Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - A Technologically Advanced Civilisation in the Philippines

A map of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Sunda region as it appeared roughly 25,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age, with locations of archaeological sites surveyed by the Mindoro Archaeology Project. The sites yielded artifacts with remarkably similar characteristics despite separation by thousands of kilometers and deep waters that are almost impossible to cross without sufficiently advanced seafaring knowledge and technology.

Base Map: www.gebco.net, 2014.

Philippine islands had technologically advanced maritime culture 35,000 years ago | News | Ateneo de Manila University

It’s shaping up to be another difficult week for creationists. Hot on the heels of news that humans were fighting and killing in northern Italy 7,000 years before the alleged ‘Creation Week’ and ‘The Fall’—events which biblical literalists claim introduced death into the world—comes fresh evidence of a sophisticated maritime culture flourishing in what is now the Philippines 18,000 years before that.

Another significant challenge for the creationist narrative is that, like the skeletal remains found in Italy, this archaeological evidence in the Philippines was not obliterated by the supposed global flood—an essential element of young Earth creationism for which there is no credible supporting evidence.

The discoveries in the Philippines were made by scientists from Ateneo de Manila University, in collaboration with international experts and institutions. Their research reveals early human migration, technological innovation, and long-distance intercultural connections dating back more than 35,000 years. The findings have been published in Archaeological Research in Asia, and are also explained in a news release from Ateneo de Manila University.

Background: Mindoro Archaeology Project.

Main archaeological sites surveyed and excavated by the Mindoro Archaeology Project on Occidental Mindoro and Ilin Island

Map Legend

Squares on the map: surveyed archaeological locations.
Highlighted clusters show major excavation zones like Bubog I & II and Salamagi.
The inset targets the region spanning southern Mindoro to Ilin Island—crucial for the project’s early maritime and coastal evidence.

Overview & Duration

A long‑term archaeological initiative launched around 2010, led by Ateneo de Manila University with international collaboration [1.1].
Focussed primarily on Occidental Mindoro, including Ilin Island, San Jose, and Sta. Teresa, with over 40 caves and rock‑shelters surveyed and excavated [2.1].

Chronology & Key Sites

Human presence dated between 35,000–40,000 years ago, marking some of the earliest evidence of modern humans in the Philippine archipelago [3.1].
Notable sites include Bubog 1 & 2, Cansubong 2, and Bilat Cave, with well‑preserved stratified deposits [2.1].

Subsistence & Maritime Technology

Early inhabitants exploited both marine and terrestrial resources, employing advanced techniques to catch reef and pelagic fish, even predatory species like bonito and shark [1.1].
Developed sophisticated shell‑based tool technology, including Tridacna giant‑clam adzes dating 7,000–9,000 years ago, with parallels across Island Southeast Asia and as far as Manus Island (3,000 km distance) [1.1].

Maritime Networks & Cultural Exchange

Mindoro has no land-bridge connection to the mainland—settlement required deliberate sea crossings, indicating advanced seafaring capability [1.1].
Tools and burial customs discovered show parallels with wider Island Southeast Asian traditions, pointing to long‑distance cultural transmission [4.1].

Burial Practices & Social Complexity

Discovery of 5,000‑year‑old burials on Ilin Island, flexed and covered by limestone slabs—rituals observed widely in Southeast Asia—suggests emerging ideological and social complexity [1.1].

Broader Significance

The project fills critical gaps in the prehistoric record of the Philippines and reshapes our understanding of early maritime human adaptation [2.1].
Offers fresh insight into the origins of Island Southeast Asia’s Stone‑Age maritime networks, revealing a sophisticated—I.e. intentional and culturally connected—ancient seafaring tradition [4.1].

Philippine islands had technologically advanced maritime culture 35,000 years ago
In 15 years of groundbreaking archaeological research, scientists from Ateneo de Manila University, working with international experts and institutions, have established compelling evidence of the pivotal role of the Philippine archipelago in ancient maritime Southeast Asia. They uncovered a story of effective human migration, advanced technological innovation, and long-distance intercultural relations dating back over 35,000 years.
The Ateneo researchers' latest publication presents a wealth of data and materials from the Mindoro Archaeology Project, including some of the oldest evidence of the presence of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) in the Philippine archipelago, in Occidental Mindoro—particularly on Ilin Island; San Jose; and Sta Teresa, Magsaysay.

Mindoro, like most of the main Philippine islands except for Palawan, was never connected to mainland Southeast Asia, neither by land bridges nor by ice sheets, and sea-crossings were always necessary to reach it. This likely spurred the development of sophisticated technologies for traversing and surviving this environment.

Evidence of sophisticated ancient technology on Philippine islands
A variety of finds such as human remains, animal bones, shells, and tools made from stone, bone and shell show that Mindoro’s early inhabitants successfully harnessed both terrestrial and marine resources such that, over 30,000 years ago, they already possessed seafaring capabilities and specific fishing skills that enabled them to catch predatory open-sea fish species, such as bonito and shark, and to establish connections with distant islands and populations in the vast maritime region of Wallacea.

Particularly noteworthy is the innovative use of shells as raw material for tools since more than 30,000 years ago. This culminated in the manufacture of adzes from giant clam shells (Tridacna species), dating back 7,000-9,000 years ago. These bear a striking similarity to shell adzes found across the region of Island Southeast Asia and as far as Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, over 3,000 kilometers away.

