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LES SITES ARCHEOLOGIQUES DES CIVILISATIONS DISPARUES https://secretebase.free.fr/civilisations/ruines/pacifique/pacifique.htm

There are remains of ancient civilizations in the Pacific Islands (Micronesia, Polynesia ..), sometimes engulfed in, sometimes known in the "civilized" past, but since eliminated. Remains of walls, benches, monuments, testimony to human activity some Millennium ago. One of the most extraordinary "monument", by its design, is perhaps this of an island of the Tonga, a sort of dolmen carved with a cross stone embedded in the cutting of each of its two pillars. Marquesan Tiki large round eyes, which can reach 3 meters high, is sometimes presented as a megalith. For me, a megalith (from "megas", "Megalos" tall).

The "marae" is an ancestral religious site , now a touristic area..; they are great stones constructions acting as sanctuary in the open air. The marae were mainly reserved for the worship of the Gods, but of other events significant could be held there, such as the crowning of a king, the celebration of a victory, a marriage or the preparation of a voyage.

Agenda
One practised there also some human sacrifices.

 According to the source site above, I quote : "platforms and truncated pyramid, the marae exist throughout the Leewards islands (Society islands), stone megaliths, carefully shaped and adapted. The most big of all stone structures being the Polynesian Marae Mahaiatea, in Tahiti. Today destroyed, its overall appearance was a pyramid with a wide flat roof.
It measured 21.6 by 81.4 m at the base, and rose in 11 steps of stairs to a size of over 13 m high. Made of blocks of coral stone and volcanis square stones. Visible during the visit of Captain Cook's in 1769, the building was demolished after 1897. - The Marae Taputapuatea of Raiatea is long 7.3 m wide and up to 3.7 m high. It was built over an older platform. It is one of the largest and best preserved platforms throughout Polynesia, and one of the most sacred.
Like Raiatea, the marae of Huahine and Bora Bora are built with large cakes of coral, while the structures on Tahiti and Moorea are made of round basalt stones.


Ancestral religion; The representation of the gods is rather accommodating, with principal, but revocable gods, and gods the day ti day life. Creative God is Hiro (which split into two Raiatea and Huahine with its dugout). A recognized god almost everywhere was born in Raiatea, called thereafter " Raiatea the sacred " for this reason; it is about ORO, god of the fertility and the war (Gallimard press). Polynesians and Melanésiens had or have still a representation of the origin of the world.
Today, the Protestants form the most significant concession, followed catholics, Mormons, adventists of the Seventh day and others.

 

Traditional Fare (house) "for a dream", in the Wallis islands. tendancy is toxards more sturdy and more equippedé. photo "La Géographie" 01 2008.


The tapa. Under its various forms, the tapa is common to many tribal civilizations of the world. It is obtained from barks, or better I believe, layer under the bark, leaves or fibers of diverse origins,  hammed, banged  until obtaining a cohesion and a thinning down sufficient, but not transformed into dough; then dryed. The texture is like of a fine, flexible cardboard to be rolled, comparable to rustic parchments. It is used as partition closing panels, walls tapestry decorated with features and symbolic drawings. It was also used to realize fineries and clothes, however very stiff, and was abandoned(given up) after the introduction of the western fabric(tissue).

Ressources
 The production is unimportant since the abandonment of phosphates, copra and mother-of-pearl. But they say that crops are not negligible and represent a good part of local consumption (vegetables: tomatos, salads, potatoes, cucumbers; fruits: pineapple). Production of Vanilla (Huahine, Tahaa). Fish : local lagoon fishing of sufficient proximity (natural fish pools of Mataiva and Kaukura (Tuamotu) which supplies the market of PAPEETE with fresh fish) ; meat: pigs ... Despite the extension of the black pearl culture in the Tuamotu (Takapoto, Takaroa, Hao), Gambier but also to Tahaa, the only tourism brings an appreciable income, regurarly rising, which however does not manage to balance the trade balance, largely overdrawn. The stop of the nuclear experiments of Mururoa resulted in a significant loss of incomes, partially compensated by an allowance of 18 billion CFP until 2006.

Despite the widespreading of the grey pearl culture in the  Tuamotu (Takapoto, Takaroa, Hao), Gambier, but also to Tahaa, the tourism alone brings back a valuable incomme, unfortunately unsufficient to balancing imported goods.

GENESIS
The islands of Polynesia come very from a " hot point " of the ground which at the time of its eruptions, has created the volcanos, thus making go up the ocean floor locally. Some did not go up to the surface.

The displacement of the oceanic plate towards the North-West makes that the same " hot point " creates a whole line of volcanos (archipelagoes).

 

 

 Formation of the lagoons

The lagoon is formed by the depression of the island (subduction) and the growth of the corals bordering the volcano in the beginning ; this growth compensate for the depression and the supplementary rise of water due to the thawing of glaciers.

(*) The depression of the grounds by subduction is expressed in million years whereas the increase of water due to the thawing of the large glaciers amounts in thousands of years. Even by combining both, not to speak about a third effect less known, the thawing of the glaciers during the last 15000/11000 years seems dominating in " the depression " of the coral (wich can reach a thickness of 300 meters deep).  " See more, top page" for variations of ice and sea levels.

Tahiti


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