Lapuz Lapuz Cave

Lapuz Lapuz Cave is a cave in Bulabog Putian National Park in Moroboro, Dingle, Iloilo in the Philippines. It is 90 m (295.3 ft) long. The limestone area at its south end is adjacent to Jalaur River, while the north side is adjacent to the Tambunac River.

A small test conducted by Coutts, Wesson, and Santiago, in Lapuz Lapuz cave in 1977 contained large numbers of stone tools, shells, bones, and some pottery. In 1978, Coutts returned to conduct a full excavation of the cave

In an auger survey conducted by two geologists, Dr. Robert Watson and Ms. Rosalind Cochrane, they discovered that the floor sediments were over 5 m (16 ft) deep. Although many layers were discovered, only two are in situ; Layer 1 is heavily disturbed. Radiocarbon dates were given using charcoal present in Layers 2 and 3. Layer 2 is dated at 760 ± 100 years BP, while Layer 3 is dated 580 ± 200 years BP. These dates are within one standard deviation apart, and hence are considered to be contemporaneous layers.

Peaks in shell concentrations in the cave suggests that different sections of the floor were used shell dumps. Twenty-one species of molluscs that was recovered include genera such as Rhysota, Helicostyla, Cyclophorus, Obba, and Thiara. Of the five specified genera, only Thiara lives in a freshwater environment. The other molluscs dwell in the forest surrounding Lapuz Lapuz cave.

More than 77,000 animals bones were recovered and 30% of these were identified to taxon. All layers contained remains of bat, deer, pig, rat, monkey, civet, lizard, snake, bird, turtle, fish, crab and frog remains.

1,815 earthenware pot sherds were recovered from the excavation. Most of them were undisturbed, but some have developed cracks and encrustations due to calcium carbonate. It is possible that calcium carbonate was deposited by water seeping through the sediments. None of the vessels were completely symmetrical, it is likely that the vessels were constructed using a paddle and anvil. Based on surface finishing, the sherds were grouped as follows:

Around 70 cores, 3976 waste flakes, and 263 tools were recovered from Lapuz Lapuz. About 98% of waste flakes recovered are made of cryptocrystalline quartz (chert). The remaining flakes were made of tektite, basalt, and andesite. Experiments indicate that using cores made of cryptocrystalline quartz from the Jalaud River and hard hammer percussion produces large numbers of flakes, of which less than 6% are conchoidal.

Among the twenty-one species of molluscs were found in the excavation, the two significant species found were the terrestrial land snail Rhysota rhea and Thiara (Melanoides) tuberculata. Rhysota composes 70 to 80% of the recovered mollusks by weight, while Thiara represents only around 15%. The reason behind this disparity can be based on the ease of obtaining the mollusc, the amount of meat for a given weight of shell, and the nutritional value of the mollusc.