ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Laguna Copperplate Inscription

Hello there! Today I'm going to tell you about something called the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which is one of the oldest written documents we have from the Philippines.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is a document that was discovered in 1989 in a riverbed in Laguna province in the Philippines. It's made of copper, and it's a little bit like a very old message on a piece of metal.

Now, this message was written a very long time ago, over 1,000 years ago in the year 900 AD. That's even older than your great-great-grandparents! The message is written in a language and script that was used in that part of the world a long time ago, and it tells us about a person named Namwaran and some of his family members.

So, what's so special about this message on this piece of metal? Well, it's actually one of the earliest written records we have from the Philippines, which means it's a very important clue to help us understand what life was like a long time ago in that part of the world. We can learn things like what kind of people lived there, what they did, and what they wrote about.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is also important because it tells us about some of the political and social structures that were in place at the time. For example, we can see that Namwaran was recognizing the authority of a leader named Jayadewa, and he was using this document as a way to show that he was paying his debts and owed no more taxes.

Overall, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription is a fascinating artifact that helps us understand more about the history of the Philippines and the world. It's a bit like a message in a bottle from the past, giving us a little peek into what life used to be like a very long time ago.