Åcho’ Atupat:Slingstone Caches of the Mariana Islands

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper discusses slingstone caches in the Mariana Islands as a possible post-Contact development around the time of the CHamoru-Spanish Wars in the late 17th century AD. This includes data on slingstone caches associated with human burials from a 2020 excavation on the island of Saipan and a comparison with similar finds at a nearby site on the island from two phases of excavations in 2015 and the late 1990s. Slingstone burial data from all islands of the Marianas is also reviewed. Large slingstone caches have only been documented archaeologically at two sites in the Marianas, but preliminary data suggests both may date to the 17th century, and one contains a possible destruction layer thought to date to the CHamoru-Spanish Wars. This paper makes the case for this preliminary interpretation of the slingstone caches while also highlighting data gaps and potential future avenues of research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow