Latte stone

[2] In Oceania the latte stone is unique to the Marianas, though megaliths of differing construction and purpose are common to Oceanic cultures.

Similarities between the latte stone and the wood posts made by the Ifugao people in the Philippines, on which they build rice stores, have been pointed out.

Latte stones began to be used in about 900 A.D. and became increasingly more common until the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and Spanish colonization, when they fell rapidly out of use and were entirely abandoned by about 1700.

[1] Undisturbed stones are found usually arranged in parallel pairs of between eight and fourteen lattes framing a rectangular space.

Coastal latte tend to be placed in sand containing extensive relics of habitation, including shards of pottery, fish and animal bones, and stone and shell tools.

[1] By the 18th and 19th centuries, travelers to the Marianas noted lattes only in abandoned areas, where they had apparently been left after foreign-introduced disease had decimated the Chamorro population.

In modern times, latte stones are a symbol of Chamorro identity and are found in a wide variety of government, business and personal contexts.