BAGUIO CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
#18 Bonifacio Street, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
History Of Science and Technology in The
Philippines
(Primitive)
In Partial Completion of the Subject
Science and Technology
Prepared By:
Banggiacan, Jastine Grace L.
Maiyao, Lyka May B.
Rafael, Jerry S.
Siki, Jemar D.
Simongo, Marcelo S.
Tumamao, Michel Angelo
Velasco, Shydney R.
Submitted To:
Ms. Jennifer Longchassen
Philippines’ Science and Technology where did it began?
Dated 50,000 years back, archaeological findings indicate that modern
men (homo sapiens) from the Asian mainland first came over-land and across
narrow channels to live in Palawan and Batangas. The proof of this was the
discovery of the Tabon Man which is the oldest confirmed modern human to
have been found in the Tabon caves in Quezon, Palawan Island in 1962. For
about 40,000 years, they made simple tools or weapons of stone flakes but
eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard
stones. These stone age inhabitants subsequently formed settlements in the
major islands in the Philippines such as Sulu, Mindanao (Zamboanga and
Davao), Negros, Samar, Luzon (Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and
Cagayan region). By about 3,000 B.C., they were producing adzes ornaments
of seashells and pottery of various designs. The manufacture of pottery
became developed and flourished for about 2,000 years until it came into
competition with Chinese porcelain.
By the 1st century A.D. Filipinos also engaged in agriculture where
lowland rice was cultivated in diked fields and in terraced fields which
utilized spring water was built in the interior mountain regions in the
Cordillera. One of the notable masterpieces of agriculture was the Banaue
Rice Terraces, these terraces were believed to be carved by hand and further
strengthened using stones and mud as its walls.
From the 2nd or 3rd century B.C. to the 10th century A.D., iron age is
considered to have lasted this long and the early Filipinos learned to make
metals tools and accessories using copper, gold, bronze and iron. Filipinos
during this period engaged in the actual extraction of iron from ore, smelting
and refining. They were also able to use and create copperplates to inscribe
receipts or are used as an official acquittance or debt relief. The Laguna
Copperplate Inscription, which was found in Lumban, Laguna was one of the
proof that early Filipinos used mathematics since the inscription consists of
salary-related debts. But it appears that the iron industry like the
manufacture of pottery did not survive due to the competition with imported
cast iron from Sarawak (a Malaysian state) and much later from China. Thus,
overtime pottery making declined. The only ancient technology that has
survived up to date among several local communities is the manufacture of
ordinary cooking pots.
By the 10th century A.D., Filipinos had also learned to build boats
for the coastal trade, and these had become a highly developed technology.
The oldest watercraft found in the Philippines was the “Balangay” which was
carbon-dated to 320A.D. The balangay was also known as the Butuan Boat.
The balangay was used for fishing, trade, warfare, piracy, travel,
communication, and dwelling.
In the interior and mountain and mountain settlements, many Filipinos
were still living as hunters. They gathered forest products to trade with
lowland and coastal settlements, but they also made “iron lance-points,
daggers and certain tools used in transplanting”.
In this era of the first Filipino people, they seem not to have developed
a written literary tradition which could have led to a more systematic
accumulation, collaboration and dissemination of knowledge, a condition that
is necessary for the development of science and technology. They also do
something only if it is necessary. We can also say that the early Filipinos have
been a little pressure for invention and innovation because of the abundance
of natural resources, a benign environment and generally small population.