The archaeology of ceremonial sites (marae) has been a focus of the discipline in Central-East Polynesia since the late 19th century. Pioneer work by K.P. Emory, then Y. Sinoto paved the way to studies in architectural variations and monumental typologies while more recent works aimed at refining the chronology of marae development, especially in the Society Islands. However, very few studies so far have attempted to reconstruct the rituals themselves, therefore leading to a detrimental bias in our understanding of Polynesian religious systems.

Through my recent ARC DECRA project, our team tackled this complicated issue by adapting methods to a series of ceremonial sites. In this talk, I will present preliminary results from two case-studies on Fakahina and Teti'aroa atolls. These now show that it is possible to approach ancient ritual behaviours and open new perspectives for future research.

Dr Guillaume Molle is Senior Lecturer in Pacific Archaeology at ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is also Deputy Director of the International Center for Archaeological Research in Polynesia (CIRAP).