Photo of Burial Jars in Silliman

Picture taking is not allowed at the University of Silliman Anthropological Museum, so when I wrote about the Kulaman jars in it, my blog post had an accompanying drawing instead of photos. Those who have been to the museum would probably say that my drawing is really more a caricature than a realistic representation of the actual archaeological artifacts. I won’t disagree. I am not contented myself with the lame illustration. That’s why I feel compelled to show you an actual photo of the jars.

I had the photo in my file long before I was able to set foot in Dumaguete. If I remember it right, I took it from a forum website, but I didn’t bother to take note of the address and other relevant information because I had no intention of using it here in my blog. I wanted to visit Dumaguete and take photos of the burial jars there myself. As it happened, however, I was able to visit the city but couldn’t take the photos. Thus, for this post, I’ll break my self-imposed rule of using only my own photos in this blog. With your sight, I want you to feel more the presence of the jars.

My drawing of the largest Kulaman jars

in Silliman Museum

A photo of Kulaman burial jars in Silliman University

Museum, taken before 2013 and posted in a forum website

A cropped screenshot from the Silliman University website

My drawing shows the largest jars in the collection. When I visited the museum, the five jars were on the floor and the rest of the collection was on top of a platform. I no longer remember clearly, but I think the rest of the collection was encased in glass. It was composed of smaller jars, lids, trinkets, and shards of pottery. The photo, meanwhile, shows that the jars used to have a different arrangement and were all displayed on top of a platform. Like my drawing, the photo does not show the complete collection. Notice that I numbered the jars in the images above. I did it so that you can identify which jars are the same.

Now here’s a curious thing about item number 4: I don’t remember seeing it in the three occasions that I visited the museum. I think that at the back of my mind, I looked for it. I had seen its image at the website of Silliman University. Among the artifacts from Kulaman Plateau, only the lid, a miniature upper body of a man, is the only piece that is displayed at the website. It looks smooth, pure white, and gleaming at the site. Maybe that's why I wasn't able to notice it. When seen in person, it might be rough in texture and off-white in color, as with the other items. Or is it no longer part of the collection?