Ang homo sapiens ay uri ng unang tao na may mas malaking utak kaysa sa homo erectus.

at matalino din ang mga homo sapiens. Pinaniniwalaang dito daw nanggaling ang kasalukuyang tao. Ang homo sapien ang sina unang tao na may kakayanang gumamit ng iba't ibang kasangkapan ng sinaunang sandata at sila rin ang mga unang tao na unang nakagawa ng mga alahas gamit ang mga bagong bato nung panahon ng "Bagong Bato". Ang panahon kasi ng "Bagong Bato" ito yung panahon kung saan natuto ang mga homo sapien. At ito rin ang panahon kung saan ang mga homo sapien ay natutong gumawa ng mga kasangkapan sa sandata at kasangkapan sa alahas.panahon din ito ng mga homo sapien dahil ang homo sapien ay sinaunang taona meron malaking utak at madami ng alam sa kasanayan bilang homo sapien.

ARCHEOLOGICAL FINDINGS dating back to the Paleolithic Age indicate that the ancestors of modern humans had settled in Cagayan as early as 500,000 years ago. Man may have followed large mammals into the valley in search of game. The Agtas were probably the first modern humans to populate the vast Cagayan Valley region, followed by various MalayoPolynesian groups who settled in the Cagayan plains and established culturally similar but ethically distinct communities. Spanish explorer Juan de Salcedo explored the coast of Cagayan in 1572 and found the people conducting trade with Chinese and Japanese merchants. In 1582, after driving away Japanese pirates who had settled along the Cagayan coast, the Spaniards decided to settle in Lallo, which they renamed Nueva Segovia. In 1595, Nueva Segovia became the seat of a diocese, which covered the entire northern Luzon. The pacification and settlement of the Cagayan proceeded slowly because of the hostility of the natives who were indisposed to colonization. Christian evangelization began in 1596 with the arrival of Dominican missionaries in Cagayan. Revolts continued to rock the province and threatened to supplant the Spanish colonial government in the area. These revolts found a continuing reservoir of support from the unconverted highland peoples who continually harassed the Christian settlement of the valley. In the late 18th century, Cagayan felt the full impact of the tobacco monopoly. Cultivation of tobacco, which was an important article of trade and consumption, was initially prohibited. Anti-monopoly revolts broke out in 1787 and many settlements near the highlands were abandoned by natives who wanted to continue cultivating tobacco. Ten years later, tobacco cultivation was allowed in the valley and Cagayan soon became the single largest source of the cash crop in the archipelago. Ilokano migration into the valley facilitated the expansion of agriculture in the region. By the middle of the 19th century, the great number of Ilokano settlers allowed the Iloko language to supplant Ibanag as the regional lingua franca. Under the Spaniards, the whole northeastern part of the island of Luzon, plus some small islands in the Balintang Channel constituted a single province of Cagayan. In 1839 the southern half of the valley was formed into a politico-military district of Nueva Vizcaya. In 1856, parts of Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya were formed into the province of Isabela. Cagayan lost more territory with the formation of the partido of Itawes in 1889 and the comandancia of Apayao in 1890. The Americans delineated the present day limits of Cagayan in 1908. In 1901, the United States Philippine Commission enacted Act No. 209 which in effect established the Provincial Government of Cagayan. In 1917, as contained in Act No. 2711,

Cagayan was recognized as a grand division of the Philippine Islands. The province then comprised of 24 municipalities with Tuguegarao as its capital town. During the Second World War, Japanese units landed in Aparri town a few days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The valley again figured prominently in the plans of Japanese forces to defend it as a secure line of retreat to Taiwan in 1945. Filipino guerillas and American forces from Ilocos fmally drove the Japanese to the Cordilleras.

Comparison with other similar properties

Considerable data have been gathered on the distribution of extinct fauna and paleo-environment in Southeast Asia, such as Sulawesi, Java, Timor and Flores and the Philippines (Aziz, 1988; Fox 1971; Glover 188; Hooijer 1948, 1975; Koenigswald 1958; Shutler 1988, Sondaar 1988; de Vos 1988, Bautista 1988). The discovery of earliest evidence of the presence of mega-fauna in the Philippines has widened the knowledge of distribution of these extinct animals in Southeast Asia. Through these findings, the reconstitution of the local faunal evolution and the position of the Philippines in relation to a large scale migration pattern of vertebrates including man in Southeast Asia are known. To protect the area for the present and future generations of Filipinos, Presidential Decree No. 1109 was passed, "Declaring the Archaeological areas in the Cagayan Valley and Kalinga - Apayao Archaeological Reservation".