird that lays eggs in huge holes it
digs into cave floors, many of which have been found in
the cave.
Fire, the chief human invention, proved to be a significant PLEISTOCENE PEOPLE
element not only in driving away savage animals from cave In the Philippines, the earliest dwellers of caves were the
habitats but also in carving out a space. The burning fire Pleistocene people, offsprings of the Ice Age. TAU’T BATU
marked the new human territory and served as a site for
rituals and other gatherings. To this date, Tau’t Batu people occupying the southern
part of Palawan continues the primeval practice of living in
caves. During the moonsoon season, members of this
cultural group may spend months living in the caves of the
PREHISTORIC ERA
Mantalingajan mountain overlooking the valley of
Coming out from the caves, man initiated the first LAND BRIDGES THEORY Singnapan. But occasionally they move to wooden houses
architectural revolution with the invention of stone tools They had come on foot by way of land bridges which and shelters near the fields they cultivate. A Tau’t Batu
for cutting fibrous materials, plant stems, and wood. This emerged when the sea subsided because of the formation cave may shelter more than one family.
fibroconstructive technology helped develop the of the glaciers and the polar ice caps some two to half
temporary tentlike shelters made of wooden skeleton and million years ago.
vegetative fiber or animal skin and constructed through
TAU’T BATU IDJANG OF BATANES AETAS IN LEAN-TO

A basic sleeping platform, known as a datag , is made from The mountaintop citadels of Savidug, Batanes, known as The lean-to is the early dwelling of the Aeta. This transient
tree branches and dried leaves and is built inside the cave. Idjang, is a testimony to the sophisticated defensive architecture is an inalienable aspect of their nomadic
The Tau’t Batu construct the datag raised slightly above engineering of the early Ivatan settlers, who carved the lifestyle. It is still very popular among Aeta groups,
ground with a fireplace in close proximity, to provide hard limestone formation to create planes of vertical walls. although the acculturated Aeta of Pampanga and
warmth during the night. Depending on the environmental The presence of clay shards from cooking utensils attests Zambales, not as nomadic as their ancestors, have chosen
conditions, the datag is made more complex. If the place is to the existence of settlements on top of these structures. to settle in a more permanent abode, like the stilt houses
windy, a wall is made in the direction of the wind, or all These settlements could have been used as lookout points with structures raised above the ground on wooden posts
three sides are walled, leaving open the side where the to monitor marine life for food and guard against invading with thatched roof and walls.
fireplace is located. A roof is provided to protect the datag forces.
from rain. A cave may accommodate several family units
that form a kin group with the place of each family unit AETAS IN LEAN-TO
defined by the individual datag Nomadism and Ephemeral
The Casiguran Dumagat live temporarily in low, unwalled
TAU’T BATU Portable Architecture sheds which have floor spaces of more than 4.5 square
meters. While the Ebuked Agta of northeastern Luzon
The Tau’t Batu also erect covered huts using light materials Ephemeral architecture was one of the first artifacts
build more spacious and complex lean-tos than the
within larger caves. Their fear of thunder is one of the created by human. Primitive lifestyle was essentially
downriver Agta . Areas for sleeping are prepared by
main reasons why they retreat into caves, and why a peal nomadic, needing a form of temporary shelter that utilized
removing protruding rocks, compacting the earth to level
figures in Tau’t Batu folklore as a warning against mocking readily available materials with limited investment in time
the ground, and making use of leaves as cushion placed
or laughing at animals. The Tau’t Batu believe that their and energy. As nomadism entails constant movement,
under mats.
world is inhabited by a vast population of forest, rock, and being portable and demountable assume important
water spirits, with deities responsible for the different prerequisite in design and construction.
aspects of nature.
AETAS IN LEAN-TO

LEAN-TO The dait-dait is the simple windscreen used by the

PETROGLYPHS OF ANGONO Mamanua of northeastern Mindanao when hunting. It is
In the Philippines, the fundamental act of building was
made from the leaves of wild banana, coconut fronds or
There are other examples of caves and rock shelters in the practiced by nomads in the form of the windbreak (lean-
grass and usually lashed together with rattan. When they
Philippines that were once inhabited by early Filipinos. The to), the windscreen or windshield. It was set up for shelter
stay longer in a place, they modify the basic structure and
petroglpyphs (prehistoric drawings of human figures before commencing a hunting or food-gathering journey.
build a platform. This same type of windscreen is also built
engraved on the cave walls) in a rock shelter in Angono, Early Filipinos constructed a wind-sun-and-rain screen
by the Pinatubo and Panay Aeta. A typical hawong of the
Rizal provides evidence of the ancient Filipino’s attempt to anchored by a pole or stick at an angle on the ground.
Pinatubo Aeta has no living platform and is usually
embellish his space and invest its domain with symbolic
constructed with a ridgepole supported by forked stakes
values.
or limbs. It forms two sloping sides, one or both ends may from the ground, as a safeguard from nighttime ambush constructed on the stump of a large tree which has been
be left open. perpetuated by Guinana, their tribal nemesis. cut off some 4.5 to 6 meters above g round.

