The Great Ifugao War: A Study in Archaeology and Oral History

Abstract

XCAVATIONS begun in central Ifugao Province of northern Luzon in 1961(Fig. 1; Maher 1973) were resumed in 1973 on an expanded scale.Where , four sites in two agricultural districts were investigated through excavations in 1961, the 1973 research produced excavations at eleven village sites in four agricultural districts, Bannawol, Amganad, Nabyun, and Pu'itan.One of the sites, If-3, had been investigated in 1961 and yielded a surprisingly early radiocarbon date of 2950 ± 250 B.P. Previously permission to dig in the midden areas below the site had been refused.In 1973, however, the owners were more agreeable, and that part of the site received extensive testing at the outset of the new season.The other ten sites-selected for their locations relative to the drainage system of their particular district-were all new.The recent excavations have produced many times more artifacts and other information than the earlier research, and analysis is by no means complete.Nevertheless, there was a special discovery which can be examined separately from the rest.Toward the close of the field season, while excavating at Gawwa, a village of the Pu'itan district located deep in the valley virtually on the banks of the Alemet River (Fig. 2, Plate I), we encountered a rough slab of stone in one of the 5-foot exploratory squares.Only 8 inches from the surface at the north end of the square, the stone extended completely across its east-west dimension and slanted to a depth of 16 inches at its southern edge, 2 feet from the southern limit of the square (Fig. 3).In the southwest corner was a smaller, flat stone 2t feet long and 2 feet wide.The remainder of the square's floor at that depth was earth.While the large stone was firmly set in place, the smaller one, once free of its overburden of earth, could be lifted easily.Beneath it was an open space of the horizontal dimensions of the small stone and extending 21 inches below it.Examination revealed that it continued to the north under the large stone.It was found, indeed, that it could be

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