Butuan

At the mouth of the Agusan River, Butuan was a center of trade and boatbuilding in northeastern Mindanao. Its people built large plank boats known as #italic balangay#! and exchanged local goods with merchants from across the seas. Gold ornaments, pottery and metalwork attest to the wealth and skills of the settlement, while imported ceramics link it to China and other parts of Southeast Asia.

Butuan's trading connections reached back centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Chinese wares found in the area span the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, and pottery from Thailand and Cambodia also reached its riverine settlements. Although its prominence declined as other centers rose, the boats and goods left in the delta bear witness to a maritime world that joined Mindanao to distant shores.