Arboreal Shelter: Dwelling High on Trees MANOBO TREE HOUSE

PRIMORDIAL TREE HOUSE Arboreal shelters still persist to this date. The greatest MANOBO TREE HOUSE
concentration of tree houses exists in the regions of New
While the first to be inhabited by people were the caves, A tree with buttress roots is chosen where possible and a
Guinea, Borneo, and the Philippines. In the Philippines, the
the first shelters to be constructed were made of framework is assembled on top of the stump which is
tree house isan old institution, built and used by the
interlocking branches. L’Abbe Laugier (1713-1769) further supported byslender poles; these may rise to form
Gaddang and Kalinga of Luzon, the Manobo and Mandaya
provides an account of man’s search for shelter in his Essai the corner and intermediate post of the house. Lashed to
of Mindanao, and by the Maranao of Lake Lanao,
sur l’Architecture of 1753: the poles with rattan are floor crossbeams, overlaid with
according to Alfred Louis Kroeber (1928). Tree houses are
beaten bark, and above the flooring are the supporting
“Some broken off in the forest are materials for his usually found in areas where violent intertribal conflict and
poles that form the framework for attaching woven nipa
purposes. He chooses four of the strongest and nocturnal raid were frequent. These houses were perched
palm wall panels. A kingpost system supports the roof
raises them perpendicular to the ground, to form a in the forked branches of trees, 6, 12 or even 18 meters
ridge, from which pole rafters are laid so as to extend over
square. On these four he supports four others laid above the ground. Kroeber stressed that tree houses were
the walls leaving a space for ventilation; the roof is
across them.” highly elevated in order to protect families living in
thatched with nipa palm. A ladder with lashed crosspieces
isolated communities from the attack of animals and
The illustration, which accompanied this account, showed and a handrail placed at onecorner renders the house
human enemies.
that these latter branches laid across the fork of trees still accessible from the ground. The entire tree house is firmly
rooted on the ground. lashed together by rattan, that it could withstand violent
storms, though it still shudders in the wind. To minimize
the shaking, the house is further secured by anchoring it
TINGUIAN TREE HOUSE MANOBO TREE HOUSE with rattan lines to nearby trees.

In the 19th century, arboreal shelters reinforced the racial The tree houses of the Manobo of Southern Mindanao
stereotypes of postDarwinian evolutionary concepts, as were made with a rectangular frame, hipped roof, and
KALINGA TREEHOUSE
“climbing down from trees” represented the transition of paneled walls. The floors were built with strong joists to
man from ape to sentient human being. Frenchman Paul form a platform. A large tree with many thick branches The Negritos, perhaps the first inhabitants of the
de la Gironiere, also in the early 19th century, provides the was lopped approximately 7.5 meters from the ground, Philippines according to anthropologists, also built tree
earliest written description of tree house in Philippines. and the whole house constructed on the stumps. The houses. They first lived in the tropical forests in Zambales
Investigating the houses and settlement configuration of Mandaya of the Davao Gulf region of southeast Mindanao province, near Mt. Pinatubo. They built their houses on
the Tinguian of Palan, northwest of Abra, he observed that construct two types of arboreal architecture, one simply trees with little or no lower branches, such as the
the Tinguian had a separate daytime and nocturnal abode. rests on the limbs of trees and adapt in shape and size to eucalyptus, some 6 to 10 meters above the ground.
The day abode was a small hut of bamboo and thatch built the features of the supporting branches. The other, which
Kenneth Mcleish (1972) reported that in the latter part of
on the ground, while the night abode, the alligang , was is more predominant and sturdily built, is a house
1970, some 500 members of the Higaonon tribe were
even smaller and rested on a tree top, some 18-24 meters
found to be still living in tropical tree houses of lashed with woodland and perpetually visited by tremors, the building the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. Many of
saplings in the virgin rain forest of their habitat. Precarious landscape had been altered by human hands. The rice these walls and canals are thousands of years old and have
catwalks, passing a high-rise dormitory, led to a centrally terraces may be found in high altitudes of anywhere from withstood countless typhoons and the effects of sun, wind
located communal area. 500-1,600 meters, spanning the provinces of Cordillera’s and time
mountain range, including Ifugao, Mountain Province,
Benguet, Apayao, Kalinga and areas of Abra.
Rice Terraces – The Prehistoric Megastructure
SECTION OF ATYPICAL RICE TERRACE

The walls reach up to a height of 6meters, and in some

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region mountainous terrain cases 16meters, configured in a range ofshape and
has been, over the centuries, shaped into landscapes of gradient. Every terrace construction in the Cordillera
terraced pond fields for the cultivation of rice and other Highlands contains three basic elements: the terrace base,
crops. These landscapes exist, both as archeological sites the embankment and the soil body
and as living landscapes, which continue to be used and
maintained by the people who created them
RICE TERRACES, CORDILLERA

Although the historical genesis and age of the terraces is

RICE TERRACES
subject to contention, modern dating tends to verify
The technique of pond-field agriculture, which archeologist Henry O. Beyer’s contention that they were
characterizes the rice culture of the entire Asia-Pacific started by at least 1,000 B.C. From 1964 to 1967 Robert
region, transforms and shapes the landscape. The Mahler, chairman of the Department of Anthropology,
application of the technique to mountainous terrain has West Michigan University, collected charcoal specimen of
created a terraced landscape. These terraces provide rice chaff from a house terrace in Banaue, which revealed
habitats modified by humankind. Archaeological evidence a date 2950 B.P. or roughly 1000 B.C. The findings readily
indicates that the earliest terraces may have been used for refuted the KeesingLambrecht theory. But Mahler made it
the cultivation of root crops such as taro, which continue clear that “there was no age determination of the rice-
to be important staples for a part of the region. terrace site itself” and that the age of the house terrace
cannot be held simultaneous with those of the field
terrace sites.
CORDILLERA MOUNTAIN RANGE

The network of Rice Terraces in the Cordilleras is a The stone walls, canals, dams and reservoirs of the
testament to Philippine premodern engineering. Included Cordillera can also be considered as type of megalithic
in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, it is a living proof of architecture, or at least of stone engineering. The amount
man’s genius at turning a rugged and forbidding terrain of stones used by the Ifugao in their hydraulic engineering
into a continuing source of sustenance. Originally covered works is estimated to far exceed in bulk those used in