Maritime Trade in the Philippines During the 15th Century CE

Abstract

The period from the 15th to the 17th centuries CE in the Southeast Asian region has been termed as the "Age of Commerce". It is characterised by marked delineation of societies, unprecedented urban expansion and the formation of states largely derived from a vibrant sea-borne trade not only within the countries of the region but also with China in the east and India and the Arab states in the west. Historical and archaeological sources indicate that the 15th century set the stage for the entry of Southeast Asia into the maritime economy that linked east and west prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century CE. What was the impact of this regional trade in the Philippines? Recent archaeological research has generated a significant corpus of data from terrestrial and submerged sites during the Philippine protohistoric period (c. 9th–16th centuries CE). This paper will present the archaeological investigation results of three shipwrecks (Pandanan, Lena Shoal and Santa Cruz) and three terrestrial sites (Tanjay, Cebu, Calatagan) in an attempt to elucidate the process of how foreign archaeological materials were brought into the Philippines and if these materials used by the existing local societies during that period.