Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Harvard’s Early Endeavors in Oceanic Anthropology

Date: 

Saturday, March 7, 2020 (All day)

Location: 

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge

UPCOMING EXHIBIT: Open Saturday, March 7, 2020–Sunday, March 7, 2021

This small new exhibit explores how early Harvard scholars influenced the development of anthropology and archaeology in the Pacific region. Produced in collaboration with over thirty other museums around the world, Harvard’s contributing exhibit will feature historical images and objects from the Peabody collections, including intricately carved Fijian clubs, models of distinctive Pacific outriggers, and a striking example of Samoan bark cloth (siapo). Together they weave a compelling narrative about the ideas, people, and networks pivotal to both early understandings and ongoing studies of Oceania.

A related public program, “Early Archaeology of the Pacific,” will be offered Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at the Geological Lecture Hall (24 Oxford Street, Cambridge). Matthew Spriggs, Laureate Fellow and Professor of Archaeology at Australian National University, will give a free lecture on the findings of a five-year project to understand the early history of Pacific archaeology and its contributions to our understanding of human settlement in the region.

Click here to learn more.