We knew we needed some Eme, Jon, and Kian (all three of us together) pictures, so we went back to the Butuan Museum to take the photos because they have a nice garden there. It's actually a bit difficult to find a nice place for a picture around Butuan. This town is friendly, simple, and peaceful...but it's not a tourist destination. It's a center of commerce for northern Mindanao because of the Agusan River (deepest and most navigable river in Mindanao) and because of its sheltered harbor.
It's been this way for more than a 1000 years - based on the artifacts we viewed at the Butuan National Museum, including beads and pottery from China and Persia (Iran).
If the guide had not directed my attention to this "sculpture" I would not
have realized it is a sun dial! Click on the picture to enlarge it -- can you
figure out how it works? The answer is at the bottom of this post.
Added this photo after returning from a second trip
for more more photos.
Butuan's location is a lot like other famous river deltas, including the periodic shifting of the river channel through the ages. Butuan is famous for important archaeological discoveries made during the 1970s. Turns out Butuan was the major trade center in the Philippines a thousand to hundreds of years ago. The most famous artifacts are the Balanghai boats (try a Google search because we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum). These are the earliest sea-going boats known from the Philippines. Unlike the common "pambot", which is similar the fast Hawaiian V-hulled canoe-like boats with outrigger floats for stability, the Balanghai boat was single-hulled and had a flat bottom and greater beam (width). It was for bringing cargo to market and would have sailed mostly in coastal waters. Propulsion was with paddles, poles (in shallows), and possibly simple sails.
A statue erected by the city of Butuan to showcase the balanghai boats discovered here.
The problem with this statue is the outrigger for stability.
These boats didn't have the outrigger because they had flat bottoms and were quite stable.
The museum is about 70 meters away, but apparently no one took the time to visit the exhibit
so they'd have a correct replica for their statue.
One thing I found interesting was the amount of goldsmithing done here hundreds of years ago. Even today there is a lot of gold in the hills of Mindanao (and it is being exploited on the backs of exploited Filipino workers and the environment), but back in the day, the gold was derived from the Agusan river. The main reason gold was valued for making ornaments and jewelry was simply because it was easy to work with at relatively low temperatures, it was attractive, and it didn't tarnish. It wasn't all hyped up like it is today --- which when you think about it is kind of stupid and crazy. It's a completely irrational and almost arbitrary commodity we covet and lust after because....???. It reminds me of the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy" when the ignorant tribesman sees an empty Coca-Cola bottle fall from the sky (trash tossed from the window of a small plane), and he instantly interprets it as a gift from the Gods and is overcome by it's shiny and transparent sculpted beauty --- which he and an entire village grow to covet, with destructive consequences. He ultimately decides to take the bottle on a long walk and toss it off the edge of the Earth. High Five!!
I spent a bit of time looking at the gold pieces. The total amount of gold by mass borders on significant, especially at today's prices. I'd say there are several thousand dollars (by mass) in the cases. The sculpting and fabrication of the pieces is impressive.
A filipina guide was already giving a group of filipinos a tour of the exhibit and they had all noticed I was explaining a lot of the geology and archeology to Eme (they were actually listening to me from afar). As we exited the exhibit the guide spoke to Eme in visaya: "This is the first time I've seen a foreigner explaining everything to a filipino. Your husband is very knowledgeable. May I ask him some questions?" First she asked me about my education and what my job is. I inferred she is mostly working from a script (like a guide at Luray Caverns), but she did tell me that most of the excavations were conducted by the Smithsonian, which I found interesting because there are plenty of filipino scientists shown in photos (I'm sure Smithsonian involved Philippine university scientists).
She asked me to walk around with her to exhibits where I'd spent a longer amount of time explaining things to Eme. She would say "Tell me, what do you think of this?" At first I just said "I think it's great". But she pressed me for more until I realized she wanted me to give my interpretations and reactions to what I was seeing. A few times she wanted me to compare the quality of the artifacts to others I've seen elsewhere. Thankfully, I didn't have to be gracious --- the artifacts are world class and way more impressive than I was expecting.
THE SUN DIAL:
Because we are almost on the equator, the sun traverses the sky directly overhead every day, its path splitting the sky into two equal halves each day. Furthermore, there are almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, each day, all 365 days a year. This orientation of the sun's path, and sunrise at 6 am everyday and sunset at 6 pm everyday, allows for a very simple sun dial design. In this case, the sun dial has been artfully enhanced to resemble the famous Balanghai boats. Between the bow and stern you will see a metal bar. Now find the hull of the boat and notice that the widest part of the boat, in the center, has a white arc facing upward, with numbers painted on it. The shadow of the bar on this arc indicates the time of day. I love it....but it only works on or very near the equator.
