Guam’s Mystery Monuments

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 30, 6 February 1939, Page 3

Guam’s Mystery Monuments

HONOLULU Hoping to dissolve much of the mystery which has for years enshrouded the cultural history of the people of Guam, including the significance of stone monuments arranged in parallel rows on the little island. Dr. Laura Thompson of Honolulu has undertaken the first ethnological stud)’ of the island and its inhabitants. Dr. Thompson, research associate ic anthropology at the University of Hawaii, sailed from Honolulu recently to spend nix months on the island which is known to the rest of the world to-day chiefly as an American naval base and as a clipper stop on the trans-Pacifie air route to the Orient. The pioucer research and Held work in Guam is being sponsored by the naval government of the island, the University of Hawaii and the Institute of Pacific Relations. Discovery of the origin and meaning of Guam’s stone monuments will be one of her chief objectives. Whether these or burial markers has never been definitely ascertained. Adzes, pottery and stone slabs were once house foundations eoine evidence of fireplaces have been unearthed beneath some of them. Themonuments average four or live feet it height. They are limestone capped with coral or stone. Sample monuments from Guam have been brought to Honolulu for study by Staff members of the Bishop Museum. Although the population of Guam is to-day a mixture of Spanish, Filipino, Mexican, Chinese and Japanese, the Chamorros—racial decendants of the original inhabitants of the island —continue to use their own MalayoPolynesian language, customs and arts, some of which date back prior to discovery of the Marianas islands by Magellan in 1521.