Synanthropic Insects Suggest Early Agricultural Use of Anthropogenic Landscapes in the Philippines

Abstract

Archaeological excavations in the agriculturally rich floodplains of Central Luzon (Philippines) have pushed back the chronology of land-use in the region by at least 1000 years. Insect remains recovered from excavated soil contexts in Pampanga prompted an archaeoentomological study. The exceptional exoskeletal preservation of these remains allowed their identification to at least the genus level and the explanation of their presence in these contexts as either pests or commensals. These results, complemented with archaeobotanical analysis of weeds from the same contexts, indicate the presence of anthropogenic ecological niches (i.e., food storages and paddy fields) around 1300 and 1000 years ago, when wet-rice agriculture was likely practised, and 700 years ago, with extensive paddy agriculture. This is the first study of its kind undertaken in the Philippines. It demonstrates the utility of synanthropic insects in identifying anthropogenic landscapes in a specific environmental setting, and its potential use within a larger regional research scope.