CAGAYAN
DE ORO AND ITS SURROUNDING were occupied by humans around 350 AD.
Signs of ancient habitation were discovered in 1970 by field researchers
of the National Museum. The researchers were exploring Huluga, a place eight kilometers south of the present Cagayan de Oro City.

Huluga settlement as interpreted by Nonoy
Estarte of Museo de Oro, Xavier University.
Huluga is a promontory with two main sections: a set of caves and an Open Site . The Open Site appears to be the village of the original people of Cagayan de Oro.
Inside the cave were skeletons, pots, potsherds, tools, possibly Indian glass beads, Chinese pot fragments, and vestiges of possibly Annamese and Thai wares -- indications of overseas trading. The Open Site yielded potsherds, Chinese celadon sherds, and obsidian flakes.

Archaeologist Dr. Erlinda M. Burton sent a skull fragment to Dr. Jeffrey Bada of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, where it was subjected to amino acid racemization, a dating technique. Bada then wrote a letter to Burton, stating that the sample came from 1,600 BP (before present) or 350 AD, during the Late Neolithic Period. More.
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