Use of astronomy

• Chamorro words and phrases supports the idea that the islanders were knowledgeable about astronomy and maritime arts.
• Chamorros had names for the stars.
o recently found at Liteksan (Ritidian)
o University of Guam Professor Rosina Ipsing believes that the arrangement of dots on the cave wall is a calendar
o Stars divides the year into sixteen months of unequal length.
o The beginning of a month in the traditional Chamorro calendar is marked by the appearance of a star.

Ancient Chamorro Calendar

​SOURCE:

Freycinet, Louis Claude de. An Account of the Corvette L’Uranie’s Sojourn at the Mariana Islands, 1819. Supplemented with the Journal of Rose de Freycinet. Translated and prefaced by Glynn Barratt. Saipan, CNMI: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Historic Preservation and the University of Guam Richard F. Taitano Micronesia Area Research Center, 2003.