A historical documentary about two ancient gold treasures from the Philippines, which are currently on display at the prestigious Louvre Abu Dhabi until June 2023, reveals a long-forgotten history and gold-rich heritage of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
The chronicle traces the origin and discovery of the two fascinating gold artifacts—a burial mask from Butuan and a gold cup from Nabua, Camarines Sur—that date back between 900-1200 AD. They were loaned by the Ayala Museum and served as the first archaeological items from a Southeast Asian museum to be displayed at the Louvre Abu Dhabi in celebration of its fifth anniversary.
Produced by New Perspective Media Group in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in the UAE, it highlights the Ayala Museum’s permanent exhibition called “Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial Gold from the Philippines”.
The gallery, which houses more than 1,000 gold objects including the two loaned gold pieces, is dubbed one of the largest collections of archaeological artifacts in entire Southeast Asia.
Beyond the jaw-dropping scale and shining splendor of the gold treasures, Dr. Karen Remo, CEO and Founder of New Perspective Media Group and the documentary host, weaves an illuminating narration of pre-colonial Filipinos’ ingenuity in goldsmithing—which sheds light on their sophisticated way of life before the Spanish colonization in the 16th century.
Gold as big as eggs
The documentary dives into some historical accounts of Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian chronicler of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who led the expedition that proved the Earth was round.
In his circumnavigation journal, which was published in the 16th-century historical manuscript called the Boxers Codex, Pigafetta wrote: “Pieces of gold, of the size of walnuts and eggs, are found by sifting the earth in the island of that king [Rajah Siagu of Butuan] who came to our ships.”
Kenneth Esguerra, Ayala Museum’s Senior Curator and Head of Conservation, elaborates that this proves not only the abundance of the precious metal throughout the archipelago during the pre-colonial period but also the existence of a gold-rich civilization.
“When Antonio Pigafetta was invited for a meal and he entered one of the homes of the chieftains, he noticed that everything was made of gold. Meaning, it was part of Filipinos’ everyday life, from body adornment and jewelry to kitchen tools. Filipinos were so familiar with using gold because it was all over them on the islands,” Esguerra narrates.
Missing link to the past
Dr. Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, Ph.D., Curator of the Ayala Museum’s Gold of Ancestors exhibition, emphasizes that each piece in the collection serves as tangible evidence of a sophisticated society and strong cultural connections and maritime trade of early Filipinos with neighboring Asian countries such as China, India, and Indonesia.
“The collection shows how our early culture was advanced. We had an organized, stratified society with craft specialization among artisans and craftsmen. All this was unfortunately lost, or memory of it was lost, because of almost 400 years of Spanish colonization and westernization as well. And so, because of this sort of partial national amnesia, sometimes Filipinos are not as proud of our heritage as we should be because of this missing link that somehow has been blurred and almost erased by hundreds of years of foreign domination,” Capistrano-Baker explains.
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