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Boats of the Precolonial Philippines: Butuan Boats

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Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

The Butuan Boats (also known as balanghai/balangay) refer to the incomplete remains of planked boats excavated from about 2 m of waterlogged alluvial sediments in Barangay Libertad, Butuan City, Philippines (Fig. 1). Reports say that the remains of between 9 and 11 boats have been discovered by looters along what are believed to be the shores of a former river, all within a 1 km radius (Cembrano, 1998; Clark et al., 1993; Ronquillo, 1997; Salcedo, 1998). However, archaeological researchers have only confirmed six sites to date.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Map of the Philippines showing the location of Butuan City (Map: d-maps.com)

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References

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank AINSE Ltd for providing financial assistance (Award No. 13504) to enable the AMS C-14 analysis of Butuan Boat samples. Thanks also to ANSTO, FPRDI, Flinders University, and the National Museum of the Philippines for supporting the author’s research.

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Correspondence to Ligaya Lacsina .

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Lacsina, L. (2014). Boats of the Precolonial Philippines: Butuan Boats. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10279-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10279-1

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