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INTRODUCTION
I have come to believe that all ancient stories contain information important for survival.
Astronomy is rich in mythology, but the tales are often trivialised by people, particularly scientists, who think they are simple stories containing no useful information. My research has revealed that,
to the contrary, these stories contain a wealth of meaning and knowledge that is still relevant today.
In fact, I would argue that the very foundations of civilisation are built on the knowledge contained within ancient star lore.
Richard Hall
‘How to Gaze at the Southern Stars’
I have a theory that the Maori and other ancient cultures passed down through time, in myth, information of high scientific value.
From my analysis of the myths and other written information, I have established that the ancient Maori knew about and handed down in myth form valuable scientific knowledge to their descendants. The findings reveal they understood intimately these key aspects.
• Precession of the equinox
• Celestial pole
• Celestial sphere
• The obliquity of the ecliptic.
• Maori astronomers watched for the ‘heliacal rising’ of stars
• Maori myth and associate knowledge is at least no less than 4000 years old.
• The Maori possessed great scientific knowledge of the stars.
• The discovery of a Maori ‘solar ranging’ device.
in Maori, Ara tia tia means (the stepped pathway) and Ara Matua (the main highway or zodiac).
Makaka (the sacred curve)
I believe that makaka is the ancient sacred proportion phi.
The Vesica Piscis (goldern section) or otherwise phi ratio.
‘Space and time are interwoven. We cannot look out into space without looking back into time’.
Carl Sagan; ‘Cosmos’
1.0 HISTORY AND THEORY
One body of work that has received little attention for the scientific information it may hold is Maori myth or cosmogony. The ancient Maori being mariners depended on this knowledge of the stars by which to navigate. This knowledge needed to be very accurate if they were to undertake successful voyages. For this knowledge to be gained the study of the cosmos was required over a very long period of time -not just a few years, nor even a lifetime, but thousands of years.
In her book, ‘The birth of the Universe’, Agatha Thornton draws on Maori oral tradition. It comprises four source manuscripts which contain dictated texts written down by H.T.Whatahoro Jury. Thornton states that at the heart of the stories is the concept of all existence being derived within a geology that is first cosmic and then tribal.1
Examination of the role of Tane in the myths reveals some interesting facts:
1.1 From the Separation of Rangi (sky father) and Papa (earth mother)
At the beginning of time, Rangi and Papa were in union with each other and formed a closed cosmic unit. This kept their seventy sons imprisoned and in the dark until Tane, using himself, or a pole, or poles, lifted up Rangi and fixed him to his proper height. I am convinced a great deal has been overlooked in this story. The symbolism clearly relates to the cosmic celestial pole which is an imaginary projection of the earth’s axis of rotation on to the celestial sphere, a point about which the apparent daily rotation of the stars take place.2 This imagery is also well known in other ancient cultures and is also represented as a cosmic tree or pole, for instance, Yggdrasil, the cosmic ash-tree of the Norse. Sometimes it is described as a millwheel or a whirlpool or a quern and it all relates to the very real precession of the equinox, a cyclic 26,000 year wobble of the earth on its axis.3
‘Then said Tane ‘Let us now separate our parents so that Rangi is settled in a place apart from Papa-tu-anuku... Then the great Rangi (who is standing up here) was pushed by Toko to stand up above’..... In this version it is four Toko but in other versions it is one.
Toko= pole
In the Te Arawa tradition it is Tane himself who is often identified with a tree who, by his body, separates Rangi and Papa. Tane, both a mighty head and a tall tree, which stands on the earth and at the top of which is Rangi’s ‘abiding place’. Moreover, another version states,
‘Tane established the heavenly post supporting the origins of the universe’. 4
Another myth likeness to Tane as a heavenly Toko/pole can be found in the Egyptian Osiris. The dead Osiris, sealed inside his coffer, is carried out into the sea and washed up at Byblos. The waves lay him to rest among the branches of the tamarisk tree, which rapidly
1Thornton p. 209 Hall p. 114
3Hancock p. 262 Thornton p. 94/
grows to a magnificent size, enclosing the coffer within its trunk. The king of the country, who much admires the tree, cuts it down and fashions it into a roof pillar for his palace. 5 The Toko are also in some versions both poles and winds. Thornton clearly identifies the Toko as both powers and forces of wind, light, rods and poles which help to reinforce the invisible nature of the celestial pole. Furthermore, the name of the two Toki (adzes) with which the gods fell the Toko trees are Awhiorangi (whirlwind of heaven) and Whiro-nui (great cyclone). A whio means ‘to go roundabout’. This is indeed what the world does; it goes round and round in a wobble like a spinning top or awhiowhio (whirlwind). 6 A problem was encountered while raising the Toko. It began to tilt.
Te Matorohanga’s version reads:
‘Now, then Rangi was up on high, but Rangi’s Toko staggered, two of the Toko broke and Rangi lowered himself toward Papa’. 7
I believe this tilting can be explained as the earth’s tilt toward the sun called the obliquity of the ecliptic, which can vary from 22.1 to 24.5 degrees over a cycle 41,000 years. This tilt, which also causes the seasons, points the North Pole away from the sun for six months of the year while the South Pole enjoys its summer. This angle, the obliquity of the ecliptic, is not fixed for all time. On the contrary, it is subject to constant, though very slow, oscillations. During the aforementioned cycle of 41,000 years the celestial pole, extended outward, scribes a great circle in the celestial sphere, which is known as the ‘ecliptic’ or the celestial pole. Sometimes this celestial pole is pointed at a star.
