The burial jars, which date back to early Iron Age, usually have covers that are anthropomorphic, or shaped in the human form. The jars were used for secondary burial, or storing the bones of dead people who had been buried or left to decay before.
The artifacts were discovered about half a century ago and then taken from the province and shipped to museums and private collections in other parts of the Philippines and the world.
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| A screenshot of the University of Santo Tomas website |
In a paper in 1973, an archaeologist from the University of Hawaii stated in passing that the first burial jars to have been taken from Sultan Kudarat winded up at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1954. The university’s museum, however, or at least on its website, does not expressly label the burial jars in its collection as acquisitions from Sultan Kudarat. Furthermore, no records online exist as to how and where exactly these jars were discovered.
No formal research was made on the soft-stone anthropomorphic secondary burial jars until almost ten years later. In 1963–64, a team led by Marcelino Maceda, a graduate student at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, conducted the first documented archaeological excavations in two caves in the western mountains of Sultan Kudarat. The team discovered dozens of artifacts, part of which are now on display at the University of San Carlos Museum.
Maceda identified the excavation site as Menteng, which was then part of the municipality of Kalamansig but is now a sitio (hamlet) of Barangay (village) Tinalon in the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. Maceda called the collection "Kulaman Plateau burial jars" perhaps because the closest large settlement to Menteng was called Kulaman or Menteng was deemed part of a huge area called Kulaman. In official usage today, the name Kulaman refers only to the small capital barangay of the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino.
In 1965–66, Samuel Briones led the second exploration. Briones was then a graduate student at Silliman University in the city of Dumaguete in the province of Negros Oriental. He reported the presence of soft-stone jars and pottery vessels in the caves and rock-shelters of Salangsang, which was then and now a barangay of the municipality of Lebak.
Soon after Briones, in 1967–68, two foreign anthropologists conducted further research in the area—Edward B. Kurjack of the University of Miami and Craig T. Sheldon of the University of Oregon. They tested the human bones in one of the urns, and the result showed that the bones were that of someone who lived in 585 AD, plus or minus 85 years.
In their papers, archaeologists often describe the second collection as jars from Salangsang, jars from Lebak, or both. No mention is made of the name of the sitio, which this blogger recently discovered to be Lem, far from the center of the barangay and remains remote to this day.
Some of the jars from the sitio are now on display at Silliman University Anthropology Museum, and some found their way to the privately owned Ayala Museum in Makati City.
Oftentimes in this blog, even the jars from the second documented site are called Kulaman Plateau burial jars since, so far, the jars have been found only in the mountains, which have been traditionally associated with the name Kulaman, whereas the name Lebak has been traditionally used for the low-lying coast. (Please see the Kulaman in Brief page for more information.)
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| A screenshot of the Ricky Gervais Collection website |
Some of the burial jars are currently in the possession of a certain Richard Gervais in San Francisco, California. The man's antique shop is selling six jars and a fragment, with the price ranging from $2,500 to $4,000. The website of the collection also claims that Gervais has sold two other burial jars that are now on display at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Through personal correspondence and publicly available information, this blogger learned that most, if not all, of the Kulaman Plateau burial jars in the United States were brought there by private collector Sally von dem Hagen. While staying in the Philippines, she procured artifacts from Dulangan Manobo traders. In 2024, her heirs returned fifty-two pieces to the National Museum of the Philippines.
The collection must have been from Sitio Lem, Barangay Salangsang. A few years ago, a son of von dem Hagen posted on Facebook photos of some Dulangan Manobo residents where the jars came from. This blogger printed the photos and showed it to some officials from Lem, and they were able to identify someone with a huge goiter.
The collection must have been from Sitio Lem, Barangay Salangsang. A few years ago, a son of von dem Hagen posted on Facebook photos of some Dulangan Manobo residents where the jars came from. This blogger printed the photos and showed it to some officials from Lem, and they were able to identify someone with a huge goiter.
The author of this blog hopes to discover more about the lost jars. For comments and additional information, contact rj2ortega@gmail.com.
