Rota Latte Stone Quarry, Ancient stone quarry in Rota, United States.
The Rota Latte Stone Quarry is a prehistoric stone quarry with large unfinished limestone columns, some reaching about 25 feet (8 meters) in height and weighing approximately 35 tons each. The site displays multiple megaliths in various stages of finishing, revealing how workers shaped and prepared these blocks.
Archaeological evidence suggests the quarry dates to at least 845 AD, when indigenous Chamorro people extracted stones for building foundations of their homes. This quarrying continued over centuries, revealing the sustained importance of stone work in Chamorro construction.
The site displays nine haligi bases and seven tasa caps, which are traditional building components of ancient Chamorro houses. These stone forms were central to how people constructed their dwellings in this region.
The quarry sits near Sinapalo village and allows visitors to view unfinished stone formations and understand prehistoric building methods firsthand. Walking through the site reveals how ancient workers shaped and transported these massive blocks.
If completed and installed, the megaliths from this quarry would stand roughly 0.5 meters taller than those on Tinian Island. This difference reveals that Chamorro stonemasons aimed for varying sizes based on different purposes.
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