Search results for ""Author Cherie Walth""
Archaeopress Afetna Point, Saipan: Archaeological Investigations of a Latte Period Village and Historic Context in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
When Ferdinand Magellan first anchored off the island of Guam in 1521, the inhabitants of the small Chamorro village at Afetna Point on the southwest coast of Saipan were likely unaware. Archaeological investigations of the traditional village yielded Latte Period burials, ceramics, stone and shell tools, microfossils from food remains, and charcoal from cooking features dating between A.D. 1450 and 1700. No direct evidence of Spanish Contact before forced abandonment of the island circa 1730 was encountered, after which time Saipan remained virtually unpopulated until the arrival of Carolinian and Chamorro settlers from Guam nearly a century later. Spanish settlement in 1668, the German occupation from 1898-1914, and the Japanese sugarcane period from 1914-1944 left few traces at the site until WWII and subsequent American administration. Afetna Point and Saipan have therefore been a contested landscape for centuries, but the island’s prehistory has deep roots that tie the Mariana Islands and its modern culture to ancestral SE Asia.
£69.40
Archaeopress Yellow Beach 2 after 75 Years: The Archaeology of a WWII Invasion Beach on Saipan and its Historic Context in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
After 75 years, this story presents archaeological evidence, archival records, and respected elders’ accounts from WWII and the most catastrophic period in Pacific Basin history, and then into modern times on Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. On June 15, 1944, Afetna Point was called ‘Yellow Beach 2’ by the U.S. Marines and Army infantry braving Japanese resistance to establish a beachhead before capturing As Lito airfield the following days. The beachhead then served as a resupply landing for the next two weeks or more as U.S. forces slowly cleared the island of enemy strongpoints, and removed wounded Americans and battle weary civilians to off-shore medical treatment. At the end of the battle Chamorro, Carolinian, Okinawan, and Korean residents were relocated into stockades for their separation from Japanese soldiers until liberation on July 4, 1946. American military and eventual civilian administration of the San Antonio area transformed the agrarian landscape into a busy corridor of residential, industrial, and then tourist development. Once again in the 21st century, competition for regional tourism and investment makes Saipan a nexus of geopolitical intrigue and economic speculation where the past is not forgotten.
£54.62
