Even The Caves Tell Tales

And they also tell no lies. Trade artifacts and other relics found years ago in Cagayan de Oro’s Huluga Caves are now on display in the city’s museum. These and other historical accounts point to the city’s prehistoric origin dating back to the Neolithic age, perhaps to remind the world that ancient civilization also took roots in this country. Take a trip to Cagayan de Oro, the “City of Golden Friendship”—and other historic sites—as a way of rediscovering oneself and one’s culture.

BY HERBIE S. GOMEZ
Bulatlat.com

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - People were already living—and most likely trading—in Cagayan de Oro many centuries before the history of Rome began (753 BC), before the completion of the 1,900-kilometer Great Wall of China during the reign of Emperor Shih Huang Ti of the Ch’in Dynasty (204 BC), before the birth of Buddha (563 BC) and even before Moses led his people out of Egypt (around 1200 BC).

There is strong evidence that Cagayan de Oro—a settlement in what is now northern Mindanao’s richest city—existed long before these great episodes in man’s history.

“Until quite recently, all that we knew about the beginnings of Cagayan de Oro was contained in the few and brief notices in the chronicles of the early Spanish missionaries. And these writings go no further back than the early 17th century, to be exact, 1622,” reads a portion of The Huluga Caves and the Prehistory of Cagayan de Oro by the late Jesuit priest Francisco Demetrio. “Yet we know that before the coming of the Spaniards, and even before the coming of Islam, there were people already dwelling along the riverbanks of Cagayan de Oro.”

The Demetrio paper says there are tales about Cagayan de Oro that differ in a number of points but all agree that the present city is only “the second settlement.”

There was an earlier sitio (a small village), according to the Demetrio account, that was situated somewhere up a river, “eight kilometers towards the south.” Demetrio had referred to Himologan or Nahulugan, now known as Huluga, a small village in Barangay Indahag this city that is situated along the Cagayan de Oro River.

The legends, “though embroidered with fancy and imagination... carry a kernel of truth,” writes Demetrio.

Huluga which is part of Taguanao, Barangay Indahag, is the location of an archaeological site where the oldest historical find so far in Mindanao was dug up.

The discovery

In the early ‘70s, a cave found in the brow of a cliff by the river yielded skeletal remains mixed with shards of pottery that had either been buried along with the dead or used as burial jars. Glass beads, a native spoon, a pendant, a bracelet, stone tools, an ax tip and pieces of iron were also unearthed inside the cave.

Another cave adjacent to the first yielded ancient metal tools and household utensils.

The absence of human bones and the presence of animal bones in the second cave, according to Demetrio, lend credence to the opinion that it “might have been a habitation site, and that the people buried their dead next door.”

Experts from the National Museum were convinced that these caves were used by the early Cagayanons from the late Neolithic to the Iron Age.

“Man is ancient in Cagayan de Oro; we are not a race of upstarts,” writes Demetrio.

Two legends

The first two tales in Illustrated Folktales, a Xavier University publication edited by Demetrio, share contrasting versions on how northern Mindanao’s most highly urbanized city supposedly got its name.

Originally, Cagayan de Oro was called Kalambagohan, a name derived from Lambago, a tree species that abundantly grew along the riverbanks.

According to the first legend, the place and the river, both called Kalambagohan, were later renamed by the villagers after their princess, Cagayha-an, who was “taken” by one of her many “silent admirers” in reference to the now Cagayan de Oro River.

The princess was named Cagayha-an, a Bukidnon word for shame, because all the men who asked for her hand were unable to pay the dowry set by her father “and went home with heavy heart.”

The second tale tells about a wealthy tribal chieftain named Datu Bagunsaribo who accepted the challenge of the Sultan of Lanao for them to throw a month-long feast to determine who was richer.

After two weeks, the sultan’s provisions, despite contributions from his people, began to give way while those of Bagunsaribo remained as though untouched. Since then, Datu Bagunsaribo’s place was called “Cagayha-an sa mga Maranaw” or the place where the people of Lanao were deeply embarrassed.

Other tales

Another tale, though not included in Illustrated Folktales, claims that the aborigines of Kalambagohan were Bukidnons who evacuated to safer grounds after Maguin-danaoans, a rival tribe from Lanao, stormed their village some time in the late 16th century.

Later, Rajah Moda Samporna, the leader of the Maguindanaoans, fell for the Bukid-non datu’s daughter and became her “prisoner of love.” The Maguindanao warriors felt so ashamed of their defeat that they changed the name Kalambagohan to Caayahan, a Moro word for shame.

(Historically, the Sampornas who became the ruling families in Cagayha-an were given the family name of Neri around 1779 when Rev. Pedro de Santa Barbara baptized his Filipino converts.)

There is another tale, a Maranao legend, according to the Demetrio account, that claims the city’s name was derived from the word kaga-qi-an or “the place of yesterday.”

“In other words, the Maranaos, according to this oral tradition, look back with nostalgia to the region of Cagayan de Oro as the place of their yesterday, that is, of their ‘ancient glory,’” writes Demetrio.

