The Latte Builders of the Marianas

Across the Mariana Islands, paired stone pillars with capstones, the latte, held up the houses of a seafaring people after about 900 CE. Twelve of the Latte builders are gathered here, from Naton Beach on Tumon Bay in Guam and from Anaguan in Saipan, buried between roughly 1250 and 1650 CE. Their genomes place them and the earlier Unai people on a single First Remote Oceanian lineage, and the later Latte individuals derive about 85 percent of their ancestry from one such source. The CHamoru are the only Remote Oceanians with essentially no Papuan ancestry, and maternal lineages run unbroken from Unai through Latte to the CHamoru of today. The findings were presented to the CHamoru community in October 2020, and their feedback shaped the published work.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Latte Builders of the Marianas are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

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  Who were the Latte Builders of the Marianas?

  The Latte Builders of the Marianas (c. 1250-1650 CE, Naton Beach, Tumon Bay, Guam, and Anaguan, Saipan, Mariana Islands) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers".

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  What does "matching" the Latte Builders of the Marianas mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

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  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Latte Builders of the Marianas?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Retainers of Machu Picchuc. 1420-1530 CE

• The Chincha Lordsc. 1325-1615 CE

• The Chumash of Santa Rosa Islandc. 1250-1450 CE

• The Albanians of Arbëriac. 1400-1700 CE

• The Black Death Londonersc. 1330-1360 CE

• The Jews of Tàrrega1348 CE

• The Jews of Medieval Erfurtc. 1270-1400 CE

• The Peoples of Tierra del Fuegoc. 1250-1900 CE

• The Medieval Bosnians13th-15th century CE

• The Roma of Barçc. 1500-1700 CE

• The Coastal Papuans of Nebirac. 1400-1800 CE

• The Christians of Norman Segestac. 1120-1320 CE