At the moment that star is alpha Ursae Minoris (Polaris). But computer calculations enable us to state with certainty that in 3000 BC alpha Draconis occupied the pole position; at the time of the Greeks the northern pole star was beta Ursae Minoris.8 We are talking here about a kind of musical chairs among the circumpolar stars.
In the Southern hemisphere exactly the same occurs; however, at present, our south celestial pole points at empty space, but can still be located by other nearby star positions.
In the Tainui cosmogony, a narritive by Pei Te Hurinui, we find one of the stages between the beginning and the birth of Rangi and Papa called Te kore makiki he rere.
(The formless void pierced by a line extending into space!) 9
I have established here that the ancient Maori knew about, and handed down in myth form;
• Precession of the equinox
• Celestial pole
• Celestial sphere
• The obliquity of the ecliptic
(And very likely, much more that has been lost).
5 Hancock p. 270
6 Thornton p. 93
7 Thornton p. 1068 Hancock p.242-249
9 Thornton p.233
1.2 Ascent of Tane
I turn to the second myth, the Ascent of Tane.
Tane ascends to Io in the twelfth heaven in order to obtain from him the knowledge needed for civilised life on earth. Io matu (Io of the invisible face) sends Rua matu and Rehua, who are whata-kura (sacred stones/gods) to bring up Tane to the highest heaven to receive the three baskets of knowledge and the sacred stones.10 Best, in his book ‘The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori,’ suggests the baskets may be compared to the three sacred books of the Hindus, which are also called the ‘three baskets of knowledge.’ 11
In this narrative Tane is the bringer of knowledge to humankind.
During his visit he is given a list of names: Tane – male; husband of heaven; Tane-parent; Tane-The knowledge of heaven; Tane-The water of life; Tane-stretching forth; and most importantly for us, Tane Ridge pole of heaven.12
This ancient civiliser brings back in triumph, to be stored and revered in Rangi-tatau, the three baskets of knowledge and the sacred stones. The two whatu-kura 13 are described as -white stones..... Foam of the sea .....in appearance.14
Could it be just a coincidence that the name of the Andean god and civiliser, Viracocha, meant ....Foam of the sea.....The evidence suggests that Viracocha had been worshipped by all the civilisations that had ever existed in the long history of Peru.
They say that in many places he gave men instructions how they should live, speaking to them with great love and kindness and admonishing them to be good and to do no damage or injury one to another, but to love one another and to show charity to all. In most places they name him Ticci Viracocha.
Other names for him are Con Ticci, Kon Ticci, Thunupa, Taapacc, Tupaca and Illa. He was a scientist,teacher, architect of unsurpassed skill, a sculptor and engineer. Before he came, humans lived in a condition of disorder, people lived in caves.15
This is exactly how the Maori lived before Tane brought the three baskets of knowledge to humankind.
‘People were living in half light; the houses they lived in were caves, they shivered with the cold’.
Rehua (one of the sacred stones) asked what life was like on earth. Paia answered him,
“What ails us is darkness, cold, and wood spirits. It is a bad life; we turn one way then the other; some of us hate the rest of us.” 16
10 Thornton p. 143
11 Best p. 15
12 Thornton p.147
13 God-Stones, or stones of heaven, the stones of the three branches of knowledge; with all power in all kinds of thinking and the arts.
14 Thornton p. 148
15Hancock p. 46-5016 Thornton p. 195
One of Viracocha’s other names was Iha Tiki (the god of lightning) likewise Tane was also associated with lightning.17
From this myth we have learnt that Tane resembles and, more than likely, I suggest that he is the very same person as Viracocha. I have established a cultural link between the ancient Maori and ancient Peru through myth.
From these myths I can also see that Maori treasured knowledge and were accurate observers of celestial phenomena. From the writings of Elsdon Best, who wrote in 1922, who gathered a lot of first hand information, that we learn more about the astronomical knowledge of the Maori.
Stars
What then did the Maori know about the solar system and stars?
There are indications that they were acquainted with the fact that the earth was round, or that it was not flat.
Interestingly, in Maori ritual, a considerable amount of respect was paid to the sun and stars. Officiating priests always faced toward the east, east being the direction of a star’s heliacal rising.
Zodiac
Best suggests that the Maori use of numbers, especially the number twelve, is connected with knowledge of the zodiac, and that this is the origin of their cosmogony. Another source states that because of astronomical and meteorological ideas within their teaching, it is more than a suspicion that the whole philosophy was based largely and originally upon astronomy. He has identified the Ara matua (the main road) as the Zodiac. 18 Scorpio was known to the Maori. The star Antares is positioned in waka of tamarereti (tail of the scorpion).
