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Results for David V. Burley

Tuesday 18 July 2023

Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Seventeen hundred years before the dawn of the Viking Age in Europe, the first Polynesians crossed the western flank of the Polynesian triangle to settle in Tonga. Thus began the final chapter in the human settlement of the globe. A newly released book, ‘The Birth of Polynesia: An Archaeological Journey Through the Kingdom of Tonga’, documents this story. The author David V. Burley, is currently visiting Tonga.
Friday 29 January 2021

Nuku'alofa, Tonga
In the field of ancient DNA remarkable new insights for Oceanic settlement are being revealed. The Lapita migration across Oceania was rapid, and undertaken by a homogeneous group both culturally and genetically. Arriving in Tonga almost three millennia ago, it marks the birth of Polynesia. By David V. Burley and Geoffrey R. Clark.
Saturday 16 May 2020

Nuku'alofa, Tonga
On November 2, 1866, the Reverend Shirley Waldemar Baker, missionary and eventual Prime Minister of Tonga, gave a lecture in which he describes the last traditional God House in Ha'apai....“I have stood in the old Fale Mee at Haano, which is the last fale otua (temple of their god) still standing in Haapai. At the foot of the principal post there is buried a man, who was said to be the best singer in all Tonga. He was offered a living sacrifice to the god at the building of the temple, as an act of dedication.” By David V. Burley.
Friday 7 February 2020

Nuku'alofa, Tonga
People first arrived in Vava‘u between 850 and 810 BC, establishing themselves on the south central islands offshore of ‘Uta Vava’u. The earliest sites at Ofu, Pangaimotu and Otea are all but identical in their age, and they are coincidental with the oldest sites in Ha’apai. Bird remains aside, excavations of other types of food remains at these sites have an unexpected story to tell: one of scarcity. Fish remains were shockingly limited! Shellfish counts and species diversity are similarly impoverished, illustrating limited productivity, or at least limited sustainability, for reef foraging efforts. By David V. Burley.
Monday 7 January 2008
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Nukuleka, a small fishing village on the northern shores of eastern Tongatapu, at the entrance to the Fanga'uta Lagoon, has been identified by a Canadian archaeologist, Professor David V. Burley, as the cradle of Polynesia.
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