KAPI

URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The Case of Plaza Independencia

by: Nida T. Cuevas
 
Urban developments in the district of Cebu have brought about excessive ecological and land alterations that threaten historical and archaeological resources. The construction of Segment 3B-2 of the Cebu South Coastal Road Project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is one of such urban development projects. The road project, which intends to ease traffic conditions in Cebu City, will directly hit a very important proto-historic/ historical site, the Plaza Independencia. Infrastructure development threatens to destroy important archaeological sites are always a difficult archaeological heritage management issue. One of the ways to address, balancing development and heritage protection is through the conduct of Rescue Archaeology.

The rescue archaeology of the Plaza Independencia site aims to uncover all physical remains of past human activity that will be directly impacted during the course of earth-moving operation. It provided a wide-range of archaeological information that ascertains the archaeological and historical significance of the site. Although, the rescue archaeology in Plaza Independencia is conducted in the 'context of urban development' (Belmonte 2003:37), the afterthought of implementing the archaeological heritage preservation is well supported.
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LITHIC MATERIALS FROM THE 2007 TABON CAVE EXCVAVATION

by Sheldon Clyde Jago-on
 

Mapping Tabon Cave using the theodolite transit.

Tabon and Guri caves were re-excavated in March-April 2007 by a team composed of students and professors from the Philippines and Europe under the Human Origins Patrimony in South-East Asia (HOPsea) Project of Asia Link. A total of 185 flakes archaeologically recovered from Tabon Cave were subjected to technological analysis. The patterns of the dorsal face negatives were also determined which could give an idea of whether there is a considerable degree of preparation of the core to get a desired flake, along with other parameters, such as the form of the point of impact (butt of the flake). Most of the flakes have usewear traces and a few have been retouched. Retouching may have been for the purpose of re-use or primary utilization for a particular job. The locations and form of the usewear traces and retouches were determined to approximate how the tools were used: the preferred use edge, preferred size, and preferred flakes for re-use.
 
INTRODUCTION

The 2007 archaeological excavations in Tabon and Guri Caves were conducted from March 5 to April 10 2007. The team is composed of professors and students from Paris, France; Ferrara, Italy; Germany and the Philippines under the Erasmus Mundus and Asem-Duo. This activity is part of the international collaboration among the National Museum of the Philippines; Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHN); Universita di Ferrara, Italy; Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitat Frankfurt Am Main, Germany; Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia; Naturalis Lieden, The Netherlands; and the University of the Philippines; under the Human Origins Patrimony in South-East Asia (HOPsea) Project of Asia Link. This was also partly funded by the National Geographic Society.

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