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Isles of Garrisons: remote sensing Ijangs in northern Philippines (sixteenth-century)

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Abstract

The paper revisits the notion of openness or passive receptiveness of Island Southeast Asia to trading and raiding in light of historical geographic data on the northern Philippines that indicate the presence of garrison or ijang complexes that were equipped with prepositioned cannons or lantakas that operated in tandem with an early warning system facilitated by indigenous fast craft vessels. The paper utilizes primary and secondary sixteenth-century historical records with information about the potential location of these Ijangs with lantakas in some cases using incidental intelligence. Some examples are also provided wherein Ijangs in subsequent centuries when the archipelago became a colony started to be reconfigured as fortified Churches oriented towards defense from attacks originating not only from the sea but also from the mountain interiors. Remote Sensing was done using data from high resolution WorldView3 and WorldView2 satellites (DigitalGlobe Foundation) as well as ArcGIS Online World Imagery (Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA FSA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community).

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Notes

  1. The Baratao/Atuley site data was also mentioned as one of the settlements in Canilao (2017).

  2. The Cabugao–SanJuan site data was also mentioned as one of the settlements in Canilao (2018).

  3. The Vigan site data was also mentioned as one of the settlements in Canilao (2018).

  4. The Santa Maria site data also mentioned as one of the settlements in Canilao (2018).

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the DigitalGlobe Foundation for archived satellite imagery grants of Northwestern Luzon. The DigitalGlobe Foundation content partnership with Hexagon Geospatial also provided short term license for remote sensing software. The author would like to acknowledge the Field Museum for use of photographs of Lantakas. World Imagery data was also accessed through ArcGIS online (Sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA FSA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community). Fieldwork and data from Ilocos Sur was assembled through the first and second season of the Ilocos Sur Archaeology Project (ISAP 2011, 2012), which was made possible by the Provincial Government of Ilocos Sur in collaboration with the Archaeological Studies Program of University of the Philippines Diliman and the National Museum (Philippines). The author would also like to acknowledge Dr. Victor J. Paz the thesis adviser (MA Archaeology) who also directed the author’s archaeology field school (Archaeo 206) at Bulalacao, Mindoro in Summer 2006. The author would also like to acknowledge the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for use of ASTER GDEM data. The author would also like to thank PhilGIS.Org for open access vector GIS data for educational and nonprofit use.

Funding

Funding was provided by DigitalGlobe Foundation (Grant Nos. 2017, 2018), Provincial Government of Ilocos Sur, Philippines (Grant No. 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA

    Michael Armand P. Canilao

  2. Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

    Michael Armand P. Canilao

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  1. Michael Armand P. Canilao
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Correspondence to Michael Armand P. Canilao.

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Canilao, M.A.P. Isles of Garrisons: remote sensing Ijangs in northern Philippines (sixteenth-century). GeoJournal 84, 1281–1301 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9921-0

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