Lingling-o


Lingling-o or ling-ling-o, is a type of penannular or double-headed pendant or amulet that has been associated with various late Neolithic to late Iron Age Austronesian cultures. Most lingling-o were made in jade workshops in the Philippines, and to a lesser extent in the Sa Huỳnh culture of Vietnam, although the raw jade was mostly sourced from Taiwan.
The earliest surviving examples of lingling-o, dating back to around 500 BC, were made out of nephrite jade, but many later examples were made of shell, gold, copper, and wood; the kind of material suggests differences in the social standing of its wearer. The term was first popularized by H. Otley Beyer, who adapted it from the Southern Ifugao name for such ornaments. The term has since also come to be used as a blanket term for various metal age Austronesian ornaments found in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Batanes workshop site

Earlier historians have posited that the earliest lingling-o artifacts found in the Philippines were created outside of the archipelago, but an expedition to the northern Philippine province of Batanes, led by archeologist Peter Bellwood in the early 2000s, led to the discovery of a lingling-o workshop, complete with construction tools and fragments. The find provides evidence of indigenous Philippine manufacture of lingling-o as early as 2,500 years ago. Lingling-o manufacturing survived until around AD 1000 in the Philippines.