National Treasure Finally Deciphered:
Calatagan Pot Ancient Inscriptions

After almost sixty (60) years the Philippine’s National Treasure, Calatagan pot with ancient inscriptions is finally deciphered! It is in a book “Deciphered Secrets of Calatagan Pot Ancient Inscriptions” booklaunched on October 1, 2008 at the U.P Faculty Center, Diliman, Quezon City. See www.decipheredcalataganpotscripts.com

The Calatagan Pot Ancient Inscriptions is a shaman’s ritual vessel. It is the only prehistoric document of the Philippines. It is trully an archaeological evidence of prehistoric writing in the Philippines. By its provenience, it is dated 10th Century A.D. It is the protype of the 1593 Doctrina Christiana baybayin scripts.

The Autronesian language by which the Calatagan pot scripts was written, was in a homogeneous and pure Pangasinan language same as what is spoken today, yet it was written in a 10th century Pangasinan.

Calatagan pot is a 12 cm high pot with a width of 20.2 cm almost similar to a common kare-kare pot. This pot is very unusual in that around its neck are “baybayin syllabary scripts” similar to te scripts of the 1593 Doctrina Christiana. It was unearthed in Barrio Talisay, Calatagan, Batangas by a pothunter and was sold to the National Museum for P6.00 in 1961. The pot was a grave-furniture of a skeleton believed to be the shaman. The pothunter says the pot contains small bones and whitish beads the size of mongo seeds. The are ashes inside and outside of pot which signifies that everytime there is a ritual she puts fire on the offering inside the pot and simultaneously put fire underneath it to cook it.

Dr. Eusebio Z. Dizon, Ph.D., Scientist III, Curator I, Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, and Professor, Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. He said:

"The Calatagan pot is a Philippine pottery decorated with baybayin syllabary scripts inscribed around its neck, it was declared as Philippine National Treasure in 1974. It has never been successfully deciphered till Dr. Quintin Fortich Oropilla’s decipherment. By its provenance from Bengali scripts it can be dated 10th Century A.D, almost contemporaneous with the mature Kawi script.

"The Calatagan pot with its ancient inscription is the only pre-historic archaeological evidence of Austronesian language in the Philippines which in this particular case happens to be the Pangasinan language.

"Based on the transcription by Dr. Oropilla, it is an animistic “anito” ritual vessel imploring help by a shaman for her sick people."

 

Misconception

Since the pot was excavated from Calatagan, Batangas, people had expected that the language of the inscription would be in Tagalog. This misconception has led astray would-be decipherers, that in their frustrations led them to say that may be the calatagan pot inscriptions is a forgery made by a crackpot who does not know anything about the Filipino baybayin.

 

The Truth

The Calatagan Pot Inscription is a big surprise to all, that the language on which it was written is in Pangasinan. This Pangasinan language of the Calatagan Pot dated 10th century A.D. is as pristine and homogenous as the Pangasinan which is spoken today. As will be seen in the transcription, there is integrity of the scripts in relation to the pot as shown in the transcription below.

 

OROPILLA’S TRANSCRIPTION: PANGASINAN LANGUAGE

1.

La-ba(n)

Ma-nu-la(y)

Sa-ki(t)

 

Fight (against)

Rain

Illness

2.

Di-no(t)

Ma -ni-nga(s)

Ma(g) -ya(t)

 

Slowly

Have Difficulty Breathing

Suddenly

3.

Ga(m) - ka(t)- ka(t)

Nga- la(n)

Wa(d)- ya

 

Staring blankly

Names

Inside the

4.

Ba- nga

Ra(y)

Sa-ki(t)

Na(n) - do(n)

 

Pot

Names of those

Sick

In There

5.

Sa- ka- la(n)

Bi- na- ga- a(n)

 

Copied,

Are Already Informed

6.

Pa(y)- ba- ki(m)

Da(m)- ba

 

Thou send

Love (Relief)

 

Attempts On Decipherment:

1. Guillermo Tolentino was a spiritista and a famous sculptor whose famous works were the Bonifacio Monument and U.P. Oblation in Diliman, Quezon City. In 1965 Robert Fox requested him to do a transcription. Through a seance, he gathered the spirits of Rizal, Bonifacio, and all national heroes, Spanish friars who documented the baybayin in the different parts of the country. The spirits identified the syllable equivalence of the scripts. There was one script (nga) though which none of the spirits can identify, so Tolentino summoned a Javanese spirit to identify it. Vis-a-vis the scripts of the Doctrina Christiana, the result of this seance revealed that the spirits can only identify correctly only five scripts in the Calatagan pot and repeatedly identify several scripts as same when they are entirely different. Inasmuch as Tolentino cannot identify the scripts correctly, it is obvious that the words derived were wrong and so the language was wrong also. He thought it is Tagalog which is not.

2. Dr. Juan Francisco, a paleographer and academic from U.P. Diliman, has devoted 25 years of study on the decipherment of the Calatagan Pot Inscription but failed because he cannot identify many of the scripts, thus he failed to discover the language by which the inscription was written. At the very end he still believes that the language of the script is Tagalog.

3. Dr. Bomen Guillermo, from the Dept of Filipino, U.P. Diliman, did a transcription using a permutation method. This method is used in selecting numbers on which to bet on lotto but in this case it is not the numbers but the syllable equivalence to a script. The result of this method of permutation, revealed he was not able to identify correctly any of the scripts to the corresponding syllable. This total incorrect identification of scripts plus wrong direction of reading of scripts made Dr. Guillermo’s decipherment ludicrous and without sense. He rationalizes his transcription as containing words in Malay and Polynesian which is not true and without basis.

 

The book: Deciphered Secrets of the Calatagan Pot Ancient Inscriptions, is available at the following outlets.

1. Perfect Creation Co.
44 Magiting St. Teachers Village, Q.C.
Telephone # 920-5910
www. aperfectcreation.com

2. Cell Phone # 09-1734-10-617
Tel # 922-0513, 922- 6808

3. calataganpotscript@gmail.com

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