What Really Happened on Easter Island?
Paul Bahn to give The Arts Society Chiswick's November Lecture
The Easter Island statues
October 29, 2023
Britain's leading expert on prehistoric rock art world-wide, Paul Bahn will look at the cultural rise and decline of Easter Island and what it can teach us about looking after the Earth today.
This will be The Arts Society Chiswick’s final lecture of 2023 and it takes place at POSK on King Street in Hammersmith at 8:00pm on Thursday, 9 November.
Olivia Freeman, Chair, The Arts Society Chiswick says, “This month we have something a little different to discover. As usual we, at The Arts Society Chiswick, look forward to welcoming both members and guests“.
Easter Island is the most isolated piece of permanently inhabited land on the planet, and yet it produced a most extraordinary Stone Age culture: hundreds of sophisticated coastal stone platforms, more than a thousand enormous stone statues, the richest rock art in the Pacific, and a unique writing system. This lecture will provide an introduction to the history of the discovery of this culture; to its principal features; and to what archaeology, oral traditions and, more recently, palaeobotanical evidence have combined to teach us about the island’s cultural rise and decline, and its environmental crisis.
Born and raised in Hull, studied archaeology at Cambridge, Paul Bahn is a British archaeologist, translator, writer and broadcaster who has published extensively on a range of archaeological topics, with particular attention to prehistoric art.
Doors open at 7pm, as does the private bar. The Lecture will start at 8pm and guests are very welcome for a payment of £10 on the door.
Membership of the Arts Society Chiswick includes 10 expert lectures on the second Thursday of every month (except August and December) and the opportunity to participate in tours, visits, social events and Special Interest Days. For more information see the society's web site.
The Arts Society Chiswick brings people together through a shared curiosity for the arts, to create opportunities for everyone to be part of a diverse community in which they can enjoy, learn about, participate in, and preserve the Arts and Cultural Heritage.
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