| Abstract: |
Introduction: The Lal-lo shellmiddens are located in Cagayan Province, Lal-lo municipality, between the towns of Gattaran and Lal-lo, east of the Cagayan River in northeast Luzon (18°07'N, 120041'E) (Fig. 1). The site is not a true shell mound in the sense of one large, deep mound or midden, but rather a series of scattered midden areas that occur in an area over one kilometer long and from 50 to 200 m east of the river (Fig. 2). I heard that there are also middens several kilometers north of this area, but I did not have time to survey that region. The Cagayan River at this point is approximately 8 m above sea level. There is a rise of a few meters at the river bank, and then level to gradual rising land to the east for 50 to 150 m, and then hills east of that. Midden areas can be detected by shell and/or sherds exposed on the surface. There are midden areas on the level land at the base of the hills, and on the slopes and tops of the hills. The Cagayan Valley National Road, which runs along the western edge of the midden areas, was rebuilL during 1969-1972. During this time tlIt
western edge of some of the midden areas was bulldozed away for use as landfill for the road. As a result, the location and thickness of the midden areas that were cut into can be seen in the roadcut. These vary in thickness between 20 em and one meter. They are often overlain by 10-20 em of soil. Many midden areas are also present to the east of the roadcut, and have shell and sherds on the surface. These midden areas very from a few meters to over 70 m in length or width. At a few places in the roadcut it looks like the deposits are 2-4 m deep, but this is not actually the case. When parts of these middens were bulldozed away the shell and sherds from some of the remainder of the deposit washed down onto the soil of the hill below the deposits, making them look much deeper than they actually are. On closer inspection these areas can be seen to be erosional. There is no location along the roadcut where the cultural deposit is thicker than 1.5 m, though this does not necessarily mean there are no deeper deposits elsewhere. This particular kilometer-long area would have been better-suited to prehistoric occupation than either the region directly to the north or south, which are broad, low-lying regions, because it has a somewhat higher elevation and would have been less subject to flooding. In 1972, an archaeologist then at the National Museum of the Philippines conducted a brief test excavation and found shell, pottery, ground stone tools, and a few other artifacts (Cabanilla n.d.), but the results of the excavation have never been reported
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