The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: Aldebaran and the Pleiades

TL;DR

This paper explores the ancient astronomical practices of Easter Island, focusing on celestial observations of Aldebaran and the Pleiades, and decodes the Mataveri calendar to understand their ceremonial and chronological significance.

Contribution

It provides a complete decoding of the Mataveri calendar and links celestial observations to cultural events and chronology on Easter Island.

Findings

The Mataveri calendar has been fully decoded.

Ceremonial platform Hekii 2 was aligned with Aldebaran and nearby stars.

Pleiades disappearance marks important cultural events.

Abstract

There is a good cause to assert that the Easter Islanders constantly watched Aldebaran and the Pleiades in the past. The Russian scholar Irina K. Fedorova and the American scholar Georgia Lee were the first who contributed significantly to the archaeoastronomical studies of these celestial bodies. I have decoded the Mataveri calendar completely. The ceremonial platform Hekii 2 was oriented on Aldebaran and nearby stars. The disappearance of the Pleiades during the dawn period in the north at the end of August could be an important mark before the arrival of sooty terns and before the elections of the next bird-man. The calculated dates of several solar eclipses have been used for composing the chronology of Easter Island from 1771 till 1867 A.D.