Huge wooden artifact found
BOAT RELIC OR KOLLO-ONG?
ROSALES–Is it a boat or a “kollo-ong”, an old implement for pounding palay to separate the stalks from the grains?
This is a question that is waiting to be answered since after an old piece of wood that had the shape of a boat and a close resemblance to many a grandmothers’ kollo-ong was unearthed from the Lagasit River in Barangay Casanicolasan here last month.
In the meantime, the object is on display at the entrance of the municipal hall.
Weighing more than five tons, with a length of eight meters, thickness of 1.5 meters and a height of one meter, the object is made of hard wood cut from a timber tree that residents believe may have been teeming in the wilderness of Rosales centuries ago.
Mayor Ricardo Revita said he has already sent separate letters to the National Museum and the National Historical Commission requesting for carbon-dating and help in determining what the object is.
Revita believes the object is a centuries-old boat but some old folks in town assert that it is a kollo-ong.
Whichever, Revita believes that artifact now serves as an important treasure of the town.
The old folks contest that the object is too bulky and too heavy to float, but Revita points out that the Agno River, where the Lagasit River is connected, was deep and the water would have been able to carry the ‘boat’.
“Remember that the Agno River, which originates from Mt. Data plateau in the old province of Montanosa (now Mountain Province), is the third largest river in Luzon and the fifth largest in the country,” he said.
Revita also said the wood’s height of one meter from ground level would have made it difficult for use as a kollo-ong.
Revita had the object fetched from the bank of the river where it was lying after it was pulled out from the bottom of the river with the use of two carabaos and 30 men.
The community called on Revita for help when they could not lift if off the ground. Revita sent heavy equipment to transport the wood to the municipal hall.
Revita said the big flood spawned by Typhoon “Pepeng” practically scrubbed the bottom of the Lagasit river, thus exposing a portion of the object.
After the flood, a boy who went for a swim in the river and felt the object on his feet and called his father, who then dived to have a look at it.
Meanwhile, the town’s pride, National Artist F. Sionil Jose, who wrote among others the books collectively known as the Rosales Saga, is rushing to the town to see the object for himself and help unravel its mystery.
Rosales is a town south of the Agno River and to the east is the towering Mt. Balungao, an inactive volcano famous for its hot spring and verdant fauna.–LM
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