The Latte Stone are stone pillars of
ancient houses notable for their two-piece
construction; the supporting
column (halagi) topped with a
capstone (tasa). The latte is the signature of the Marianas Islands {Guam, Rota,
Saipan, Tinian, Pagan} in that their massive size
are found primarily in the Marianas. Although there are stone reliefs of lattes
in Java's Borobudur pyramid, Dr. Hiro Kurashina theorized that they were journey documentation about the Marianas latte. The Haligi
was made from coral limestone
and usually carried several
miles from the quary site for installation in the appropriate location.
The tasa was made from natural, hemispherical coral heads collected from
the reef. Very large capstones as those found in Luta {an island 70 miles
north of Guam} are mined instead.
In Latte Park (now renamed Senator Angel Santos Latte Park), eight of these stones are displayed. These latte stones
were transferred to their present location in hagåtña or Agana from Me'pu, their
original location in Guam's southern interior. Stone pillars range from 6 to
20 columns (a 20 column latte was found east of Naval Magazine Southern Guam).
Customarily, latte sites situated on shorelines have bones of the
ancients, and possessions as jewelry or canoes buried below the parallel arrangements of
stones. Examination of midden or human settlement debris deposits at
Latte sites in the interior of Guam (away from shoreline) do not have human bones buried underneath them.
Melanie
Ryan, Univ of La Trobe, Melbourne, Australia wrote that burial patterning
beneath latte sites suggests that kinship or family membership, not age nor
social status is the only criterion for internment.
A LATTE site is also where a human interloper might encounter
the ancestral spirits of
the Mannamoros (those who are Chamorros) called TAOTAOMONAS (people before time).
Rudolph Villaverde says that the Chamorro Narrative holds that the
human vessel lives on as an aniti (spirit).
The Chamorro creates dialog
with the ancestral remains [but not for worship]
sustained in the belief that the
blood of those who have gone before
are passed into the veins of their legacy [descendents].
Interred Ancestral bones becomes the foundation of the house,
which is a euphenism of saying that knowledge of legends and heritage
built from the past becomes
the real latte pillars guiding and
protecting the house or the next generation.
It is ingrained in legend that Guam is part of a
body and the remains are returning back to it which explains why Chamorros are
entertwined with the land.
These latte stone monoliths were found in their untouched condition at Urunao beach
at northern Guam. Adjacent to the site are deep pits or wells dug below the
water table to supply the ancient villages with fresh water. Latte stones are
respected and are untouched. Although
Chamorros have occupied the
Marianas archipelago for possibly 4000 years,
latte stones might have originated at the earliest around A.D. 845
[compare this with the completion of
Borobudur complex in Java AD830]. However, the most entrenched belief
is that the main latte construction era
occurred around 1100A.D. {Graves 1986:141}. Roughly 1000 years ago,
evidence of cultural adaptations, settlement patterning, architecture, warfare and
food cultivation changed radically.
Ancient stories as the legend of
camel rock and interpretation of the starcave calendar of Ritidian caves
alludes to an invasion of Guam by a
another race of star navigators which may have accelerated the wholesale building of
the Latte sites approximately AD 1000.
It
is possible that some customs as "BETELNUT
CHEWING"
predate the emergence of the stones.
Archaeological milestones of Ancient Guam based on carbon dating revolves around these eras:
Transitional Pre-Latte (AD 1 to AD 1000), the larger Latte Period (AD
1000 to AD 1521), and Early Historic Period (AD 1521 to 1700).
Spanish missionaries recounted that Ancient Chamorro
nobility were called the
'Matua' who lived on the shorelines and the alleged lower
caste were called Mana'chang who lived in the island interior. A Middle class called
achaot was referred to by Bonani (1719) and Freycinet (1819). A more interesting
group of people were the makana [shamans] who were
medicine or spirit peoples who kept skulls.
Spanish journals recount a Manachang chief of Sinajana named Hineti who
protected the Hagåtña Spanish garrison from annihilation on July 1684
from a prolonged assault from the Matuas. Missionary accounts describe the
Mana'chang as being
smaller, and weaker than the other Chamorus. Ironically, the Spanish whom
Hineti protected eventually killed off most of Hineti's people.
Guam was settled by two waves of
ancient seafaring peoples which arrived at two separate time periods:
The pre-latte era and Latte Stone era.
The two castes matua and Mana'chang which the Spanish thought
to have existed may have been their way to understand or explain the two
races which co-existed prior to the Spanish-Chamorru Conflict.
The photo above is an example of a fresh water reservior used by the ancients is 'lost pond' at Tanguisson Beach
Northern Guam. It is a favorite fishing hole for many Guamanian youngsters.
Near it are many latte sites.
The Latte Stone are stone pillars of
ancient houses notable for their two-piece
construction; the supporting
column (halagi) topped with a
capstone (tasa). The latte is the signature of the Marianas Islands {Guam, Rota,
Saipan, Tinian, Pagan} in that their massive size
are found primarily in the Marianas. Although there are stone reliefs of lattes
in Java's Borobudur pyramid, Dr. Hiro Kurashina theorized that they were journey documentation about the Marianas latte. The Haligi
was made from coral limestone
and usually carried several
miles from the quary site for installation in the appropriate location.
The tasa was made from natural, hemispherical coral heads collected from
the reef. Very large capstones as those found in Luta {an island 70 miles
north of Guam} are mined instead.