Prehistory of the Philippines

Hominins first arrived in the Philippines during a period of lower global sea levels between 1 million years ago (1 mya) to 700,000 years ago (700 kya). Early migrations to its largest island Luzon happened in the Pleistocene and most likely began from the south in Borneo, an island once connected to mainland Asia. From there, hominins crossed narrow sea barriers and reached Luzon by passing through Palawan then Mindoro. The oldest known hominin fossils belong to the extinct Homo luzonensis, which inhabited present-day Cagayan Valley around 67 kya. The species was characterized by its short stature and relatively small brain.

The Philippines' early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers. Apart from wild pigs, deer, and bovines, they hunted a diverse range of large animals like rhinoceros, giant turtles, and elephants. The tools they manufactured were made of stone and were simple, irregularly shaped, convenient, and disposable. Dark-skinned, short-statured, and frizzy-haired peoples called Aytas or Negritos reached the archipelago by about 50–40 kya and were the first anatomically modern humans to do so.

The current demarcation between this period and the early history of the Philippines is April 21, 900, which is the equivalent on the Proleptic Gregorian calendar for the date indicated on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription—the earliest known surviving written record to come from the Philippines. This period saw the immense change that took hold of the archipelago from Stone Age cultures in 50000 BC to the emergence of coastal trading centers in the fourth century, continuing on with the gradual widening of trade until 900 and the first surviving written records.