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The Butuan Ivory Seal or BIS is an ivory stamp or seal stamp or a privy seal associated with a Rhinoceros Ivory Tusk , dated 9th–12th century, was found in Libertad,
Butuan Butuan (pronounced ), officially the City of Butuan (; Butuanon: ''Dakbayan hong Butuan''; ), is a highly urbanized city and the regional center of Caraga, Philippines. It is the '' de facto'' capital of the province of Agusan del Norte ...
in Agusan del Norte in southern
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. Inscribed on the seal is the word ''Butban'' in stylized Kawi. ''Butban'' was presumed to stand for Butuan. The ivory seal is now housed at the
National Museum of the Philippines The National Museum of the Philippines () is an umbrella government organization that oversees a number of national museums in the Philippines, including Ethnography, ethnographic, Anthropology, anthropological, Archaeology, archaeological, an ...
.


Discovery

Another archaeological piece with ancient inscription, the Butuan Ivory Seal was recovered in the 1970s by pot hunters in a prehistoric shell midden site in Ambangan, Libertad, Butuan in Agusan del Norte. Made of ivory, the object could have been used to stamp documents or
goods In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
during trading. The ivory seal as well as other archaeological materials recovered in Ambangan archaeological sites are proof that Rajahnate of Butuan was an important trading center whose official seal marked the source of commodities it produced and exported. The innovation of substitution of phoneme /b/ with /w/ and sandhi of /wa/ equal of /u/ followed by /a/ can be found in Javanese, thus the block uTba] -related to Butwan and later Butuan.


Transcription


Dating

Dated 1002 A.D., the seal could have been used for documentation in trading, Butuan was the center of trade and commerce in northeastern
Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...
since 10th century. There were other notable discoveries like the Ivory Seal and the Silver Paleograph, Gold and tools for gold processing of ornaments have also been recovered from a village site Over a hundred clay crucibles and tools for the processing of gold items were discovered in the area, leading to the conclusion that an extensive gold ornaments industry was located in these areas as far back as a thousand years ago. Altogether, these data demonstrate that Butuan was a thriving international trading port a thousand years ago. This site has a tremendous historical impact in the
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
n region.


See also

*
Kawi script The Kawi script or the Old Javanese script (, ) is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to en ...
, the writing system used in the Butuan ivory seal; * Rajahnate of Butuan, the historical polity related to the Butuan ivory seal; * Butuan Silver Paleograph, a similar artifact with a still-undeciphered script; * Golden Tara, another artifact from precolonial Butuan;


References

{{Asia in topic, Hinduism in Hinduism in the Philippines 1002 in Asia History of the Philippines (900–1565) Philippine scripts Malay inscriptions Collection of the National Museum of the Philippines Butuan 1002 works Ivory works of art 1970 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in the Philippines