On-Line Talk ‘Roots and routes’: Journey along the Ara Metua

Our own Professor Colin Richards and OAS board member and Professor Jane Downes are giving a ‘not to miss’ free talk which is a Joint event by OAS and UHI

https://archaeologyorkney.com/2022/03/11/roots-and-routes-seminar/

Join us on March 25, when Professor Colin Richards and Professor Jane Downes take us to the Cook Islands in our next UHI Archaeology Institute seminar.

In Roots and Routes in Polynesia: investigating the fabulous Ara Metua and the colonisation of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Colin and Jane will look at the Ara Metua (also known as the Great Road of Toi) that runs around the island of Rarotonga and its significance in the Polynesian traditions of journeying and voyaging.

The Ara Metua is the largest “monument” in Polynesia. As a circuit road, it has neither start nor finish but formally links different areas of the island. It also connects the islanders with the founding ancestor Tang’ia because it materialises and commemorates the route taken when Rarotonga was settled and sub-divided into different sectors.

The seminar is a joint event with the Orkney Archaeology Society and will focus on the two professors’ current research into the Ara Metua – its building, and associated maraes (temples), in a broader Polynesian context.

The free online seminar is at 7pm GMT on Friday, March 25. A recording will be posted here shortly afterwards.

To book a place, click here.