Antares is in the constellation of Scorpio. 19
The Maori had specially trained men called Tohunga Kakorangi who closely studied the stars in pre-European times. A tangata tatai arorangi is an astronomer, and Ko tatai-arorangi he kai arataki I te ra (tatai-arorangi is a conductor of the sun).20
17 Tane called out to son lighting, ‘Cast them down with your lighting flash, son, they are blood red and faint.’ The lighting maid was sent out and so the war party was defeated. Thornton pg194
18 Best p.29
19 Best p.53
20 Best p. 28
These men would often spend long hours of the night contemplating the ra-ririki (little suns); watching for heliacal risings of certain stars to mark seasons and activities. The name wheturangi means ‘appearing above the horizon.’ This is called by astronomers the ‘heliacal rising’ of a star, just before the sun. 21The stars provide us with a ready and more accurate means of determining the time of year than any observation based on terrestrial phenomena.
Just as the time of day is revealed by the position of the sun, so the time of year can be determined by means of heliacal risings and settings of sun; this can be the basis of a calendar. Timings can also be determined by observing the position of stellar groupings that can be easily recognised, notably the Pleiades. Besides the day, the most important natural unit of time is the year. 22
The Pleiades:
The heliacal rising of the Pleiades, known to Maori as ‘Matariki,’ was greeted by women with song and dance. The occasion was marked by a festival and marked the beginning of the New Year. In northern latitudes and Western cultures the rising of the star Rigal marked the beginning of the New Year. Festivals were likewise held to mark this event. Strangely, in Ngapuhi district and the Chatham Islands the year commenced with the helical rising of Rigal. 23
It is a noteworthy fact that Maori relied on the cosmic (helical) rising of stars to mark the seasons, phases of industry, and periods of time. Matariki’s (Pleiades) pre-dawn rising in early June heralds the Maori New Year and are also visible at its close. In the twelfth month they set, to return again with the New Year.24
The year beginning in winter was an ancient institution in south eastern Asia. In India the Pleiades year was an ancient system of time measurement and its weeks were reckoned by nights. Other peoples to obtain this system were the Sumerians, Arabians, Siamese, and Celts. 25
An interesting divergence in the Pacific is that in the Cook Islands the year commenced when Matariki was first seen in the evening sky.26 It is quite clear that Maori, the Hawaiians and Easter Islanders, all who share the same linguistic branch called the proto-Rapanui, 27and who also live at the extremities of the Pacific, share likewise cosmic schemes that resemble each other closely. They do this to the extent that ‘that the divine dramatis personal have the same names as well as analogous functions’. 28
This would indicate to me two points of interest:
• Firstly, a strong oral tradition that was protected by a firmly established school among this group.
• Secondly, that the Pacific was not settled in the manner the text books suggest.
21 Best p. 13 / Hall p. 145
22Whitrow p. 16
‘The task of Matariki, say Maori, is to keep moving in a cluster, to foretell lean and fat seasons, and bring food supplies to man’.
24 Hall p.100
25 Best p. 52
26 Best p.
27 Howe p. 88
28 Thornton p. 238
Thornton states ‘this concept [East Polynesian universal myth], shared foremost by proto-Rapanui; Maori, Hawaiian, and Easter Islanders and other Polynesians must be much older than the date of separation of these groups.’36 That is about 4000-3000 years ago. 37 This, in my view, would account for the divergence in practice among smaller societies, based on smaller islands, with greater pressure and demand on limited resources(pressure on knowlege systems through termoil etc)
However, Best suggests that the Maori seem to have changed the commencement of the year from December to June to make it differ from central Polynesia. That is changing from the evening rising of
Matariki to the helical rising. As we have seen above, it was more likely to have been the reverse, Central Polynesia changing to the evening rising of the star. The Easter Islanders likewise observed the heliacal risings of stars, and so do many other cultures. The ancient Egyptians kept closely in phase with astronomical phenomena. They watched for the rising of the Nile to occur when the last star to appear on the horizon before dawn was the ‘dog’ star Sothis, or Sirus as it is known to us. This heliacal rising came to be regarded as the natural fixed point of the Sothic calendar (introduced 2773 BC).38 An interesting coincidence is the Maori word Ra denotes ‘the sun’, as it does with some dialectic changes throughout Polynesia. In Egypt the setting sun was known as Ra tum, and as Best put it, by ‘singular coincidence’ the expression Ra tumu means the ‘setting sun’ in Eastern Polynesia? 39
Just how ancient were Maori Myths
All over the world there is‘sameness’ in the myths connected with the Pleiades. In Peru the Pleiades were also highly venerated. Best refers to the coded meaning ‘that is concealed behind the childish fable’….
‘Allegorical concepts, whose meaning were rendered and conserved for this kind of teaching’. But from what ancient time has this teaching been handed down? The answer, according to Best, is to do with the Maori reverence for Whanui (Vega).
