Under the tourist towers of Tumon and the plaza stones of Hagåtña, Guam holds thousands of years of CHamoru, Spanish and American history — and archaeologists and cultural advocates say much of it is at risk as the island keeps building.
The concern came to a head at the first Guam Community Archaeology Day, held 2 October and organised by the Guam Preservation Trust as it drafts its next five-year strategic plan. Over the coming six to nine months the trust will gather community input on how archaeological work should be handled across the island.
The emotion behind the debate is personal. Long-time preservation advocate Juanita Simona Cushing described watching ancestral burial areas in Tumon being bulldozed for development. Her daughter, Juanita Blaz, helped archaeologists excavate remains near Matapang as a middle schooler, an experience that turned her into a lifelong advocate. Researcher Roman Dela Cruz made the case for collaboration rather than resistance: pairing CHamoru cultural knowledge with scientific methods, he argued, gets closer to the truth even when the findings are uncomfortable.
Recent work shows how much lies beneath everyday ground. A University of Guam field school at the Plaza de España in Hagåtña used ground-penetrating radar to map buried features, then excavated test units that revealed historic walkways, flooring, a posthole, possible earth ovens, ceramics, stone tools and animal remains from different eras. One unit hit an old coastal layer, evidence of how the Hagåtña shoreline has shifted over time; another revealed a walkway believed to predate World War II. Charcoal samples are now headed for radiocarbon dating.
Plenty of archaeology also sits on military land, from latte stone sites and rock shelters to World War II locations and rare pre-Latte sites. Archaeologist Dr Hedy Justus noted some of Guam's best-preserved sites are on military property, often alongside conservation areas — and several are being considered for the National Register of Historic Places, with some already accessible through controlled public tours.
For travellers, this is a reason to look beyond Guam's beaches. The island's heritage — latte stones, Spanish-era Hagåtña, wartime sites — is being actively unearthed, and visitors who join cultural tours or heritage walks are engaging with a living, contested story rather than a finished museum display.
