Philippine Pottery History

The Philippines, during the pre-historic times or before the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century, have already engaged in trade and commerce. According to the National Museum, “Merchant vessels that sailed throughout Southeast Asia have arrived in the country with large shipments of ceramics, ivory tusks, and porcelain from China, Vietnam, and Thailand.” Over the centuries, the Filipinos were also believed to have known how to do pottery, carve ivory into accessories, and melt gold. Some controversial artifacts and notions of Jose Rizal about the pre-historic Philippines such as the Filipinos being able to create large cannons which are more advanced than other countries have been debunked. Even though some artifacts like the existence

Materials found for pottery in such archeologic sites are pre-historic which go beyond the recorded history of the Philippines suggesting how antique the art of pottery is in the country. National Museum states that the broken pieces of the earthware as well as whole pieces were associated with other objects which are used for burial, funerary offerings, and ritual ceremonies. This comes to show that the structure and organization in the society is highly complex as pottery implied the use of complex technology. The ivory, on the other hand, was traded internationally in the 10th century including the Philippines. Chinese and Southeast Asian vessels passed through the South China Sea which were believed to have sold unshaped ivory to the early Filipino traders. Filipinos then carved them into jewelry, accessories, handles for weapons, and erotic images which shows how they are really fond of jewelry and are able to turn raw materials into something

The Laguna Copperplate, Calatagan Pot, and Butuan Paleograph were declared as National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum. Calatagan Pot was described to be associated with the Thai and Chinese tradeware ceramics (Ming Dynasty) that have been dated back to the 14th-15th century. According to the National Museum, “Amulets and talismans bearing baybayin scripts and Latin words used by Millenarian movements, particularly in the Taglog region near Banahaw also manifests the continuity of the script and the enduring practice of including words symbolized in old writing conveying the belief core and indigenous powers. There has also been a continuing tradition of syllabic writing among the indigenous communities in Mindoro and Palawan.” Even though these artifacts are still controversial to this day, the public would, of course, want to believe that there are evidence of pre-spanish writing to claim that the Philippines were better off without being colonized by the Spaniards.
Since history is subjective unless people are able to build a time machine to go back and see what has happened before the Spanish have arrived, there is no definite data if one account has really existed or not. People are just relying on debunking one theory with another by carbon dating and the like. For this reason, what history is teaching the Filipinos