Courtesy of Dr. Lawrence J. Cunningham. Research Associate Outreach Coordinator National Resource Center for Micronesian Studies; Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam UOG Station Mangilao, Guam 96923. All material is Copyrighted©. All rights reserved. No material may be copied in part or in whole without Dr. Cunningham's written permission. Send emails to "Lawrence J. Cunningham" lcunning@uog9.uog.edu. Thank You.
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Where did the ancient Chamorus obtain the basalt for their adzes and scrappers? Basalt is a black or dark gray volcanic rock. Dr. Gary Mangold, LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia offers some surprising findings. He studied the Mariana Islands because they were colonized at such an early date (prior to 1800 B.C.) and because the Marianas have a significant geological data base. Most of Mangold's career has been in the field of geology. His doctorate is in archaeology. Instead of examining rocks and pottery with a microscope, he did a petrographic analysis of each stone tool. In this technique thin sections are x-rayed and compared to other rock samples. Next, degrees of similarity are determined. Because of the excellent geological studies done in the Mariana Islands, there is base line data on all the types of Marianas rocks. Consequently, Marianas archaeologists can now determine the source of the raw material for each stone artifact he or she finds. Mangold examined 12 ancient Chamoru stone tools (adzes and scrappers) from Guam, Luta, Tinian, and Saipan and found that all of them were made from stone from the northern Mariana Islands of either Alamagan or Pagan. It seems the young northern islands have the nice fine grain basalt good for making adzes and scrapers. Mangold did not know if Chamorus exported stone from the northern Marianas or manufactured stone tools in the northern Marianas. Other research reveals that the stone was imported at least to Tinian.
Cunningham found a basalt lithe (stone) scatter at Blue Beach, this stone
could not have come from Tinian. Tinian is a limestone island.
Mangold says that the odds are that 7 of the 12 artifacts came from
the same quarry.
References: Cunningham, Lawrence J. Ancient Chamorro Society. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1992. Mangold, Gary. Lecture, 5 February 1998.
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