Leta-leta Cave, Langen Island, El Nido, Palawan was exca-
vated in 1965 by Dr. Robert Fox. Leta-leta Cave is an
important burial site belonging to the Late Neolithic Period
where an-assemblage of stone and shell artifacts associated with sophisticated pottery and nephrite adzes and axes were recovered. Other materials include stone ornaments and shell beads.
Pottery during the New Stone Age, too, was quite unique. Each single piece did not have any copy and was very imaginative and beautiful. The Leta-Leta Cave in northern Palawan, for example, yielded at least two such pieces. One of this was a stem cup with the body shaped like an egg with a slender stem with a round flat base. A narrow lip was provided at the mouth of the vessel. Another was a double-gourd vessel, the mouth of which was formed after an open human mouth with the facial features. Chinese traders have been regularly visiting the area of El Nido for its famous edible nests long before the Spaniards conquered the archipelago, in fact El Nido is specifically mentioned in Chinese records as far back 1225 CE. Caho Ju-Kua, a member of the Chinese Royal Family, Trade
Commissioner and Superintendent of Customs of the Port of Chuan How; wrote in his book "Chu Fan Chai" of the island of "Pa-Lao-yu" "Land of Beautiful Harbours", a possible origin of the name Palawan. He described the island as having "Many lofty ridges and cliffs that rise as steep as the walls of a house". The attraction of trade with the Chinese for Nido, good harbours, and the shelter provided by its cliffs and attracted settlers to the area from a very early period. The first settlers of the area were the Tagbanua, from whence El Nido’s first name of "Talindak" stemmed.