The oldest 

archaic human remains in the Philippines are the "Callao Man" specimens discovered in
2007 in the Callao Cave in Northern Luzon. They were dated in 2010 through uranium-series
dating to the Late Pleistocene, c. 67,000 years old. The remains were initially identified as modern
human, but after the discovery of more specimens in 2019, they have been reclassified as being
members of a new species - Homo luzonensis.[79][80]
The oldest indisputable modern human (Homo sapiens) remains in the Philippines are the "Tabon
Man" fossils discovered in the Tabon Caves in the 1960s by Robert B. Fox, an anthropologist from
the National Museum. These were dated to the Paleolithic, at around 26,000 to 24,000 years ago.
The Tabon Cave complex also indicates that the caves were inhabited by humans continuously from
at least 47,000 ± 11,000 years ago to around 9,000 years ago. [81][82] The caves were also later used
as a burial site by unrelated Neolithic and Metal Age cultures in the area.[83]

Migration of the sea-faring Austronesian peoples and their languages.

The Negritos are descendants of the earliest groups of modern humans to reach the Philippines

The Tabon Cave remains (along with the Niah Cave remains of Borneo and the Tam Pa
Ling remains of Laos) are part of the "First Sundaland People", the earliest branch of anatomically
modern humans to reach Island Southeast Asia via the Sundaland land bridge. They entered the
Philippines from Borneo via Palawan at around 50,000 to 40,000 years ago. Their descendants are
collectively known as the Negrito people, although they are highly genetically divergent from each
other. Philippine Negritos show a high degree of Denisovan Admixture, similar
to Papuans and Indigenous Australians, in contrast to Malaysian and Andamanese Negritos
(the Orang Asli). This indicates that Philippine Negritos, Papuans, and Indigenous Australians share
a common ancestor that admixed with Denisovans at around 44,000 years ago. [84] Negritos comprise
around 0.03% of the total Philippine population today, they include ethnic groups like
the Aeta (including the Agta, Arta, Dumagat, etc.) of Luzon, the Ati of Western Visayas,
the Batak of Palawan, and the Mamanwa of Mindanao. Today they comprise just 0.03% of the total
Philippine population.[85]
After the Negritos, were two early East Asian (basal Austric) Paleolithic migrations, which entered
the Philippines at around 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, respectively. Like the Negritos, they entered
the Philippines via the Sundaland land bridge in the last ice age. They retain partial genetic signals
among the Manobo people and the Sama-Bajau people of Mindanao.[86]
The last wave of prehistoric migrations to reach the Philippines was the Austronesian
expansion which started in the Neolithic at around 4,500 to 3,500 years ago, when a branch
of Austronesians from Taiwan (the ancestral Malayo-Polynesian-speakers) migrated to the Batanes
Islands and Luzon. They spread quickly throughout the rest of the islands of the Philippines and
became the dominant ethnolinguistic group. They admixed with the earlier settlers, resulting in the
modern Filipinos - which though predominantly genetically Austronesian still show varying genetic
admixture with Negritos (and vice versa for Negrito ethnic groups which show significant
Austronesian admixture).[87][88] Austronesians possessed advanced sailing technologies and colonized
the Philippines via sea-borne migration, in contrast to earlier groups. [89][90]
Austronesians from the Philippines also later settled Guam and the other islands of Maritime
Southeast Asia, and parts of Mainland Southeast Asia. From there, they colonized the rest
of Austronesia, which in modern times include Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island
Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar, in addition to Maritime Southeast Asia and Taiwan. [90][91]
The connections between the various Austronesian peoples have also been known since
the colonial era due to shared material culture and linguistic similarities of various peoples of the
islands of the Indo-Pacific, leading to the designation of Austronesians as the "Malay race" (or the
"Brown race") during the age of scientific racism by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.[92][93][94] Due to
the colonial American education system in the early 20th century, the term "Malay race" is still used
incorrectly in the Philippines to refer to the Austronesian peoples, leading to confusion with the non-
indigenous Melayu people.[95][96][97][98]

Archaic epoch (to 1565)