Research Items

Abstract

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN THE MARIANAS.—In the Scientific Monthly for November, Lieut.-Com mander P. J. Searles describes the remarkable Lat'te or monuments composed of upright monoliths surmounted by hemispherical capitals, usually in two parallel rows of four to six stones in a row and running parallel to the seashore or a river bed. The stones are of remarkable size. Two of the largest monuments are in Tinian. Their stones are eighteen feet in circumference at the base, and twelve feet high, the capitals being five feet high and six feet in diameter. Each monolith weighs 30 tons. In an unpublished manuscript of a Spanish Governor of the middle of the last century, it is stated that human bones were for md in a hollow on the top of a monolith forming part of the ‘House of Taga’, a chieftain who, according to tradii tion, buried his daughter on top of one of the monoliths. Recent investigations indicate that the Latte were not dwelling-houses as has been thought, but monumental religious structures marking sites of ceremonies, cannibal feasts, and burials. The mutilated condition of skeletons found in or near them points to cannibalism. In Guam the Latte are connected with three areas, of which the first is the burial place; in which all the bodies are carefully orientated with feet to the water and head inland; next, an area devoted to warriors or the victims of cannibal feasts, as indicated by broken skulls, broken limbs, or weapons or parts of weapons embedded in the skeletons; thirdly, an area in which are found remains of ornaments, pottery, weapons, stone implements, etc. How the Latte were built is unknown, but in size and in the skill and industry required to build them they are comparable to Stonehenge.