Samples of ancient technology discovered in and around Mindoro. Clockwise, from upper left: a bone fishing gorge (A) and a possible gorge fragment (B); hammer stones (A-F), pebble tools (G-L), and net sinkers (M, N); obsidian cutting tools from Mindoro (top) and Palawan (bottom), exhibiting similar chemical composition; and Tridacna giant clam shell adzes (A,B) and a shell tool (C).

Photos and figures by A. Pawlik; after Pawlik et al. 2025; Pawlik & Piper 2019; Neri et al., 2015.

The researchers also found on Ilin Island a human grave dating to around 5,000 years ago, with the body laid to rest in a fetal position and bedded and covered with limestone slabs. The manner of burial was similar to other flexed burials found across Southeast Asia, suggesting shared ideological and social influences and an emerging social complexity across a vast area from the mainland to distant islands.

Mindoro hints at vast, advanced maritime network

Mindoro’s archaeological sites have yielded evidence of culturally sophisticated inhabitants who were behaviorally and technologically adapted to coastal and marine environments. Collectively, these discoveries suggest that Mindoro and nearby Philippine islands were part of an extensive maritime network that existed already during the Stone Age and facilitated cultural and technological exchange between early human populations across Island Southeast Asia for many millennia.

By documenting human habitation over a long period of time, with the emergence of advanced subsistence strategies and maritime technologies, the Mindoro Archaeology Project not only fills critical gaps in the prehistoric record of the Philippines but also redefines the region’s significance in the broader narrative of human migration and adaptation in Island Southeast Asia.

The latest publication of the Mindoro Archeology Project is authored by the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Sociology and Anthropology’s Dr Alfred F Pawlik, Dr Riczar B. Fuentes, and Dr Tanya Uldin; together with Dr Marie Grace Pamela G Faylona of the University of the Philippines - Diliman Department of Anthropology, De La Salle University Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences, and Philippine Normal University College of Advanced Studies; and Trishia Gayle R Palconit, PhD student at the University of Ferrara, Italy.

Publication:
Pawlik, A. F., Fuentes, R. B., Faylona, M. G. P. G., Palconit, T. G. R., & Uldin, T. (2025).
Chronology and ecology of early islanders in the Philippines: The Mindoro Archaeology Project.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 42, 100616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2025.100616

Abstract
The investigation and excavation of caves and rockshelters located at the southern end of Occidental Mindoro produced significant artefacts, data, and information related to the initial arrival and colonization of the Philippine archipelago by anatomically modern humans. The sites provided several indications for the increasing adaptation to maritime environments and delivered evidence for their behavioural and technological complexity. Mindoro lies along a direct route to reach the main islands of the Philippines coming from the Asian mainland via Borneo and Palawan. Since 2010, surveys conducted in the karstic regions of Ilin Island and Sta. Teresa, Magsaysay have mapped and explored over 40 caves and rockshelters. Particularly the sites of Bubog 1, Bubog 2, Cansubong 2 Cave, and Bilat Cave, have delivered cultural and biological materials that chronicle human habitation and adaptation to maritime and coastal environments over a period of 35–40,000 years. Early islanders in the region intensively foraged for molluscs and other marine invertebrates along the coast, employed different techniques to catch a variety of reef and pelagic fish as well as terrestrial animals, and were embedded in maritime networks with access to transfer routes, through which technology, information, and ideologies were disseminated over long distances and across Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and possibly also reaching the Southeast Asian mainland. The results of the archaeological research in Mindoro contribute to our understanding of the processes of human island adaptation, complement ongoing research on the peopling of Southeast Asia, and enhance current knowledge of prehistoric subsistence strategies across the region.

Pawlik, A. F., Fuentes, R. B., Faylona, M. G. P. G., Palconit, T. G. R., & Uldin, T. (2025).
Chronology and ecology of early islanders in the Philippines: The Mindoro Archaeology Project.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 42, 100616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2025.100616

© 2025 Elsevier B.V.
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

These findings directly contradict the core tenets of young Earth creationism. The timeline alone — placing humans in the Philippines tens of thousands of years before the biblical date for creation (roughly 6,000 years ago) — is irreconcilable with a literal reading of Genesis. Furthermore, the intact archaeological record refutes the notion of a global flood around 4,300 years ago, which according to creationist belief, would have obliterated such evidence. Finally, the presence of death, subsistence hunting, and burial rituals predating the supposed “Fall” undermines the claim that death entered the world only after Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

In sum, this study offers robust evidence for a deep human prehistory that is entirely at odds with the biblical narrative, but wholly consistent with evolutionary anthropology and archaeology.

Advertisement

What Makes You So Special? From The Big Bang To You

How did you come to be here, now? This books takes you from the Big Bang to the evolution of modern humans and the history of human cultures, showing that science is an adventure of discovery and a source of limitless wonder, giving us richer and more rewarding appreciation of the phenomenal privilege of merely being alive and able to begin to understand it all.

Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Audio book or eBook for Kindle

Ten Reasons To Lose Faith: And Why You Are Better Off Without It

This book explains why faith is a fallacy and serves no useful purpose other than providing an excuse for pretending to know things that are unknown. It also explains how losing faith liberates former sufferers from fear, delusion and the control of others, freeing them to see the world in a different light, to recognise the injustices that religions cause and to accept people for who they are, not which group they happened to be born in. A society based on atheist, Humanist principles would be a less divided, more inclusive, more peaceful society and one more appreciative of the one opportunity that life gives us to enjoy and wonder at the world we live in.

Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Audio book or ebook for Kindle

Amazon