Discovery of gold necklace in Boljoon on Burial #29. March 31, 2009

During the fourth phase of month-long archaeological excavations in front of Boljoon Church and Convent, a rare piece of gold jewelry, locally called "inahas" in early missionary accounts, was recovered from a burial called Burial #29, a probable female. This burial was also accompanied with a upside-down spear head and a beautiful covered powder box the lid of which had an underglaze blue design of a young boy holding aloft a puppet hanging on a string and held by a stick. Instead of being covered with a ceramic dish, The head of Burial 29 was lying on an overturned dish with underglaze blue design of a standing phoenix, a very common ware identified with Zhangzhou kilns, ca. 1567-1600s.

The coastal site where the church and convent as well as its plaza are located have been the subject of excavations funded by the University of San Carlos Department of Sociology and Anthropology since 2007, with support form the Cebu Provincial Government and the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation. Boljoon is 103 km southeast of the provincial capital Cebu City, in central Philippines. To date some 59 burials have been recovered in a total of five months of excavations since February 2007. Jojo R. Bersales heads the project which is permitted by the Archdiocese of Cebu, the owner of the Boljoon Parish Church, which is the only one in Cebu among the 26 National Cultural Treasures declared by the National Museum. The burials have been AMS-dated to between 1505 and 1659 +/- 4o years BP.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• archaeology
• cebu
• philippines
• history
• culture
• boljoon
• gold
• necklace
• education
• church
• national cultural treasure
• archaeologists
• pinoy
• museum

[bnvto]

hehe. nice.