Robert Bradford Fox (1918–1985) was an anthropologist and leading historian on pre-

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

Philippines. In 1958, Fox led a National Museum team in conducting extensive excavations on two sites at Calatagan,

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( ), is a first class province of the Philippines located in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Calabarzon region. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,908,494 people, making ...

, in what may be considered the first systematic excavation involving the National Museum in the country. His report, published in 1959, was based on artifacts and information derived from 505 graves in two sites known as Kay Tomas and Pulong Bakaw. In the 1960s, by then the head of the Anthropology Division of 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 ...

, he led a six-year archaeological research project in Palawan, focusing mainly on the caves and rockshelters of Lipuun Point in the southern part of the island. Its most outstanding site is the Tabon Cave complex, the large main cave delivered the only

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

human fossils found in the Philippines to date. The fossil finds include a skullcap, jaw bones, teeth and several other fragmented bones. Dubbed the " Tabon Man", the finds represent more than just one individual. Their age has been determined using

radiometric dating Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to Chronological dating, date materials such as Rock (geology), rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurity, impurities were selectively incorporat ...

, giving dates between 16500 ±2000 B.P for the skull cap and 48,000 ±11,000 B.P. for a

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

fragment. Fox actively served the

from 1948 to 1975. In 1975, while serving as consultant to the Philippine President on anthropological matters and as Dean of Brent School in

Baguio Baguio ( , , ), officially the City of Baguio (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...

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 ...

, he had a stroke which impaired his speech and right arm, preventing him from pursuing his teaching and research work. Subsequent strokes left him confined to home until his death in 1985. Besides his service with the National Museum, Fox taught at the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

and served as Presidential Assistant for National Minorities. An obituary appeared in

The Journal of Asian Studies ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is the flagship journal of the Association for Asian Studies, publishing peer-reviewed academic scholarship in the field of Asian studies. Its acceptance rate is approximately 6%. Each issue circulates over 8,20 ...

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Partial bibliography

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Partial bibliography

References

See also