Program Year: 2010
Grantee: National Commission for Culture and Arts
Grant Amount: US$19,500
Awarding Agency: Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy in the Philippines
Project Summary: The Project made a full documentation of the Tabon Cave Complex, which consists of some 200 caves and rock shelters located in a limestone promontory coast of Western Palawan and hold evidence that the first modern humans in the Philippines arrived during the Pleistocene era. The main cave, the Tabon Cave, is the site where possibly the oldest Homo sapiens fossil evidence in Southeast Asia in the form of a tibia fragment (dating to 47,000 +/- 11-10,000 years ago) has been found. The project also produced still photographs and video under the guidance of a professional archaeologist to update and complement the earlier documentation and studies done by the National Museum.
Citation: The Tabon Cave Complex is listed as a National Cultural Treasure in the Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties.
Status: Completed in August 2011