Tabon Man (Tabon Caves)
Hombre de Tabon (cuevas de Tabon)
- Date
- c. 47 ka (discutido) · confidence low
- Place
- Tabon Caves, Quezon, Palawan, Philippines
- Credited to
- Robert B. Fox and the National Museum of the Philippines (excavation, 1962)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A cave complex excavated since 1962 that yielded Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens fragments and thousands of flakes. For decades it was the oldest proof of human presence in the Philippines.
Uranium-thorium dates for the human remains range from about 47 ka to about 16 ka depending on the fragment; the most-cited age (c. 47 ka) for the oldest bone is considered unreliable. Charcoal from the cave gives c. 24-22 ka.
What it led to
- chronological framework for early settlement of the Philippines
- baseline for comparison with Callao Man (c. 67 ka) and Homo luzonensis
- Tabon as a symbol of Philippine prehistory