Who Built Them, And When?

All over the Pacific, in times long past, men built structures in stone.

The purpose of these are unknown to the present inhabitants of the islands who are frequently unaware of their existence and when they are, have often despoiled them.

But these stone works are vastly intriguing to scientists and others interested in the pre-history of the islands. Who built them? When and why were they built? Mostly we have been able to come up with little beyond educated guesses in answer to these questions—which in dicates that the vast field of archaeology has scarcely been scratched in the Pacific.

The Trobriand Islands, one of the groups lying east of the Papuan mainland, contains several sites of mystery stones for which little explantation has been forthcoming. The Trobriands are different from the vast, almost continental New Guinea mainland.

The main island, Kiriwina, where the pre-historic monoliths have been found, was once an atoll that at some time was upthrust, turning the old lagoon into the present central swamp and the old reef into a ring of low hills. The Trobrianders, too, are different from the main landers, showing a greater mingling of ethnic types than true Papuans.