‘Cyclops skull’ reburied in Bohol

It belonged to an ordinary man buried in a limestone cave, not a one-eyed giant who, according to tribal folklore, once roamed the archipelago.

Thus, said Angel Bautista, a zooarcheologist of the National Museum, of the so-called "cyclops skull" found in a limestone cave in the hinterlands of Bohol.

"We have returned the skull to Bohol," he said. The National Museum refused requests by The STAR to secure photographs of the strange skull.

The skull has what is believed to be a single eye socket, resembling that of the "cyclops," a race of giants in Greek mythology with only one eye in the forehead.

But the hole, Bautista said, is actually the socket of the spinal column. "It was an artificial formation of stalagmites," he said.

He also ruled out that the skull could have belonged to a giant, saying that excavations in various parts of the country showed that the tallest ancient settler in the country could only be over six feet, whose skeletal remains were found in Batanes.

There were also unconfirmed reports of skeletal remains of "giants" in Siargao, Bukidnon and Agusan.

Tribal folklore has it that giants once roamed the plains of Central and Northern Mindanao, the most legendary of whom was "Agyo," believed to have fought the first Spanish conquistadores.

In Bukidnon, tribal folk are reportedly keeping the skeletal remains they believe to be Agyo’s, as an object of worship in a sacred cave.

Artemio Barbosa, chief of the National Museum’s anthropology department, said beliefs about giants (kapre) as well as dwarfs (duwende) will always be "alive" in the hearts and minds of Filipinos.

"These legends will always be with us," he said. "These are the kinds of beliefs that unify people, and make them identify themselves with powerful and great heroes of the past."

"Epics and legends have continuity. Sometimes, new characters are injected to make more impact," he added.

Barbosa said tribal folklore, particularly in Mindanao, portray the one-eyed giants as half-man, half-beast with supernatural powers.