The local government’s Historical Commission has rejected Demetrio’s accounts on the origin of the city’s name which the priest had based on the legends, citing a study on the proto-Filipino language by another Jesuit priest, Miguel Bernad. According to Bernad, Cagayan was derived from the word kagay which simply means river or a place by the river.

Ancient Civilization

Contrary to oral tradition, there existed a civilization in Cagayan de Oro long before Islam reached Mindanao’s shores.

The introduction of Islam in the Philippines dates no further back than 1380 when the Arabian scholar Mudum arrived in Sulu from the Malay Peninsula to preach the doctrines of Mohammed. But there is compelling evidence that people, much more ancient than the characters in the legends, have been in Cagayan de Oro longer than what has been written in the history books.

The 1962 discovery of a skull cap and a portion of a jaw in a Palawan cave shows positive proof that man was in the Philippines at least as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago. However, the skeletal remains found in one of the Huluga caves show that Cagayan de Oro was already a home to man long before the birth of Mohammed or even before that of Jesus Christ’s.

Exploration

No story tells of Cagayan de Oro’s primeval past the way the caves of Huluga do.

A Xavier University team discovered this some three decades ago when the group unearthed skeletal remains, pottery vessels, ornaments and tools inside the caves of Huluga. The group immediately organized the exploration after residents reported they discovered artifacts inside one of the caves.

The diggings and examination, reportedly lasting for about three years, could have resulted in more discoveries had residents informed experts earlier about the caves’ existence.

“Much damage has been done to the stratigraphy because pot-hunters had been at work there before... the existence of the caves (was brought) to our attention,” writes Demetrio.

Age-dating

Antonio ‘‘Nono’’ Montalvan of the local government’s Historical Commission, said the artifacts have been traced back to the late Neolithic to the Metal Age periods, suggesting a very long duration of usage of the Huluga caves.

Careful examination, according to Montalvan, revealed the skeletal remains unearthed inside one of the caves belonged to an aborigine who lived in Cagayan de Oro around 1600 BC.

This was confirmed by Dr. Erlinda Burton, director of Xavier University’s Research Institute, who sent bone samples for acid racemization to the Scripps Institute at Jolla, San Diego, California, in 1977.

Explorers also found a skull on a niche along the inside wall of one of the cave’s chambers.

Anthropologist Jess Peralta of the National Museum said the skull belonged to a woman in her early ‘30s. The skull has been on exhibit at the Museo de Oro since the mid-‘80s.

Caves’ tales

Montalvan said experts were looking into the possibility there was trading in Cagayan de Oro as early as 1600 BC since the vessels unearthed together with the skeletal remains “are not Filipino in origin.”

“There are vestiges of probable Annamese and Thai potteries,” reads a caption in one of Museo’s guidebooks. “In other words: extensive existence of trade ware.”

There is also a belief that the cave where the skeletal remains were found was used as a burial site by Cagayan de Oro’s early dwellers and the potteries that were buried with the dead were mortuary offerings. Oral tradition has it that ancient Cagayanons provided their dead with ornaments, potteries or metal tools to be used as “bribe” for the guardians of Hades or the underworld.

Also unearthed inside the cave were a bronze ax tip, pieces of badly rusted iron, five stone tools of which two were well-polished while two others were semi-polished, a roughly fashioned jasper stone, a broken shell bracelet, glass beads, a boar-tooth pendant, and a native shell spoon.

Not much has been yielded by the second cave aside from metal tools, household utensils and animal bones but the discovery bolstered the theory that it was a place for habitation while the other cave was merely used as a burial ground by the early dwellers of Cagayan de Oro.

A third cave has yet to yield an artifact, said Montalvan.

Time depth

An assemblage of artifacts from the Huluga Caves are currently on display at the ground floor of the museum. These include two cooking pots, a water container, a water pot, two bowls, a pot lid, a boar-tusk pendant, broken shell bracelets, an adze, flake tools, a tip and a fragment of bronze tools, and an iron tool.

Experts said they were convinced the pottery vessels were products of the Philippine Iron Age while the adze and flake tools were made during the late Neolithic period.

Using the method of cultural comparison, “it is not far from the truth when one asserts that this area was occupied as early as 2,000 years ago. It’s probable that this date could be pushed back into greater time depth,” reads a portion of one of the museum’s exhibit guidebooks.

Open site

Montalvan said Huluga’s open site continues to yield evidence that ancient people inhabited the area.

The open site is situated some seven feet above the river and directly north of the hill on the higher elevation and the caves.

“Until now, one could find fragments of pottery and obsidian flakes on the surface,” said Montalvan.

Demetrio had reported that a National Museum archaeologist recovered a lot of pottery shards and about 70 pieces of obsidian after digging three pits in the open site.

The porcelain shards were believed to be of the Sung and Ming dynasties, meaning between 960 to 1279 and 1368 to 1644.

However, the artifacts became so fragmentary that reconstruction was unachievable. But archaeologists, after initial inspection, were convinced some of the artifacts “had been definitely shaped by human hands.”

Experts have yet to establish whether there was a link between those who lived and buried their dead in the caves and the people who dwelled in the Huluga open site. Bulatlat.com

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