ORIGIN OF THE PHILIPPINES

ORIGIN OF THE PHILIPPINES

It is believed that before the end of the Ice Age, about 70,000,000 years ago, our country was connected to the mainland of Asia by long strips of land. These strips of land served as land bridges. It was said that people in the mainland could travel by land to the Philippines without crossing the sea.

After the Ice Age, high tide occurred. Large blocks of ice melted. It was during this high tide that the land bridges submerged in water. The Philippines was then separated from Asia.

The similarity of the natural plants and animals in the mainland of Asia and that of the Philippines may prove that the Philippines were once a part of the mainland of Asia.

There are several theories given by scientists as to the origin of the Filipinos. One of these theories explains that the Philippines was once inhabited by the Tabon men who resembled the Java men and who lived about 250,000 years ago. These people lived in caves and used stones as tools for gathering food.

A famous American archaeologist, three waves of people came to the Philippines from the Asian peninsula. These were the Aetas, Indonesians and Malays.

The Aetas

The Aetas or Negritoes were the first group of people who came to the Philippines through the land bridges. They were small, about four feet tall. They had dark skin, flat noses, thick lips and black kinky hair. They used bows and arrows as weapons. They used &yes and barks of trees for their clothing.

The Aetas were a wandering people. They had no permanent home. Most of them lived in caves at the mountainsides. Sometimes, they made temporary shelter made of twigs and leaves of trees. They moved from one place to another to get food. They gathered fruits, root crops and edible plants around.

The descendants of the Aetas can still be found in the mountains of Luzon, Mindanao, Panay, Mindoro and Palawan. They are sometimes called Ita, Baluga, Agta or Ati.