Diorama 1: Cagayan Valley Life, circa 750,000 BC

Cagayan Valley Life, circa 750,000 BC. Possibly the earliest evidence of the presence of ancestral humans in the Philippines has been found in Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon. Two flake stone tools were recovered in a tilted earth layer called the Cabalwan anticline. These two stone tools are the earliest man-made objects in the Philippines. In the same rock formation were the remains of elephas, which is an ancient relative of the elephant. At about this time in China, the Homo erectus or Peking Man was already building fires. In Indonesia, the Java Man, who was of the same species although dating to as early as 1.75 million years ago, was already walking about in Sangiran. It is possible that the species of man that lived in Cagayan Valley 750,000 years ago might be of this same species, that is, if he was not an early form of Homo sapiens. Being incapable of hunting down healthy and vigorous animals, early man probably exploited the young, the old, and infirm animals that were incapable of swift flight. Trapping would have been the more efficient method of capturing animals. The people subsisted mostly by foraging, consuming plants, fruits, shoots, and smaller mammals and water creatures in rivers and streams. Populations all over the world that are food gatherers have been considered a leisurely class since they spend only a little of their time in getting their daily food. This also must have been the case with the early man of Cagayan Valley.