The lunar calendar of Tablet Mamari - article ; n°2 ; vol.91, pg 135-149
16 pages
English

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

The lunar calendar of Tablet Mamari - article ; n°2 ; vol.91, pg 135-149

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus
16 pages
English
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

Description

Journal de la Société des océanistes - Année 1990 - Volume 91 - Numéro 2 - Pages 135-149
SUMMARY
Tablet Mamari contains the only text the general meaning of which is known beyond reasonable doubt : a lunar calendar identified by Barthel (1958 243). Having discovered it Barthel did not to analyse it further than proposing specific for its component glyphs. Krupa (1971) to interpret it as a coherent poetical text .
This calendar is examined and matched to night lists recorded by Englert, Métraux and Thomson, and to the times of the risings and settings the moon, its apparent size, its phases, motion distance from the earth during the period by Thomson's observations. Some conclusions drawn with a high level of certainty which to somewhat speculative but nevertheless interpretations of some glyphs. Strong evidence adduced that the calendar contains not only a count, but prescriptions for observing and, presumably, recording the appearance of the moon at times during the month so as to keep the night accurate and to predict when a particular required 29 or 30 days and where extra days were be inserted : before the full moon, before the moon, or both before the full moon and before new moon.
15 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

Publié par
Publié le 01 janvier 1990
Nombre de lectures 51
Langue English
Poids de l'ouvrage 1 Mo

