Pre-Colonial Shell Heaps Discovered in Batangas

In archaeology, a midden is an ancient refuse or garbage heap. It is often made up of discarded shells from mollusks such as clams and oysters, together with other household waste like animal bones, broken pottery, charcoal, and tools.

What may look like a pile of trash to ordinary people may, in fact, be a vital record of daily life, diet, and ritual — and in archeological terms, it may be something of a goldmine.. It was through such middens that archaeologists first uncovered evidence of pre-colonial life in coastal areas of the Province of Batangas.

Shell heaps in Calatagan were systematically studied beginning in 1958 under the direction of the American anthropologist Robert B. Fox, who worked in the Philippines for decades. He is best remembered for his work at the Tabon Caves in Palawan in the 1960’s.

The image above is an AI-generated depiction of a possible archeological site showing middens.

The work in Batangas culminated in the landmark report “The Calatagan Excavations: Two Fifteenth-Century Burial Sites in Batangas, Philippines,” published in 1959.¹ Excavations focused on sites known as Kay Tomas and Pulong Bakaw, both west of Poblacion Calatagan, where middens were found in association with graves.

Decades later, in 1997, the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program returned to Calatagan and opened the Kay Daing Hill site, a low rise east of the Calatagan shell burial sites, overlooking the fishpond areas and mangrove swamps. There, archeologists uncovered layers of habitation debris that included shell refuse and pottery shards.²

Finds were also reported in Nasugbu, but by contrast, no excavation report of equal detail exists in the scholarly literature. The archaeological record there remains fragmentary and unsystematic, unlike the carefully documented work in Calatagan.

The significance of the Calatagan middens lies in what they reveal. Shellfish remains show how heavily the people relied on marine resources. These heaps are not just leftovers from meals but testimony to the intimate link between community and coast.

Associated finds demonstrate that these were not simple fishing villages. Imported Chinese ceramics, found among the refuse and in burials, speak of trade ties extending across Asia. Most of these point to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), but a few were from the earlier Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) periods.

Ornaments of glass, gold, and copper, together with metal implements, show that craft specialization and social status distinctions were present. The burials themselves, sometimes with skulls deliberately separated from the body, suggest complex rituals surrounding death and remembrance.

Dating of the Calatagan finds relies largely on the associated ceramics, which point to a late pre-Hispanic horizon, roughly the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.³ This was the eve of Spanish arrival, yet the material culture uncovered demonstrates that Batangas already had a thriving and connected society.

The most famous object from the area, the so-called Calatagan Pot, is a small clay vessel about twelve centimeters high, with incised inscriptions that may represent an early form of writing.⁴

Archaeologists also found bones of pigs and deer, showing that the community’s diet extended beyond shellfish. Broken pottery and hearth remains point to domestic life on the Calatagan peninsula. The shell heaps, when studied carefully, even preserved information about seasonality, as different shellfish species were gathered at different times of the year.

Altogether, these findings paint a picture of a people who lived with the sea, fed from it, and built a culture enriched by both local production and long-distance trade. Far from being marginal, Batangas stood at the edge of maritime networks that connected the Philippines with China and beyond.

The middens, humble as they may seem, are part of that story.

Their greater significance lies in how they extend Batangas history deep into pre-colonial times. They show that communities here had well-formed economies, craft skills, rituals, and foreign contacts centuries before Spanish colonization.

They also remind us that archaeological sites are fragile. Many middens have already been disturbed by farming and development. Protecting what remains ensures that future generations can continue to learn from these ancient heaps of shells, which are in truth archives of Batangas culture and identity.