In a previous blog regarding Juan P. Manibusan I mentioned Hans Hornsbostel. What I did not mention was that Hornbostel wrote a series of articles, with the heading “Rota Days.” I found eleven so far ranging from 1935 to 1936. At this time I don’t know if there are anymore. Hornbostel indicated that his intent was not to write about the details of his archeological journey but more so about his encounters with the people.
In Hornbostel’s third article, June 1935, he talks about Manibusan again, but this time did not identify his name. He was trying to get Manibusan to lead him to an ancient site, “trinchera taotaomona mona (trenches of the people of before time).” Today, this site is known as the As Nieves Quarry in Rota, which is the largest unearthed set of latte stones in entire Mariana Island archipelago. Manibusan was adamantly firm that he would not take Hornbostel to the site because it was haunted by the spirits of the ancestors who were not his relatives. And, if he went there the taotaomona would give him no end of trouble if he trespassed. Hornbostel respected Manibusan’s and went looking for someone else to take him there.
With very little success and options, Hornbostel somehow convinced Juan Taitano. Juan Taitano was Hornbostel’s landlord and was also reluctant to show him the way. When they finally reached the site, Hornbostel was in awe. He described and drew these sketches. But like outsider in awe, he was dumbstruck with the question how did the people quarry great limestone monoliths without the aid of metal tools?
“Looking at these trenches which had been constructed by removing the very small amount of the surface soil and then digging down into the coral rock, I remarked to Juan that I could not understand how these trenches were made, as those who made them had nothing to cut this comparatively hard stone with. "Senor," said Juan, "it was quite easy. They did it with their fingers." Hornbostel looked at Taitano and told him that he just could not understand it. Juan responds, “Señor, it was quite easy. They did it with their fingers.
I laughed thinking perhaps that Juan meant that these ancients, having supernatural powers, could, as often related in their folklore, perform miracles at will. But Juan insisted that this how it was done. So I said to him, show me.
Whereupon he lit a fire on a coral rock, let it burn until the rock became very hot, then poured water on it, and lo, the rock was turned into lime which could easily be scraped away with fingers!
So here we have a method of quarrying with fire and water! Very simple, but no previous research parties had guessed the method used. Much had been written of the wonder of how these primitive people quarried without iron, etc. The reason that no one had found the method used is also simple, for these civilized men had never built a camp fire on wet coral rock, and also, being learned men, they were specialists and had not studied chemistry. I was delighted to be able to record the fact that I had found that fire and water was employed by the ancient Chamorros, and indeed there is no doubt about this, for subsequent investigations revealed much charcoal scattered about the quarry.” (Hornbostel 1935, pp.301-302)
Reference:
Hornbostel, Hans G. 1935. Rota Days. Philippine Magazine. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=KC_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=hornbostel+rota+days&source=bl&ots=3evYU58OJJ&sig=ACfU3U0oE5s-gnLUYpWUyt9Y0x2NO2XrcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpzM2_jeLjAhUKTN8KHTDcDMAQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=hornbostel%20rota%20days&f=false