This star served as the pole star for about 2000 years, that is to say, from 12000 BC to 10000 BC. The proto-Maori/Polynesian or Austronesians were, according to current academic orthodoxy, starting to move into the Pacific about 6000 years ago; with the arrival of ‘humans’ in near Oceania given a generally accepted date of 50-60000 years ago. However current dates are being pushed backward in time continually. So the gap between 10000 BC and 4000 BC may be narrowed still. Besides there is firm evidence that human occupation of New Zealand began 2000 years ago.40
Best is convinced that the (Proto) Maori started out on their journey of discovery when Vega was the pole star, and that they inherited the scientific knowledge from the Sumerians or some other culture. However he does not elaborate on this thinking.41
36 Thornton p.246
37 Howe p.39
38 Whitrow p. 28
39 Best p.13
40 Best p.60 Richard Holdaway has dated some Kiore (Rattus exulans) rat bones in New Zealand to 2000 years ago. The Kiore was incapable of reaching the pacific islands by itself but eventually became widespread there by traveling with the Austronesian voyagers. If the Kiore was in New Zealand 2000 years ago, then by implication, so too were humans. Howe p.73-76,17741 Best p.75
Moon:
To Maori, life revolves around all phases of the moon. Agriculturists planted their products at the full moon. One narrative reveals the Maori recognised the connection between moon and tides. Rona, the moon maiden, is the guide and controller of the moon-her full name is Rona-whakamautai, (Rona the tide-controller). In the tale, Tane-Matua utters the statement ‘let the waxing moon control the ebb and flow of the ocean maid’. 42 ( It wasn't until the time of the genius Isaac Newton and his Principia 1687 that Europeans learnt the moon controls the tides.)
Extremely keen eyesight:
Best points to the fact that the Maori conducted his studies of the stars with the naked eye. The Tangata tatei arorangi could see Jupiter’s satellites, Saturn’s rings, and the seven stars within the Pleiades (plus several others) and had named them. Parearu (Saturn) is a descriptive name describing its appearance, surrounded by a ring. The word pare denotes a fillet or a headband; arau means ‘entangled’ or perhaps ‘surrounded’!43
Rehua: Mars
From the Indian Veda comes an interesting narrative. Its origin is aryan-hindu, but it is even much older.
‘In the beginning, there were only the celestial bodies. There was an upheaval in the heavens, and the Dragon was split in two by the ‘flowing one of storms.’ Rehu, the upper part of the destroyed planet, unceasingly traverses the heavens in search of vengeance; the lower part Ketu (the cut off one) has joined the ‘primeval ones’ in their flowing (orbits).44’
Recorded above is the destruction of the planet identified as Mars. Strangely, the Maori Rehua has also been identified as Mars-as the following saying proves:
‘Titiro to maka ki a Rehua,ki te mata kihai i kamo’ (Turn your eye to Rehua, to the eye that winked not)……. (Planets unlike stars do not wink!)And, moreover, what can we make of this, if Rehua is Mars?
Na te aha, whawhati te paihau o Rehua (what broke the wing of Rehua)
or Rehua is a star, a bird with two wings; one wing is broken!45
It is only very recently that modern science has come to understand that something very dramatic did happen to Mars, a massive meteor impact. The huge Elysium bulge and the Tharis Bulge were caused by an object 600 kilometers wide traveling at 40000 kilometers per hour. 46Could humans have witnessed such an event? Above, I believe, we have two separate references to the event! It has been suggested that perhaps this event happened less than 20,000 years ago; that was at the end of the last Ice age. 47
42 Best p. 25
43 Best p.41/32
44 Sitchin p. 60
45 Best p.53
46 Hancock p. 38
47 Hancock p. 55
Navigation
Modern studies of the ancient proto-Polynesian or Austronesian maritime technology and navigational techniques have outlined a deliberate strategy of exploration and settlement of the Islands. It was not a result of random, haphazard meandering, drifting, or being castaway. 57 Kupe’s sailing directions to reach NZ seem to be explicit.
‘Keep the sun, moon, or Venus just to the right of the bow of the vessel and steer nearly southwest’. 58
One of the twentieth century’s most notable sailing adventurers David Lewis, has been able to put historical and navigational theory to test the Polynesians’ skills in seafaring. In 1972 he published ‘We the Navigators’ which summarised his findings. He made two major statements. Firstly, Island navigators could navigate and engage in triple voyaging. Navigators were able to reverse their course to their point of departure and, using signs learnt on these two trips, successfully make their way back to their discovery.
Secondly, Lewis claimed that the Islanders’ ‘ocean going’ craft were perfectly capable of successful long-distance voyaging. Lewis also described what amounted to a star compass. A navigator’s mental storehouse of such matters-knowledge of stars, seasonal wind and wave patterns, and currents-would often surpass in detail and accuracy those in European hydrographic publications.59
I have found
• Maori astronomers watched for the ‘heliacal rising’ of stars
• That Maori myth and associated knowledge is at least no less than 4000 years old, and more likely to be much more ancient.
• The Maori possessed great scientific knowledge of the stars. With this they were able to guide their vessels from end to end of the Pacific.
• That Maori, Hawaiians, and Easter Islanders are more closely related than other Polynesians, and belong to the proto-Rapanui linguistic group.
My study brought me to the point where I needed to find evidence for the scientific study of stars by Maori.
I theorised that there must have been land based observatories, and that these would be found in sacredplaces and more than likely be made from stone, More or less like other such ancient sites. The proto-Maori must have had a star-base somewhere. My thoughts turned to Easter Island or Rapanui.
