The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: Kirch's Comet
Sergei Rjabchikov
TL;DR
This paper explores Easter Island folklore mentioning Kirch's Comet and a solar eclipse from 1680-1681, linking local bird-man cult practices to historical astronomical events.
Contribution
It uncovers historical astronomical observations in Easter Island folklore and analyzes their connection to local cultural practices.
Findings
Folklore references Kirch's Comet and a solar eclipse from 1680-1681.
The bird-man cult may be linked to specific astronomical events.
Historical astronomical observations are embedded in local folklore.
Abstract
A fragment of the folklore text "Apai" that was once put down on Easter Island contains a report about astronomical observations of Kirch's Comet or the Great Comet of 1680-1681 A.D. (C/1680 V1) and the partial solar eclipse of March 19, 1681 A.D. Some astronomical aspects of the local cult of bird-men have been discussed, too.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsPacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology