Imagine a village where the dead rest not in the earth, but in the sky. On the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, the Motu people built motu—elevated burial platforms of lashed timber, standing like silent watchtowers over the sea. These were not grim monuments, but places of honor, where a loved one’s body would be laid to dry in the sun and wind, a process both practical and profoundly spiritual. The platforms kept the deceased safe from animals and floods, while their physical presence, silhouetted against the horizon, wove the memory of ancestors directly into the daily life of the living. Over time, the bones would be collected for secondary rites, but the platform itself remained, a skeletal architecture whispering of a culture intimately connected to both the ocean’s breadth and the cycle of life and death.
Who Built Motu burial platforms?
Who Built the Motu Burial Platforms?
The Motu burial platforms were built by the Motu people, an Austronesian-speaking group indigenous to the southern coastal region of Papua New Guinea, particularly around the area of present-day Port Moresby. These structures are a significant part of their traditional mortuary practices.
Purpose and Cultural Significance
The platforms were constructed to elevate the deceased above the ground. This practice served multiple purposes: it protected the bodies from scavengers, respected cultural taboos associated with death, and facilitated a form of sky burial where the elements would naturally aid in decomposition. The practice was deeply tied to ancestral veneration and beliefs about the spirit's journey to the afterlife. Following this primary exposure, the bones were often collected for secondary burial rites.
Related Structures from the Provided List
While the Motu platforms are unique to their cultural context, other cultures in the Pacific and beyond developed distinct elevated or monumental burial structures. From your list, the following are highly relevant for comparison:
- Rapa Nui burial platforms - Known as *ahu*, these massive stone platforms on Easter Island served as ceremonial bases for moai statues and also as burial sites for island elites, sharing the conceptual link of a constructed platform for mortuary and ancestral rites.
- Hawaiian Alii tombs - These were sacred burial places for Hawaiian nobility, often situated in or near temples (heiau). Like the Motu platforms, they reflect a stratified society where burial practices emphasized the elevated status of the deceased, both socially and physically.
- Samoa royal burial mounds - These earthen mounds were used for interring high-ranking chiefs. They represent another Oceanic tradition of creating prominent earthworks to honor and separate the remains of the elite from the general community.