Easter Island, could it be....?
57 Howe p. 62
58
59 Howe p. 102
Tradition states that the stars relied on during the voyage were Alutahi (Canopus), Tautoru (Orions belt), Puanga (rigel), Takurua (Sirius), Tawera (Venus as morning star), Tama-rereti (Tail of the Scorpion), and Te ikaroa (The Galaxy). Closely related are these Hawaiian sailing directions to Tahiti. I have included these because they cast light on the fact the voyages were navigated. Somebody obviously returned with the information.
‘If you sail for Kahiku (Tahiti) you will discover new constellations and strange stars over the deep ocean. When you arrive at Piko o wakea (the navel of space), ecliptic,or ‘main road’ of the Maori, you will lose sight of Hokupaa (north star), and newe( Southern cross) will be your south guiding star, and the constellation of Humu will stand as a guide above you’.
The ancient solar observatories of Rapanui
The first westerners to visit Rapanui, this most mysterious place, arrived on Easter day 1722; hence the name. They had arrived on a very special day, and they reported that the Islanders ‘had prostrated themselves toward the rising sun’. I can explain this in light of Easter day being the Autumn Equinox, one of the four most important days in the ancient world. Just like the Maori, they began their year after the Pleiades heliacal rising, just before the sun at dawn. The sky was their daily calendar and they planted their crops according to the phases of the moon, and likewise they had a named 30 day lunar cycle.60 Standing like sentinels around the shoreline of the Island are massive lava stone monuments, the great majority of which are now mostly destroyed. The statues are called Moai their bases, which are also impressive, are called Ahu.61 The Ahu, which are described as precisely built facades made of large cut stones that range in measurement from a few metres to over 100 metres in length, and average several metres wide and tall. These often imposing structures supported anywhere from zero to fourteen or more Mohi in a single row, and according to estimations were made over 1000 years ago (I suspect this date is far too late). 62 These words hardly express the power, organisation, dedication, high technical skill, and engineering that was required to cut, transport and erect these structures; and for what purpose? Most of the coastal Moai and Ahu have been found to have no astronomical orientation; however, the three great inland ceremonial centers have been found to be accurate solar observatories.
Vinapu, Tongariki, Hekii.
I was at once struck by the similarity between the massive, precisely cut and fitted stonework at Vinapu and images of stonework I had seen in Peru at such sites as Machu Picchu and Tiahuanaco, likewise many other Archieologists, including Thor Heyerdahl had noticed the likeness. These stones belong to a most ancient stone building tradition. I immediately realised that these monuments must be thousands of years older than the current orthodox view, and that in all likelihood I had stumbled upon evidence for the ‘Mother culture’ of the Polynesians. This then was the star sanctuary of Polynesia. The Rapanui Islanders, we should remember, were great navigators.63
In his book, ‘The Archaeoastronomy of Easter Island’, William Liller, an archaeologist, informs us of his discoveries in 1986, and of the work of archaeologist William Mulloy of the 1955-56 Norwegian archaeological expedition to Rapanui. They demonstrated that the Ahu platforms at Tepeu and at Vinapu are solstitially and equinoctially oriented.
60 Liller p.5
61 In Maori Ahu means sacred mound.
62 Liller p.3
63 Polynesians had been criss-crossing the pacific for centuries. They traveled ocean distances ‘inconceivable’ to much later voyagers like the Norse Vikings, Christopher Columbus, and other European ventures and they used the celestial bodies for navigation.
Ahu huri Urenga (an inland Ahu)
Described as a modest monument, and a well substantiated observatory site, is also said to be ‘a surprisingly sophisticated stone-age solar observatory. The single standing Mohi faces the rising winter solstice sun. Nearby a peaked hill, Maunga Mataengo, lay on a line pointing to this same solstice direction.
As seen from the Ahu, its summit would have served as a siting device to indicate the exact place the sun would rise on June 21th. Other unnamed Ahu lay nearby. The orientation of which was within 1.5 degrees of due west. The supposition must be that these three Ahu had been intentionally placed so as to provide sight lines to the rising and setting equinoctial sun. Importantly, Mulloy made a further discovery at Ahu huri Urenga, which strengthens our scientific connection between the Maori and Rapanui. Close to the Ahu ‘plaza’ he uncovered
a set of man-made cavities pecked into bed rock at the base of the monument. These were surveyed and pointed with high precision-usually to within a fraction of a degree-to the three significant solar rising points plus due north. The line connecting a fifth pair of cupules precisely paralleled the wall of the Ahu plaza. Exactly how these cupules, called a ‘solar ranging device’ by Mulloy, were used can only be guessed. Perhaps, adds Liller, a framework of wooden poles was to be set into the five cavities and used as sighting posts? 64
Strong confirmation for such a technique using wooden sighting poles as a ‘solar ranging device’ comes from Temuka, in the South Island of New Zealand. A first hand account from a Mr. Beattie of Gore in a paper to the Polynesian Society, said, A South Island ‘native’ told him, when he was a lad, at Temuka, he had seen his father ‘put sticks in the ground, and observe the stars. If the observed star moved to the south the season would be bad; if it moved north the season would be dry and good. His observations were nightly and involved many observations of the stars. As Mr. Beattie was no astronomer he made no further inquiry as to what stars they might have been!65 The item of interest in this story are the ‘sticks’ in the ground, or were they placed in precisely aligned cupules ‘pecked into rock’? In other words, the solar ranging device described above?66
It seems therefore that Lomas and Knight, the Masonic writers, are correct as regards their 'Uriel's Machine;the year long study they undertook using a'simple arrangement of posts' to log the movement of the sun and stars throughtout the year. Here is actual proof of the ancient technology,of a stone-age people, in use.
