Crafting Containers for Ancestors: Understanding Secondary Burial in Earthenware Jars from Manunggul Cave, Palawan

Anna Pineda1*, Andrea Dominique Cosalan3, Seth Tala4, Sherina Aggarao4, Tracey Pilgrim1, and Mathieu Leclerc1,5

Rather than viewing the jars solely as containers for the dead, the paper highlights the social and ritual significance embedded in their production, emphasising the intimate relationship between craft, burial practices, and the treatment of the deceased. In secondary burial jar sites, the pottery is often primarily interpreted as funerary containers or as votive objects. However, these interpretations overlook the significance of the manufacturing process itself within the mortuary practice. This study reconsiders the earthenware ceramics associated with secondary burials at Manunggul Cave in Palawan, a site that produced distinct earthenware vessels in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) approximately 2,000 years ago. Building on preliminary analyses conducted in the 1970s, we integrate new data on both the ceramic assemblage, and the associated human remains to reassess the role of pottery at the site. By examining ceramic manufacturing techniques and drawing on ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts on pottery production the Philippines and ISEA, we explore how the act of making these vessels may have formed an integral component of mortuary practice.