Fake Burial Jars

I found out a few days ago that the Kulaman Plateau burial jars at the Silahis Gallery in Intramuros in Manila have been sold out, and I have to apologize to the collectors in case they were encouraged to buy the jars after reading this blog. As I have not been posting here for a couple of years now, I wasn’t able to share with the public an important update: fake Kulaman Plateau burial jars do exist, and they probably include the items at the Silahis Gallery.

I learned about the existence of fake jars when I was involved in a tourism-related project at the municipality of Lebak here in the province of Sultan Kudarat. Here’s what I wrote in the report that I had to submit:

“At around 2 PM on July 10, 2018, the writer, together with other members of the research team, dropped by the barangay hall of Keytodac and had a conversation with some local officials who happened to be in the office. The writer heard for the first time the existence of fake burial jars. The informant named the counterfeiter. But names are withheld here because the information has not been confirmed.

“After about an hour, the team proceeded to the barangay hall of Salangsang, where another informant told the team of the existence of fake burial jars. The informant named three counterfeiters, who were in business in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The informant also said that the counterfeiters would soak the fake burial jars in water with urea to speed up the growth of algae and make the jars look old and authentic.

“Apparently, counterfeiting of burial jars and selling them to private collectors is an open secret in the southern mountains of Lebak.

“This writer has strong reasons to believe that there was truth to the statements of the informants. He has seen burial jars that are purportedly from Sultan Kudarat but looks dubious, primarily because their designs stray too much from the typical features of burial jars as scholars noted. In Silahis Gallery, a souvenir shop inside Intramuros in Manila, one cover in the collection has a figure of a carabao head. In contrast, burial jars discovered in the San Carlos and Silliman explorations are mostly anthropomorphic. The scholars believe the figures indicate the sex of the deceased kept in the jar. Applying the theory, the carabao-shaped figure would indicate that the bones inside the jar are that of a carabao’s. This is preposterous, and the burial jar must have been made by an amateur counterfeiter.

“The jars that are on display inside the Tourism Office of the Municipality of Lebak might also be counterfeit because some of them have animal-like instead of anthropomorphic figures.

“Another possible indication of forgery is well-defined and intricate incisions, possible only with the use of modern tools. Authentic burial jars were carved out of blocks of limestones using crude implements, and because the jars have been left in natural surroundings for around 1,500 years, it is natural for their surfaces to have been weathered.

“Lastly, burial jars that are as small as a typical flower vase must be forgery, too. They are too small to contain human bones, even that of an infant’s.

“The existence of fake burial jars make it difficult for anyone to determine the authenticity of all the burial jars. Only the jars that have been recorded by anthropologists in 1960s and properly tracked can be safely declared authentic. On the other hand, the existence of fake burial jars could make black market buyers suspicious of burial jars claimed to be from Sultan Kudarat, and this could discourage trading of the artifacts.”

(In photo: Me with a collection of burial jars at the municipal hall of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat. Some of these jars may be fake. It’s now difficult to determine the authenticity of Kulaman Plateau burial jars because, I found out in a visit at the municipality, counterfeits were made in the aughties.)