of anthropologists at Silliman University. The first excavation by the university was conducted by Lionel Chiong but no reports were published. Some of the burials, either in large earthenware jars or in earthenware coffins, had over one hundred associated earthenware vessels. Several of the jars had human figures on their lids in deep relief, and hollow heads and relatively complete female figures were recovered. One unusual type of vessel was hollow with no bottom. No records were found of the excavations done by Chiong, but there was a collection of 141 pieces kept by the Silliman Anthropology Museum. A detailed study was made of this pottery (Mascunana 1986).

The Victoria Archaeological Survey (VAS) in Australia, under the leadership of Peter Coutts, made an agreement with the National Museum for an annual program of archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research on Panay. This program started in the field in 1976 with survey and testing. The decoration on pottery that was recovered is typical of what Beyer called Iron Age pottery (Coutts and Wesson 1978, 1979).

A final report on the Panay research was published in 1983 (Coutts). This goes into detail on the sites worked in 1980 but has little on the sites worked in earlier years, which were covered in the smaller, yearly reports. The one major excavation of the five years was of Lapuz Lapuz, a cave site in the interior (Coutts 1983, 22–103), and this is reported in great detail and well illustrated. The survey concentrated on cave and rock shelters and therefore does not give a full picture of Panay archaeology. Most, if not all, of the sites found were used by hunters and collectors who were in contact with probable farming people, as small quantities of simple earthenware were found in at least the upper levels of most sites. Virtually no porcelain or stoneware was found, even though the dating of the sites suggested that most of them were contemporary with open sites whose cemeteries had quantities of trade porcelains. In the early 1980s grave robbers discovered a site with possible pre-Sung Chinese ceramics near Butuan. The National Museum was told about this after much damage had been done and started excavations finding Chinese Yueh-type pottery, the first time such pottery had been found in the Philippines. Of much interest were the remains of several wooden boats in the swamp, still in fair condition (Peralta 1980; Scott 1981). Research continued there into the 1990s. Most of the few published reports have been on zooarchaeology (Bautista 1991).

In 1981 the National Museum started a long-term exploration of the island of Bohol in the central Philippines. Led by Santiago, the expedition located over 130 caves and rock shelters, most of which contained archaeological sites.

Laura Junker, who as a graduate student had taken part in the Bais Anthropological Project, returned to Negros and made further excavations in Tanjay. This was part of a long-term study of international trade and its effects on the social and economic organization of prehistoric Negros (Junker 1993).

Archaeologists, ethnologists, and linguists from the University of Kumamoto in Japan made studies, surveys, and excavations in the Batanes Islands and the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon in 1981 and 1982. A detailed preliminary report was published (Shirakihara 1983).

An exhibit of Philippine archaeological artifacts and art from collections of the National Museum, other museums in the Philippines and the United States, and private collections was shown in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Chicago in the United States. An impressive catalog was published to go with the exhibit and included a long article on Philippine prehistory (Solheim 1981).

With the beginning of underwater archaeology in Southeast Asia the National Museum has been involved in a number of underwater projects to salvage discovered shipwrecks. From these wrecks they recover data on international trade from the ninth to the eighteenth centuries as well as information on the ships and their equipment. The National Museum does not have the funds or staff to undertake these projects by itself so they are done as joint ventures. Shipwreck sites worked on include: a merchant boat located in 1982 southwest of Marinduque Island; a local boat found in 1983 at Puerto Galera, Mindoro; a sixteenth-century wreck located