Studies of megalithic ruins called latte and other related material traces potentially offer insights into an associated latte period, approximately A.D. 900 through 1700, quite distinctive from preceding cultural periods that began as early at 1500 B.C. in the Mariana Islands. Vastly more is known of this latte period than any other in Marianas regional archaeology, yet numerous basic questions continue to be considered and debated. The present work aims to summarize current data and thinking about latte research. 

Estorian i latte, a narrative of the megaliths unique to the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific region, is an interdisciplinary endeavor undertaken by researchers in architecture and the humanities and social sciences. Historical written records dating back to the Spanish Era (16th-19th Centuries) substantiate the primary function of latte as house foundations. Latte can be viewed as part of the pile-built architectural tradition which is common among many Austronesian- speaking societies in Insular Southeast Asia and the western Pacific. Possible origins of latte are investigated utilizing recent findings of mtDNA research as well as relevant linguistic, archaeological, and socio-historical data. Within the rubric of inter-disciplinary studies, the rati stone of Sumba, the rante stone of Sulawesi, and the bale with haligi of the northern Philippines are examined as exhibiting possible links to latte of the Marianas. The authors suggest that latte may be interpreted as a hybrid of architectural concepts originating from various parts of Insular Southeast Asia. From the perspectives of the researchers, the latte represents a direct adaptive response to the tropical climate of the Marianas, as well as the archipelago’s seismic activity, geography, and environment, with some local socio-cultural variations in manifestations. To conclude this study, attempts are made to reconstruct a virtual latte house based on pertinent historical data, utilizing computer generated 3D graphics.

Analyses of pottery collections recovered from latte period archaeological sites on Guam reveal considerable variation across several attributes including rim thickness, rim stance, orifice diameter, and exterior surface treatment. While it has been proposed that some unique attribute configurations occur late in the ceramic sequence, it has not been clear whether they date to the late latte period or the early Spanish period (post-A.D. 1521). Recent pottery analyses, correlated with radiocarbon dates having small standard deviations, are reviewed and they suggest that new vessel forms were added to the ceramic sequence in the 1400s. It has been argued that the latte period pots were appropriate for boiling certain starchy foods. Results of recent studies of charred residue on pottery fragments are presented and they lend support to and expand ideas about latte period pot usage. Possible climatic changes are discussed as potential factors leading to some of the temporal changes in the pottery sequence. This paper provides a data set for Guam that can be compared to similar pottery data sets from other islands in the Marianas to better understand the nature and timing of the regional diversity that developed in the latte period pottery industry.

Archaeological data from a large inland area in south-central Guam show that cultural adjustments, including technological and social adaptations, enabled the ancestral Chamorros of the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, to remain farmer-fishers despite environmental challenges associated with a major climatic oscillation, from the Medieval Warm Period (MWP, c. A.D. 800–1350) to the Little Ice Age (LIA, c. A.D. 1350–1900). People responded appropriately to the difficult conditions of the LIA, such as increased aridity, typhoons, and related harvest shortfalls, by “running faster” (building upon and adding to earlier practices). This “Red Queen Principle” is invoked as part of an adaptive escalation model for the latte period cultural system. Eventually the tolerance limits for stresses to the system were exceeded during prolonged and violent clashes with Spanish colonizers in the late 17th Century, as farming conditions continued to deteriorate. Tests of the model are suggested.

 

The functions of latte structures in Guam and the Marianas have been treated in two significant perspectives that deserve examination relative to their monumental character. The classic ethnographic and ethnohistoric perspective interpreted latte structures as part of village complexes with both residential and communal functions. Materialistic interpretations have characterized latte structures as chiefly houses with size possibly denoting relative power or rank among villagers and villages in the Marianas. However, examination of paleoenvironmental data, recent migration models depicting dispersal of matrilineal clans from the eastern Caroline Islands westward throughout what is now Micronesia, along with data from site surveys, excavations, and linguistic and ethnographic sources demonstrate that latte period settlement and architecture of the second millennium A.D. shares architectural styles, material culture, and lifeways with Micronesian islands to the east in what may have been a second and diffuse migrational movement through the region. In this model latte architecture expresses shared inter-village identities and mechanisms for conflict resolution rather than competition, warfare, and socio-economic ranking.

