The Creepiest Jar Cover

 This jar cover is creepy even if—or because—it looks

like a mini bust of Jose Rizal.

I know, of course, what burial jars are. They contain dead people. They contain exhumed bones of dead people. They’re small coffins. Despite this fact, they never gave me the creeps. Until I saw one jar cover in Museum of the Filipino People.

The jar cover is one of only three specimens from Kulaman Plateau. While the two others are jars with intact lids, this one is a lid only. It is made of limestone at the bottom and the middle and of clay at the top. It’s a bust. The base is shaped like an inverted bowl. The middle, forming the chest, is a simple short cylinder carved with tiny arms on the sides. The head part is what makes the artifact Halloween-y. It really looks like the face of a human being, and because the material has crumbled, it looks as though one of the eyes is winking at the onlooker and the mouth is forming a maniacal grin.

I wonder why the clay lid looks creepy when the anthropomorphic jar covers that are purely made of limestone are not exactly angelic. Only a very few of them look like real human beings. The others look like lizards (on purpose), penises (on purpose), or monkeys (probably not on purpose). Maybe the reason is that crumbling limestone figures, whatever they may be depicting, look like crumbling stones, nothing more, while crumbling clay looks like decomposing flesh—a much clearer reminder that the jars are not just archaeological artifacts. They contain dead people. They contain exhumed bones of dead people. They’re small coffins.


Don’t confuse the Museum of the Filipino People with the National Museum.
The former is inside Luneta Park and contains archaeological artifacts. The latter,
just across the street, contains mostly paintings and sculptures.

Kulaman Jars in Museum of the Filipino People

Despite being placed in the center of the display case, the Kulaman jars in Museum

of the Filipino People are outshined by other artifacts. The museum

should look for better and more samples of Kulaman jars.

The Museum of the Filipino People, being run by the National Museum, is the repository of everything that is important in the natural, historical, and ethnographical history of the Philippines. Therefore, it is only expected of the museum to contain samples of the 1,500-year-old limestone burial jars from Kulaman Plateau. I was first able to visit the museum three years ago, but I have no memory of seeing limestone burial jars there because I didn’t know yet at the time that such things exist. To my surprise weeks later, while reading about the jars in the Internet, I found out that I had missed a good opportunity, that the Museum of the Filipino People in Manila had valuable artifacts that came from my hometown.

When I went back to Manila in October this year, I put the museum in the list of places that I must go to. And go there I was able to. And see the limestone burial jars I did. I also found out why I had not noticed the jars during my first visit, even if I had spent a long time in the galleries, inspected almost every item, and read all the labels. The first reason is that the sample Kulaman jars in the museum are unremarkable. There are three specimens only—a large quadrangular limestone jar with a gable-shaped lid, a medium-sized cylindrical limestone jar with a gable-shaped lid, and one anthropomorphic clay lid. The second reason is that the labels simply state “limestone urn” and does not indicate where the urns are from. The third reason is that the Kulaman jars are outshined by the other “archaeological treasures” in Don Vicente Madrigal Gallery. The Maitum jars, made of clay and have anthropomorphic lids, occupy most of the room. The Manunggul Jar, whose image used to be in the P1,000 bill, is also in the gallery. I must have been too busy staring at the famous jar to notice the lowly limestone ones.

The larger of the two Kulaman jars has a design on its body

that looks like joined sixes and nines. The smaller jar 

as a honeycomb design.