DAVAO CITY -- Tales of unusual "energies" and eerie sounds coming from ancient jars are the stuff horror movies are made of. But these are the stuff that the personnel of the National Museum in Caraga Region hear from wealthy but frightened and puzzled antique collectors who keep these artifacts in their homes.

Augustina Tamayo, a museum guide at Butuan City's National Museum-Caraga, said in an interview in September that complaining collectors claim they usually feel the eerie experience when the moon is full, or when the skies are pitch black.

Tamayo said he was told dogs bark for unknown reasons and some members of the household suddenly falls ill.

Tamayo, in response to the collectors' complaints, simply tells them that anthropologists and other scientists in the museum are not in the position to explain the phenomenon scientifically.

But the museum personnel, however, tell collectors these jars could have been used as burial vessels of the peoples inhabiting the area centuries before Islamic missionaries and Spanish colonizers planted the crescent moon and cross symbols in Mindanao.

Tamayo said they urged the collectors to turn over the ancient jars to the government.

She added that after educating the collectors on the significance of the artifacts in studying the past, some turned over their collections to the museum

But Tamayo said that despite their success in convincing some collectors to return the artifacts, a number have been lost or completely destroyed in the flurry of pothunting activities.

Tamayo noted that the archaeological find in Butuan and in the nearby areas indicate strong influences of the Hindu faith and other oriental religions. She said it is likely that some of those who lived in Butuan in prehistoric times, practiced cremation and then used jars as repository of the ashes of the dead.

Most antique collectors who come to the museum admit their collections were bought from pothunters who in turn unearthed these in ancient burial sites, Tamayo said.

Pothunting was so intensive in Butuan especially in the 1980s as wealthy collectors put premium in the prices of these artifacts.

Antonio Montalvan II, an ethno-historian based in Cagayan de Oro City, said the best collections of the Butuan artifacts are not found in the museum but in the houses of rich private collectors in Butuan and other areas in the country.

Montalvan said some of the collectors hire pothunters to do the diggings. In most instances, however, the pothunters who find the business very lucrative initiate the diggings and look for buyers of their find.

The diggings, however, destroyed potentially valuable archeological sites that would have enriched the present generation's understanding of its links to a glorious pre-colonial past.

Tamayo said they often remind antique collectors of the island's illustrious pre-historic past. She noted that for instance, the present day Masao area of this city could have been a progressive port of call of traders and navigators sailing the vast, rich ports of Southeast Asia.

Archeological findings in Butuan have long established and supported claims of the vibrant trade and commercial activities in Butuan's ancient port.

Margarita Cembrano, director of the National Museum for Caraga, wrote in her book "Patterns of the Past, ethno archeology of Butuan," that dwellers in the area have established diplomatic and trade relations with the Chinese Imperial household. She noted that the earlier recorded Philippine mission periodically appeared in the Chinese Imperial court, along with the Arabs, Sanmalan, Syrian, Tibetan, Uighur and other foreign trade missions in the years 1001 to 1011.

Along with trade came influences of various religions coming from traders and people Butuan dwellers came in contact with which partly boosts claims of the practice of cremation.

Tamayo said after educating the collectors on the significance of the artifacts in the studies of the past, some turned over their collections to the museum.

But Tamayo said that despite their success in convincing some collectors to return the artifacts, a number have been lost or completely destroyed in the flurry of pothunting activities.