Flem-Ath pg 316-317
The evidence for solar orientation is irrefutable; as many as twenty Rapanui stone temples-Ahu-were constructed to mark important heliacal risings and settings. Liller’s conclusion was simply that the Rapanui people had a decided preference for astronomical orientations and these were for
·agricultural reasons
·navigational reasons67
64 Liller p.12
65 Best p.31
66 What at first may seem rudimentary could be a highly scientific but simple technique for star observation. A method employed for thousands of years by the Maori and their cousins the Easter Islanders.
Now that we know just what to look for; oriented cupules holes at sacred sites, more evidence should come to light.
67 Describing Ahu Huri a Urenga, Liller said, ‘It can be now be added to the list of other well known pre-historic observatories throughout the world. -Stone Henge in England, El -caracol in the Mexican Yucatan, and Teotihuacan in Mexico -It stands as a monument to the ‘intelligence’ of the early Polynesians. Liller p. 18
So, what of New Zealand, do we have any Ahu? The word in Maori means ‘sacred mound’ the place to investigate would be the South Island. It is here we find an early Maori stone-working culture, the earliest known in New Zealand. And these people, the Waitaha, may have started to arrive here as early as 2000 years ago. 51 It is certain these people were excellent stone workers as can be judged by the smaller scale, finely finished and polished artifacts made of greenstone/Pounamu or argillite. Pounamu was valued for its toughness harder than knife steel but softer than quartz.
Early Maori, a proficient geologist, discovered that the hammering(percussion) method brought with them from Rapanui was useless working Pounamu because it shattered the stone. Some very early crude examples exist worked in this method. Over time they developed a sawing and grinding method which was very time-consuming but enjoyable. The sawing was also a type of grinding using quartz sand and water as an abrasive, while working a thin sandstone saw across the piece.52
According to Olive Baldwin in her book, ‘The story of D’urville Island’, the Waitaha were quarrying argillite at D’urville Island and manufacturing tools from it. They said that they came from an island lying beyond the horizon where the ‘sky and sea meet’. Interesting for us, Waitaha preserved their history and traditions by developing schools and by leaving an artistic record by way of drawings on rock walls of South Island caves.53 Howe also places ‘the first or very early settlements in New Zealand at the Wairau Bar in the Northern South Island, and dates the settlement to the late 13th century.54
On the Chatham Islands the Moriori are related to the Waitaha, their ancient living sites contained flake tools made from New Zealand Obsidian and Argillite. Artifacts with a close resemblance to early east Polynesian tools found in New Zealand have been discovered at Waipaua bay on Pitt Island. 55
If you were to follow Kupe’s sailing directions to reach New Zealand from Rapanui by keeping the Sun or the Moon just to the right of the bow, and you sailed due west you would arrive in the South Island as Rapanui is at the very same latitude, 40 degrees South. As we have seen, this journey is more than feasible.
There are compelling reasons to believe that this is the case. One of those reasons is the collapse of the Rapanui Island civilisation. It ate itself out of existence! Professor Jared Diamond in his book, ‘Collapse,’ states, what happened on Easter Island was the worst case of deforestation in the Pacific, if not in the world. Today there is not one native bird species left!56 This collapse happened at the very same time that the first settlers in New Zealand seem to have reached-
51 Howe p.73 There is an arrangement of 600 stone components plus a hub stone at Waitapu, near Motueka, and another at Waipara in north Canterbury. 51But no serious investigation has been undertaken regarding these. www. Celtic New Zealand
52 Beck p. 98-90
53 Baldwin p.15
54 Howe p. 176
55 King p.11-12 The most poignant messages that ancient Moriori have left behind are in their bark and ‘rock’ carvings. (Or is it a written language, the same as found on wooden Rongo Rongo boards from Rapanui; see plate below)
56 Diamond pg 106
-‘Some sort of economic and demographic critical mass’ (1350AD). Until recently the Marquises were believed to have been the dispersal place for the proto-Maori. New information discounting this view, suggest, a large and perhaps more diverse region of dispersal a ‘homeland region’. 48
But, before Rapanui reached its economic demise; before they ran out of wood for building their ocean going craft,49 let us, for a moment, imagine their Island lifestyle. It was a society engaged in building huge stone monuments. Several of which are scientific star observatories, a project lasting hundreds of years. Giant Mohi, weighting up to 82 tons each, some 226 of these coastal Mohi have been studied. These plus the inland Mohi and their Ahu bases add up to a massive undertaking. This operation involved thousands of workers, engineers, stonemasons of high skill and astronomers requiring all the logistical support structures of a large civilization; this operation must have been organised and financed by a wealthy power similar to say Australia today. We could call it the so called ‘homeland’.
