NEXT LECTURE
Wednesday, July 19, Australian Museum, 6.30 for 7.00pm. OAS & Australian Museum members $25, others $35, includes substantial refreshments and wine.
Mark Blackburn will be presenting a lecture on
STONED – Lithic Technology of the Ancient Polynesians
I am delighted to be visiting Australia again and also for the opportunity to present on a very under-appreciated area of Polynesian art collecting. I have collected fine stone adzes of Polynesia for decades now and see them as the ultimate representation of form and function. Though often overlooked by collectors and scholars, one should note that these are important and highly-crafted tools. Used to fell trees; build canoes; construct houses and their furnishings; create bowls and clubs; and, of course, carve sculptures of sacred imagery — adzes covered a wide, and tremendously important, array of functions. I will also be discussing a separate class of adze that are, in and of themselves, sacred stone sculptures.
I will provide an overview of shapes from both Western and Eastern Polynesia. Utilizing this basic understanding to carefully study form and type, you will be able to trace the migration of people across Oceania.
Photo of an extremely rare sacred adze from the Cook Islands. Image courtesy of Mark Blackburn.