Extrait

Jacques B. M. Guy
The lunar calendar of Tablet Mamari
In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. 91, 1990-2. pp. 135-149.
Abstract
SUMMARY
Tablet Mamari contains the only text the general meaning of which is known beyond reasonable doubt : a lunar calendar
identified by Barthel (1958 243). Having discovered it Barthel did not to analyse it further than proposing specific for its
component glyphs. Krupa (1971) " to interpret it as a coherent poetical text ".
This calendar is examined and matched to night lists recorded by Englert, Métraux and Thomson, and to the times of the risings
and settings the moon, its apparent size, its phases, motion distance from the earth during the period by Thomson's
observations. Some conclusions drawn with a high level of certainty which to somewhat speculative but nevertheless
interpretations of some glyphs. Strong evidence adduced that the calendar contains not only a count, but prescriptions for
observing and, presumably, recording the appearance of the moon at times during the month so as to keep the night accurate
and to predict when a particular required 29 or 30 days and where extra days were be inserted : before the full moon, before the
moon, or both before the full moon and before new moon.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Guy Jacques B. M. The lunar calendar of Tablet Mamari. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. 91, 1990-2. pp. 135-149.
doi : 10.3406/jso.1990.2882
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jso_0300-953X_1990_num_91_2_2882lunar calendar of Tablet Mamari The
by
Jacques B. M. GUY
The data. Englert (1948), Métraux (1940), and Thoms
on (1889) have collected names of the night of
The lunar calendar identified by Barthel the Pascuan lunar month. Thomson's data is of
particular interest, as it appears to have been starts near the end of line 6 of side A of Tablet
Mamari and continues onto lines 7 and 8. The collected day by day during his stay on Easter
beginning of line 9 is perhaps also part of it. Island in 1886 :
That text is reproduced in Fig. 1, with, under " The calendar at the time of our visit to the island
each glyph, its numerical transcription adapted ran about as follows, the new moon being full on
from Barthel 1958. I have again slightly de November 26 ".
parted from Barthel's principles : Thomson 1889 : 546.
1. The minor changes to the transcription system I have been unable to locate and borrow a proposed earlier (Guy 1985) have been adhered copy of Englert' s and Métraux' s works and to.
had to rely on their lists as quoted in Heyer2. The glyph transcribed 44 by Barthel has been
dahl et al. 1961 : 416. transcribed here 78 (night 11, "Maure"), as
Table 1 summarizes the correspondances glyph 78 of the nomenclature resembles it far
between Englert's, Métraux's, and Thomson's more than glyph 44.
lists and the glyphs of the lunar calendar of 3. The glyph transcribed 600 : 390 by Barthel is in
Tablet Mamari. fact 600 with the same lower limbs as glyphs 290
or 390. A logical transcription consistent with the It lists, in separate columns, the names of the
rest of the system would be 690. Glyph 690 of the nights as given by Thomson, Englert, and
nomenclature, however, is 600 with the head of Métraux, in the relative order they gave. The
the 200-299 series. I have adopted here the more rightmost column of the table contains the
logical and consistent transcription, 690, pre probable corresponding glyphs of Tablet Mamceded by an asterisk to warn that although it ari transliterated as in Fig. 1. The order of follows Barthel's system it is not glyph 690 of the glyphs has not been disturbed, and no the nomenclature proper.
glyph has been omitted or added. The leftmost 4. The glyphs transcribed here V631B and V671 are column is the date recorded by Thomson. all transcribed V670 by Barthel. They are in fact
Thomson started his list on November 27th quite different from glyph 670 which, but for its
1886, and remarked that the new moon was on head shape, is identifical to glyph 447. The
the previous day, November 26th. The next lowermost part of V631B is similar to the
" fingers and thumb " hand shape exhibited in new moon occurred according to Thomson on
glyphs 6, 206, 216, etc. The closest to this is the December 25th. Since the calendar of Tablet
second glyph listed under number 631 in the Mamari seems to start with the night before
nomenclature. What has been transcribed V671 the new moon, the leftmost column of Table 1
occurs once only, in the group following the sixth was made to start with the corresponding night, " Kokore ono ". Its lowermost part, totally nights, i.e. December 24th and 25th, 1886. The unlike that of glyph 670, is just about identical to
abbrevations F.Q., F.M., L.Q., and N.M. " (sitzend in that of the glyphs " sitting in profile
stand respectively for first quarter, full moon, Seitenansicht) in series 200-299 and 300-399. The
last quarter, and new moon as reported by glyph that resembles it most closely is 671 of
Thomson. Barthel's nomenclature. 136 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES
ance of the moon, the fourth and fifth the
times of its rising and setting, and the two
rightmost columns Thomson's records of that
particular day. Thus for instance, on No
vember 25th 1886, the moon was new at
12 : 20 pm, had risen at 5 : 15 am, and would
set at 7 : 05 pm. On December 11th the moon
was full at 2 : 30 am, would set at 5 : 50 am,
and rise again at 7 : 20 pm. The times quoted
are Râpa Nui local time, and have been
rounded off to the nearest five minutes. Al
though ACECALC does produce times to the
(40a)6 390.41 378y4l v67l 8.78.711 second, such precision would be misleading
here. Not only would corrections for atmos
pheric refraction have to be made, but even
then the times calculated would be valid only if
the observation spot were such that the moon 4Oa74d.40a59a 40b 390.41 378/lhv63lB 8.78.711
rose or set on an horizon at sea level, unen
cumbered with mountains or hills.
Evidence for a lunar calendar.
78.(40a)2I43I52
About half-way through the sequence of
glyphs reproduced in Fig. 1 stands glyph 152
of Barthel's nomenclature. This glyph is egg-
shaped and has inside it an anthropomorphic
figure sitting in profile atop a heap of rubble.
(40a)5 390.41 378y4lhv63lB 8.78.7IL All in all a very likely representation of the
man or woman in the moon cooking food in
the umu (the " heap of rubble " depicting its
cooking stones), a widespread figure not only
in Polynesia but also in Melanesia (the Sakao (40a)2 3.40a 390.41 378y 41 v63Ib 8.78.7IU
people of Espiritu Santo, for instance, speak of
the " person in the moon, cooking "). This
glyph is preceded by glyph 143, a deep, filled-in
crescent, a likely representation of the moon at
600 (40a)5 390.41 378y 41 v63Ib 8.78.71k or near its full. Elsewhere we find glyph 40 A
occurring time and again, sometimes with
another glyph glued to it, but more often on its
own.
We also find a group of eight glyphs (390.41 .280 385y 38? (40a)2
378y 41 V631B 8.78.711), or close variants
thereof, occurring seven times in the calendar, Fig. 1.
and a shorter version of it (390.41 378y 41)
occurring just once.
The nights have been numbered from the Now, starting from glyph 152 (the " cook in
first night mentioned by Thomson (" Kokore the moon ") count the occurrences of glyph
tahi"). The name found in 1889 for 40A going backwards, up to the first occur
the 27th night, " Tueo ", is a misprint for rence of the eight-glyph sequence : 12
" Tireo " " Marui " is a for ; likewise rences. Starting again from glyph 1 52 count the
" Mauri " (25th night " Marui-kero "). occurrences of glyph 40A going forward this
Table 2 gives astronomical data about the time, up the last occurrence of the eight-glyph
moon at and near its phases during the period sequence : 13 occurrences.
Suppose that glyphs 152 and 143 represent covered by Thomson, calculated using the
ACECALC astronomical software package the full moon and the moon when almost full.
(Gardner and Morrison 1986). The leftmost We have so far 25 occurrences of glyph 40A,
column gives the date of the observation, the plus one of glyph 1 52 (perhaps the full moon)
second column the time, the third the and one of 143 the night before LUNAR CALENDAR OF MAMARI 137
Table 1.
Date Thomson Englert Metraux Tablet Mamari
390.41 315y 41
V631B 8.78.711
24/12 28. Oata Oata Hiro 40A.10
25/12 29. Oari (N. M.) Ohiro Ata 40A V30A
30. Ari
390.41 378y 41
27/11 1. Kokore tahi Kokore tahi Kokore tahi 40A
2. rua rua 40A 28/11 rua
29/11 3. Kokore toru Kokore toru Kokore toru 40A
30/11 4. ha ha ha 40A
1/12 5. Kokore rima Kokore rima Kokore rima 40A
2/12 6. ono ono ono 40A
390.41 378y 41
V671 8.78.711
3/12 7. Maharu (F. Q.) Maharu Maharu 40A
4/12 8. Ohua Ohua Hua 74D.40A
5/12 9. Otua Otua Atua 59A 40B
390.41 378y 41h
V631B 8.78.711
Hotu 6/12 10. Ohotu
7/12 11. Maure Maure Maure 78.40A
40A 8/12 12. Ina-ira Ina-ira Ina-ira
9/12 13. Rakau Rakau

  • Univers Univers
  • Ebooks Ebooks
  • Livres audio Livres audio
  • Presse Presse
  • Podcasts Podcasts
  • BD BD
  • Documents Documents