a. What is the Invention?

The balangay was the first wooden watercraft uncovered in Southeast Asia and is proof
of early Filipino craftsmanship and their seamanship skills during pre-colonial times. The
balangay is only found in the Philippines where a flotilla of such ancient wooden boat
exists throughout the world. Nine examples were found in 1976 in Butuan City, Agusan
Del Norte, Mindanao and 3 of which have been exhumed. Assessment and broad
examination revealed that the extant boats found in the excavation site dating back to
320, 990 and 1250 AD.

b. what are the precursors of your chosen invention? What tools existed prior to it or
how did people carry out activities before its inventions?
Prior to the balangay, log boats were the earliest form of transportation. People carried
out their activities using the log boats as a fishing flatform, transportation across the
bodies of water and even formed as a floating Island for villages. It was first used by the
homo erectus, and this is their way to migrate out of Africa which is thought to have
occurred around 60 Kya, reaching Europe and Australia around 40 Kya and America
around 20 Kya.

c. What are the social, political cultural or economic context in which the invention
was made?

The context why the balangay was made is because the early Filipinos are people of the
sea, living to the coast or near the rivers. They use these boats to sail and fish for foods. It
was also used as a settlement and migration around the Philippines and other neighboring
countries and was also used as a way of transport in trading of goods and tools
throughout the neighboring areas inside and outside of the Philippines. Filipinos
also needs to maintain its relationships with the neighbor islands and empires in southeast
Asia to gain connections for trading.

d. What were the social, political, cultural or economic impacts of your chosen
invention?
The impact of the invention is that the early migrants used balangay to settle in the
Philippines. The settlements made a big impact in our society and culture that are still
existing even up to these days. Our traits and appearance also came from the mixed races
of the southeast Asians. And the economic impact is that early Filipinos used these as
cargo for their economic growth and relations with the neighboring countries. These were
also used as a reference in making an organized independent villages called barangays
which originated from balangay.