ancientart:

The archaeological site of the House of Taga & the mythology surrounding it. 

[…] Taga’s youngest daughter grieved for her mother and brother. She yearned for the gentle ways of her mother and the sound of her brother’s laughter. One night she could no longer contain the anguish within. With her father’s spear, she ended his life while he was sleeping. Guilt tortured the daughter’s heart. She could not bear the grief and sorrow. Taga’s daughter soon died like her mother, of a broken heart.

As the legend goes, Taga had twelve children, one for each of the latte that supported his house. As Taga’s children died, they became spirits. Each spirit inhabits a latte until it is the time for the spirit to finally leave the world. At the moment its latte falls, the spirit is released.

Today one latte still stands [as pictured]. It is the stone of Taga’s youngest daughter. Her spirit still walks beneath the plumeria trees and coconut palms where their house once stood. She remains unhappy and lonely, imprisoned by her sad and tragic fate. Her soul still suffers because of her murdered dead. Her spirit waits for this last latte to tumble to the ground.

–Section from Marianas Island Legends: Myth and Magic (2011), a book containing legends, folklore, history, and traditions collected from the Chamorro and Carolinian elders and the youth of the Marianas Islands.

The House of Taga is located near San Jose Village, on the island of Tinian, United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The prehistoric latte stones at this site stood 15 feet high, and were quarried south of the site. A latte (as shown in the centre of the photo) is a term used for a pillar with a hemispherical stone capital, which were used as building supports by the ancient Chamorro people -the original structures would have once looked something like this.

Photo courtesy & taken by CT Snow via Wiki Commons.