The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: The Mamari Tablet Tells (Part 1)

📝 Abstract

The ancient priest-astronomers constantly watched many heavenly bodies. The record about Halley’s Comet of 1682 A.D. has been decoded completely. Good agreement between it and the results of European astronomers is seen. The records about Halley’s Comet of 1835 A.D. as well as about the sun, the moon, Mars and Saturn have been deciphered as well. The obtained information is the basis in order to understand some aspects of the bird-man cult.

💡 Analysis

The ancient priest-astronomers constantly watched many heavenly bodies. The record about Halley’s Comet of 1682 A.D. has been decoded completely. Good agreement between it and the results of European astronomers is seen. The records about Halley’s Comet of 1835 A.D. as well as about the sun, the moon, Mars and Saturn have been deciphered as well. The obtained information is the basis in order to understand some aspects of the bird-man cult.

📄 Content

1 The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: The Mamari Tablet Tells (Part 1)

Sergei Rjabchikov1

1The Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation - Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures, Krasnodar, Russia, e-mail: srjabchikov@hotmail.com

Abstract

The ancient priest-astronomers constantly watched many heavenly bodies. The record about Halley‟s Comet of 1682 A.D. has been decoded completely. Good agreement between it and the results of European astronomers is seen. The records about Halley‟s Comet of 1835 A.D. as well as about the sun, the moon, Mars and Saturn have been de- ciphered as well. The obtained information is the basis in order to understand some aspects of the bird-man cult.

Keywords: archaeoastronomy, writing, folklore, rock art, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia

Introduction

The civilisation of Easter Island is famous due to their numerous ceremonial platforms oriented on the sun (Mulloy 1961, 1973, 1975; Liller 1991). One can therefore presume that some folklore sources as well as rongorongo inscriptions retained documents of ancient priest-astronomers.

The Faint Echo from Rapa Nui

Routledge (1998: 249) says about the rongorongo board called kohau-o-te-ranga (the Mamari tablet):

It was the only one of the kind in existence, and was reported to have been brought by the first immigrants; it had the notable property of securing victory to its holders, in such a manner that they were able to get hold of the enemy for the “ranga” – that is, as captives or slaves for manual labour.

Consider the record on the Mamari tablet (C), see figure 1.

Figure 1.

Ca 13: 62 39 28 toa ranga the warriors (of the Tupa-Hotu tribe) are captives

The Report about Halley’s Comet of 1682 A.D.

Consider the record on the same tablet, see figure 2.

Figure 2.

2 Cb 9: (a) 17-50 44 Tei ta(h)a. The frigate birds (sooty terns figuratively) were visible (= appeared). (b) 52 143 24 52 143 17 17-17 (or 120-120, or 67-67) Hiti Paupau ari, hiti Paupau tea, teatea (or ngingi, or pipi). The bright Halley‟s Comet (1P/Halley) appeared, the clear Halley‟s Comet appeared, (it) shone (or was bright, etc.). (c) 17 43 17 43 17 43 11 17 61 17 4/33 17 26 17 4 … Te ma, te ma, te ma Maho (= Mango), te hina, te atua/ua, te Ma, te ha… (The following data are here:) the motion, the motion, the motion in the Virgo constellation, (the calen- dar counting:) the moon, the 13th moon, the Bright Light (the deity Ma = Maa, the symbolism of the god Makemake < *Ma-ke), the fourth (month)…

Glyph 143 is the sign of Halley‟s Comet (with the two glyphs 35 Pa, Pau „the star Pau‟). Glyph 43 ma depicting the leg reads ma (it also reads vae „leg; foot‟ seldom), cf. Maori ma „to come; to go.‟
Let us investigate a Rapanui chant (Campbell 1999: 217; the translation in Rjabchikov 2013a: 6):

Ka moe nga pua. Mo roto i te tama ere mo hiki, mo turu ki te honga’a pua. Teitei Renga o nga manu;

Keu Renga. Eggs (pua, hua) slept. (They) were inside (nests) for a young man (tama ere) for the elevating (hiki), for the coming down towards the nests of the eggs. (It was the god) Teitei Renga (the sun god Makemake) of many birds;
(it was the god) Keu Renga (the sun god Makemake).

In this text a servant hopu who looked for an egg of sooty terns manu-tara on the islet Mitu Nui in the month Hora-nui (September chiefly) is described. According to Métraux (1940: 333ff; 1957: 130), during that annual festival such a young man fetched the first found egg from the islet to the ceremonial village of Orongo. Then his master, a victorious warrior, received this sacramental egg (the incarnation of the god Makemake) and was proclaimed as the new bird-man.
The name Teitei Renga means „The arrival or elevation of the Yellow Colour (the sun).‟ This col- our was the notation of the sun in several Rapanui place names (Rjabchikov 1998). The name Keu-Renga signifies „Shelter of the Yellow Colour (= The Nest of Sacred Egg).‟ In the Rapanui folklore text known as the Creation Chant (Métraux 1940: 320-322) the character Tei (Highness) is rendered. Rapanui teitei „to grow; to increase; to raise; to elevate; height‟ is comparable with Maori teitei „summit, top,‟ Tahitian faateitei „to raise,‟ Mangarevan akateitei „to raise up,‟ Tuamo- tuan fakateitei „to raise,‟ and Samoan te’i „to be rising (of the tide)‟ < PPN *teki „to rise; to arrive.‟ The god Hiku-nene-ko-mo-toi-pua (cf. Rapanui hiku „tail‟) was presented in the legend about a lo- cal war (Ibid., pp. 382-383). In my opinion, it was the designation of Halley‟s Comet of 1682 A.D. Here and everywhere else, I use the computer program RedShift Multimedia Astronomy (Maris Multimedia, San Rafael, USA) to look at the sky above Easter Island. The term nene corresponds to Rapanui nenenene „nice,‟ hence the expression hiku nene means „nice tail (comet).‟ The term Mo-toi is Motohi or Omotohi (Ma-tohi, Mo-tohi), the name of the 18th moo

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