07/22/2025
There's a good chance that you are among those who still believe that the Banaue Rice Terraces are more than 2,000 years old. I can't blame you. I also used to believe that they are between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. After all, that's the narrative we've been taught in our schools. It was written as facts in our textbooks. It was constantly parroted in popular media. It was and still is a selling point in tourism materials that aim to attract visitors.
But this narrative has to go because recent evidence shows that the Banaue Rice Terraces are much, much, much younger than originally thought. Thanks to the work of archaeologists and anthropologists, and the Ifugao communities who collaborated with them in unravelling the mysteries of the rice terraces.
Archaeological digs were done in several sites in Ifugao. Materials from these sites were taken for radiocarbon-dating. Paleoethnobotanical remains were collected for analysis. The datasets gathered and analyzed by the researchers show compelling evidence that the Banaue Rice Terraces are only around 200 to 400 years old, not 2,000 years old.
At the forefront of this research and the new narrative that came out of it is Stephen Acabado, an anthropological archaeologist and current professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He's also the director of the Ifugao Archaeological Project.
For years, Acabado has done extensive research on Ifugao history and culture. In his work, he regularly collaborated with Ifugao researchers like Marlon Martin, the head of the conservation organization Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement. Acabado and Martin were co-authors of the book Indigenous Archaeology in the Philippines: Decolonizing Ifugao History.
In summary, the 2,000-year narrative is not backed by archaeological evidence. These were speculative estimates put forth by earlier researchers - Roy F. Barton and H. Otley Beyer.
Acabado's argument for a much younger Banaue Rice Terraces is backed by extensive research and data.
For those interested in digging deeper about the matter, I'll be posting in the comments section links to articles you can read.