For example, take a small nation like New Zealand; if we were to send manpower such as a military force of engineers to some cause, it would in all likelihood be a force of not more than a few dozen, plus equipment and supplies and would cost millions and be of limited duration. The operation at Rapunui lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years, and as we have seen, given the size of the island, could not be self-sustaining, at least, for very long. Thor Heyerdahl, a biologist, in his book, ‘Easter Island the Mystery Solved’, points to the work of archaeologist, Kenneth P. Emory of the Bishop Museum, who has studied the stone remains on Easter Island and elsewhere in Polynesia, and saw that nothing comparable to Easter Island stone-fitting was found anywhere in Oceania. He pointed out that since the same technique predominates in the cut-stone facings of ancient Peru, South America seemed a more likely source of orign.
‘It is quite within reason to entertain an American origin for a cultural element so specialised as this stone facing. It is a conspicuous element localised in the part of America nearest to Polynesia....’
Heyerdahl suggests Tiahuanaco as the origin of the Rapanui/ Polynesian homeland producing many artifactual examples that are here beyond the scope of my work to examine.50
The Humble Potato
It is at Tiahuanaco, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, that we meet once again the ‘Viracocha people’
(Foam of the sea). Although now more than two miles above sea level the lake was once located at the sea bed. The lake still has many oceanic fish types today, but the uplifting is thought to be not more recent than 100 million years ago. And like the Wellington area, the altiplano is still lifting.
48Howe p. 178
49 Howe p. 88
50 Heyerdahl p.158
The ancient city of Tiahuanaco irrefutably was once a port, complete with extensive docks, positioned right on the shore of the lake. Now the ruins are marooned about twelve miles south of the lake and one hundred feet higher. The orthodox view, which has been challenged, is that Tiahuanaco was built no earlier than 500AD. However, based on mathematical/ astronomical calculations of Professor Arthur Posnansky and confirmed by Professor Rolf Muller, the construction of Tiahuanaco has been dated to 15,000 BC. This chronology also indicates that the city later suffered immense destruction from a natural catastrophe around the eleventh millennium BC, and thereafter rapidly became separated from the lake shore.
These findings suggest that the city flourished during the last Ice Age.34 The dating of Tiahuanaco has implications for dating Rapanui and, possibly New Zealand as well. The stonework at Vinapu, among the best quality of its kind found on the island, belongs to the same tradition/style as stonework at Tiahuanaco, a style that may have lasted a thousand years or more. For example, take the Gothic cathedrals of Europe all built over a period of 200 years-some of these finished as late as the 20th century. No one, since Gaudi has attempted to build in this style/tradition. You may say the style lasted for a thousand years.
Standing stones Kalassaya, Tiahuanaco
According to this logic, some of the stonework at Rapanui is 10 times older than currently accepted. This means that Rapanui has been inhabited for at least 10-12,000 years and also implies that Maori/Rapanui/ Hawaiian myths are at least that age as well.
This is well before Howe dates Austronesian ancestors moving out of the region of the South China Sea some 4000-6000 years ago. 35
The construction of the city consists of ‘strange buildings built of massive stone blocks. Stone portals, hewn out of solid rock; these stand on bases anything up to thirty feet long, 15 feet wide and six feet thick; base and portal being all one piece.....’ There was a sunken temple and directly in front of this a fifty foot hill known as the Akapana pyramid. Its ground plan was irregular, measured 690 feet on each side and was the dominant structure of Tiahuanaco. Originally it had been a step pyramid of earth faced with large andesine blocks. Now only ten per cent of the facing blocks remain. It was oriented toward the cardinal points with surprising precision.
Almost 500 feet square is the Kalassaya (the place of the upright stones)an open air courtyard composed of huge monoliths more than twelve feet high that had been sunk into the ground. Scholars now generally accept that the Kalassaya functioned as a sophisticated celestial observatory. Just as at Rapanui the monolith structures within the walls have been lined up to particular star groups and designed to facilitate measurement of the amplitude
34 Hancock p. 67-69
35 Howe p. 39
of the sun in summer, winter, autumn and spring. In the northwest corner stood the famous ‘gateway of the sun’ which is thought by those who have studied it to be an accurate calendar carved in stone. 29 Their ancient civilisation had eventually abandoned that site after the climate had worsened and became inclement. There was evidence the area had become colder and much less favourable for the growing of crops. But the people did not leave without a struggle. There was evidence from all over the altiplano that agricultural experiments of an advanced or scientific nature had been carried out. For example, recent research has demonstrated that sophisticated analyses of the chemical compositions of many poisonous high-altitude plants and tubers had been undertaken in this region in furthest antiquity. Such analyses had been coupled with the invention of detoxification techniques which had rendered these otherwise nutritious vegetables harmless and edible. 30
Howe, on the other hand, supporting the origin of proto-Maori from the Southeast Asian region that adapted to its local environment as it moved through the Islands over thousands of years forcefully 31 rules out the Americas as the ancestral homeland of the Pacific peoples. For him the sweet potato is problematic.