 

Sixteenth-Century European sailors briefly visiting the island of Guam noted the availability of tropical plant foods they recognized or thought similar to those from the Old and New Worlds such as coconuts, sweet potatoes, bananas, rice, and sugarcane, plus edible plants with which they had less familiarity such as breadfruit, yams, and taro. Almost a century later, early clergy in the Mariana Islands recorded Chamorro inhabitants actively cultivating a range of domestic plants in a number of settings, while also collecting indigenous flora in the tropical forest. Today archaeologists in the region routinely record material evidence of processing, preparation, and consumption of these plant foods in prehistoric habitation sites, although corroboration of indigenous agriculture in the non-habitation landscape remains elusive. This study presents an analysis of organic, chemical, and textural constituents of soils derived from systematic sampling of two probable latte period agricultural sites situated in northern Guam, and a comparison of these data with specific plants that may have been cultivated there and their traditional farming techniques. Far from being a definitive exposé on the subject, these approaches and their interpretation are in their infancy and can benefit from replication, innovation, and suggestion across the island group.

 

Although Chamorro society was profoundly altered by Spanish contact and colonialism during and after the 17th Century, few archaeologists have investigated the material consequences of this phenomenon. Our study compares archaeological assemblages from two adjacent latte buildings within a single Spanish-period village at Ritidian. Our preliminary research suggests that economic practices varied among different latte buildings within this contact-period village, indicating some degree of activity specialization. Moreover, it appears that traditional Chamorro households were potentially comprised of multiple buildings so that certain domestic activities were spatially segregated. Based on this pattern we offer the following hypotheses: 1) traditional household organization in the Mariana Islands shared some similarities with Ancestral Polynesian society; and 2) traditional Chamorro economic organization persisted after Spanish contact at Ritidian.

The paper presents a methodological review of archaeological site formation processes (natural and cultural) at two coastal deposits on the Island of Tinian, Marianas, with the intent of identifying the potential and problems of these sites for understanding the origin and development of the latte period on the island. Although each site can contribute to the study of the latte period itself, it is concluded that the stratigraphic isolation of the latte period deposits is a severe limitation on the potential for the study of the events and processes of latte origin, and that for Tinian other approaches must be taken to answer questions about the local evolution of the latte period.

In the coming years, increasing government and private construction projects will result in more opportunities for archaeological projects than in the past. Currently, human skeletal elements from archaeological sites are reburied or left in place to comply with Executive Orders 89-24 and 89-9, and therefore our time to collect data is necessarily short. With this in mind, it is important to determine what information collected from human skeletal remains will benefit future question-oriented bioarchaeological research. An informed decision on what data to prioritize requires knowledge of past studies of Guam and a vision of how bioarchaeology can benefit our understanding of Guam’s past. In this study, I compiled publications employing methods from bioarchaeology and physical anthropology and analyzed thematic trends pertaining to Guam’s past. Based on the results, I then suggest several potential avenues for future bioarchaeological studies and explore the plausibility of a database that would include Chamorro mortuary and skeletal information.

Archaeological research has occurred for more than one century now in the Mariana Islands, and it naturally has undergone numerous changes in both thought and practice. A comprehensive historical view allows some insight into how archaeology has developed technically and theoretically, as well as how it has addressed various significant topics. The present overview intends to support intellectual contextualization of past, current, and future research.

The future of latte research and generally of archaeology in the Marianas region will depend on coordinated efforts in scholarly investigations, academic education, practical technical training, government management systems, and public appreciation. Significant improvements will be needed in each of these fields, as well as in the ways they can cooperate.