Likley to be the last excavation at Bourewa, meet with Professor Paddy Nunn.
- Bourewa Archaeological Excavation
- Open Day, Saturday 31st January 2009
- 11am – 3pm
USP Professor of Oceanic Geoscience, Paddy Nunn is inviting our club members to experience and witness what appears to be the earliest human settlement in the Fiji Islands.
Professor Nunn’s team will be excavating (possibly for the last time) in Bourewa for six weeks, and is giving us all a chance to visit the site on their Open Day:
Saturday 31st January, 2009, from 11am to 3pm.
Professor Nunn says that the Bourewa settlement dates from the Lapita period of Fiji history, as far back as 1100 BC!! Previous excavations around the Bourewa site have discovered pottery with designs that suggest migrations from the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea at the time of this early settlement.
The team’s research has revealed that “the settlement was a stilt-house occupation built above a sand spit that was awash at high tide”.
As this will most likely be the last time that an archaeological excavation will be carried out in Bourewa, please do take your family along to the site to witness the research team as they carry out their research.
The site is accessible by road as follows:
- From Suva, take the Queens Road through Sigatoka to the Maro Road junction (sign says Natadola Beach). Turn left down Maro Road for around 10 minutes until you reach a road on the right marked “Vusama Village” and Robinson Crusoe Island”;
- Take this road and follow it straight , crossing one wooden river bridge, until you come to a T-junction. To the left is access to Natadola (and Yatule Resort), but you turn right towards Vusama Village;
- At the next fork in the road, turn left (not right to Vusama) and follow the signs to the car park for “Bourewa archaeological site”. It will take only a few minutes walk to reach the excavation site from the car park.
The road is suitable for all vehicles. Please be sure to bring your sun hats and lots of drinking water.
The research team will take you on a tour of the site which will last a maximum of one hour, then you are free to stay on if you wish.
There are no formalities associated with this visit. Please do bring along a packed lunch, for you and your family as it is pleasant to sit in the shade on the beach at Bourewa.
For queries on car pooling with other members etc, please contact us at the office before Thursday 29th January.
We thank Professor Paddy Nunn for this special invitation.