This is what he has to say:
"Of all the domesticated plants and animals the Austronesians brought with them into remote Oceania the sweet potato is the notable exception for its origin.The sweet potato had its botanical origins in Peru."
Near Lake Titicaca of course, and according to calabrated dating has been a food source for over 8000 years and cultivated for over 6000 years (CIP International Potato Centre), the greatest diversites of species are still currently found there.
He also notes that those Austronesian travelers who first moved into the Pacific were a highly skilled horticultural people, and that was a major element of their success in colonising the pacific islands.32
Almost dismissing the idea he adds....
"It is hypothetically possible, though much less likely, that travelers from South America might have reached the Eastern Polynesia and brought the sweet potato with them."
The question I ask, and which he does not answer is, why was it much less likely? Especially as he adds later:
"There are those who would argue that the presence of other plants and animals in the pacific islands and elsewhere suggests as yet unexplained and unexplored-possibilities of trans-pacific movement. Coconut trees, for example, originate in south East Asia, yet were growing in Central America at the time of Columbus.33 "
Legends tell us the Viracocha people finally left Tiahuanaco ‘walking on the waters’ of the Pacific Ocean, or going ‘miraculously’ by the sea. Where were these seafarers going? The answer, to me seems obvious.
"With the eventual discovery and settlement of most of the habitable islands in the pacific, the millennia long tradition of extreme-distance oceanic exploration and travel appears to have come to an end. The geographic limits-and they probably include the Americas-(Howe seems grudgingly to admit) had been reached."
Without knowing Diamond’s 2005 work, ‘Collapse’, Howe writing in 2003 ends with a similar insight on this matter...... ‘Perhaps the simple human and physical resources needed to maintain a roving, colonising lifestyle. To produce and maintain the necessary maritime technology could not be sustained indefinitely.
Building large sailing vessels required a large labour force, {and material} which put considerable organisational and economic strain on communities’.
Here I have shown:
• Undeniable cultural, constructional, astronomical, and horticultural connections between the Maori-Rapanui-and Tiahuanaco /Vircochas people.
• That advanced experiments with tubers had been carried out at Tiahuanaco in furthest antiquity
• That the first ‘Austronesian’ travelers had been highly skilled horticulturalists.
• That the Kumara was the key to success of Polynesian/Maori colonising, allowing for a more sedentary lifestyle.
Conclusion:
My thesis establishes that the ancient Maori knew about, and handed down in myth form valuable scientific knowledge to their descendants. I have found hard facts and techniques used by the Maori to study the stars.
29 Hancock p. 80
30 Hancock p. 96: They went to great lengths, and perfected waru waaru, raised fields which created the characteristic corrugated strips of alternately high and low ground which are proved to have the ability to out -perform modern farming techniques.
Recent experiments by agronomists and archaeologists found these plots yielded three times more potatoes than conventional plots. Likewise it was found severe frost did little damage to the crops on the raised plots; they also could survive drought.
31 Howe p. 61 Rapanui Islander holding Kumara
32 Howe p. 81
33 Howe p. 90+20
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baldwin Olive,‘The story of New Zealands French Pass and D’urville Island’, Fields Publishing house,
Plimmerton, 1979.
Beck Russel J and Mason Maika, ‘Mana Pounamu’ New Zealand Jade, Reed Publishing Auckland 1884.
Best Elsdon, ‘The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori (1922)’, Kiwi Publishers, Christchurch 2002.
Diamond Jared,‘Collapse’, How societies choose to fail or survive, Penguin, Victoria, 2005.
Hancock Graham, Bauval Robert and Grigsby John,‘The Mars Mystery’, Penguin books, London, 1998.
Hancock Graham, ‘Fingerprints of the Gods’, Mandarin Paperbacks, London 1996.
Heyerdahl Thor, ‘Easter Island, the mystery solved’, Random House, NY 1989.
King Michael and Morrison Robin, ‘A land Apart’, The Chatham Islands of New Zealand, Random
Century, Auckland,1990.
Liller William, ‘The Ancient solar Observatories of Rapanui, The Archaeoastronomy of Easter Island’,
Cold mountain Press NJ 1993.
Hall Richard, ‘How to Gaze at the southern stars’, Awa Press, Wellington 2004.
Howe Kerry R, ‘The Quest for Origins’, Penguin Books, Auckland 2003.
Rawlinsons Media Limited, Auckland 2004.
Sitchin Zecharia, ‘The wars of gods and Men’, Bear and company, Santa Fee New Mexico, 1985.
Thornton Agatha, ‘The Birth of the Universe, Maori oral cosmogony from the Wairapara’, Reed Publishing
Auckland, 2004.
Whitrow GL, ‘Time in History’, Oxford University Press NY 1988.
Web page
WWW. Celtic New Zealand
Plates
WWW. Celtic New Zealand
Easter Island, the mystery solved
The Ancient solar Observatories of Rapanui
A land Apart
How to Gaze at the southern stars
Fingerprints of the Gods
Oral
Webber Jim: Iwi, Ngati Toa Rangatira, Ngati Raukawa
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ROBERT FERRIS
Last edited by robert on Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:08 am, edited 13 times in total.
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