MA. ISABEL ONGPIN
WELL and at last, we are in the archaeological equation where we deserve to be with the discovery of an ancient hominid, Homo Luzonensis, at the Callao Caves in Peñablanca, Cagayan. Hominids are descended from apes and moving toward becoming human beings. They take a long journey of millions of years. Homo Luzonensis is classified as a hominid who lived about 67,000 years ago, which makes him older than Tabon Man from Palawan, our first ancient human. Moreover, Luzonensis seems to have stopped there and did not quite reach homo sapiens, the end of the line — a human being. In that sense, he is unique.