Mga Yungib ng Guyangan | |
 Ipot Cave, one of the caves in the Guyangan Cave System, where the earliest known warpikat textile in the Philippines and Southeast Asia was found in 1936. | |
.svg)  Location of Guyangan Cave System in the Philippines | |
| Location | Banton,Romblon,Philippines |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 12°57′15″N122°05′27″E / 12.9541082°N 122.0908323°E /12.9541082; 122.0908323 |
| Management | National Museum of the Philippines |
TheGuyangan Cave System (Filipino:Mga Yungib ng Guyangan) is a group of caves located in the island municipality ofBanton,Romblon in thePhilippines. It is located in Guyangan Hill, a limestone formation situated inbarangays Togbongan and Toctoc, and consists of seven caves spread in an 85.3-hectare (211-acre) area of forest land.
The caves are a significant archaeological site and a national cultural treasure of the Philippines as it is the site of ancient burial grounds where wooden coffins, human skeletal remains as well as the oldest burial cloth inSoutheast Asia were discovered during explorations by theNational Museum of the Philippines in 1936. These artifacts are now displayed at theNational Museum of Anthropology inManila.
The island of Banton, where the cave system is located, lies on the northern portion of the Sibuyan Sea, and is equidistant betweenMarinduque Island to the north andTablas Island to the south. It is composed of the main island ofBanton and the uninhabited islands ofBantoncillo,Carlota andIsabel, the last two of which are collectively known as the Dos Hermanas Islands. There is also an islet near Tabonan Beach on the north-west of the island.[1]
Banton has a total land area of 3,248 hectares (32.48 km2).[2] Based on rockpetrology, the island is adormant volcano which lies at the southernmost portion of thePleistocene-Quaternary West Luzonvolcanic arc and may have been active during thePliocene period.[3][4] Because of its volcanic origin, the island has a mountainous, rocky topography, with very few patches of flat land suitable for farming. The island's highest elevation, Mount Ampongo, rises at 596 metres (1,955 ft).[5] Guyangan Hill, where the cave complex is situated is located on the northeast side of the island, between thebarangays (villages) of Togbongan and Toctoc. The hill is also located near the village of Poblacion, the main population center of the island.
The Guyangan Cave System is composed of seven caves spread of an 85.3-hectare (211-acre) area of forested land.
In 1936, a team of researchers from the National of the Museum of the Philippines arrived in the island after a local farmer discovered several precolonial artifacts in one of the caves in Guyangan Hill. Among the artifacts discovered are several shards ofChinese ceramics, wooden coffins with human skeletal remains as well as pieces of a burial cloth, locally known asikat, and which they named the Banton Cloth. The researchers estimated the burial cloth to be around 400 years old, making it the earliest known warpikat (tie-resist dyeing) textile in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. These artifacts are now displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila as well as in the Asi Studies Center for Culture and the Arts in Banton.[7][8][9]
The discovery of the artifacts proved that there was already a civilization residing in Banton during precolonial times. The researchers also observed that the human skeletal remains exhibitedartificial cranial deformation, a common traditional practice among precolonial Filipinos, especially among the nobility, which presumes that the remains belonged to members of the nobility in Banton's precolonial society. It has also been theorized that the caves were used as asecondary burial site after the bodies were exhumed from a primary burial site elsewhere in the island.[10]
On 19 March 2013, the National Museum of the Philippines declared the Guyangan Cave System as an Important Cultural Property.[11][12][13] As such, the cave complex is entitled to protection and preservation by the Philippine government through the National Museum of the Philippines. In 2016, The National Museum of the Philippines announced the construction of a site museum in the island on a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) property donated by the Fabicon family. The site museum will serve as depository of the island's cultural treasures and will conduct research on how to best preserve the island's intangible heritage.[14]
