EASTER ISLAND CLUBS

[Gustav]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, Tim. They are Mayan.

[Battara]

Gustav is right those are Mayan glyphs.

However the Rongorongo board is depicting 2 figures involved in the Birdman cult of late Easter Island before contact and before the civilization fell apart.

[Gustav]

There are just 26 authentic rongorongo inscriptions on different wooden objects and it isn't sure even if they all are genuine.

But there is also a real rongorongo-industrie which started at latest in the sixties.

[tom hyle]

weren't the lower class Easter Islanders natives and the rulers Polynesian? Am I remembering that correctly?

[fearn]

Agreed, and there are no authenticated Rongo-Rongo carvings that date to before Contact, and there are proposed translations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decipherment_of_rongorongo).

I'd also make a correction to Vandoo's original statement: the Andean cultures did not have a written language. While they had extensive artwork and certainly a pattern language (as do we), the closest they had to a written language were the knotted quipus.

All available evidence (archeological, linguistic, and genetic) strongly points to Rapa Nui being settled by Polynesians coming out of South East Asia. There certainly was contact between Polynesians and South Americans: Polynesians got the sweet potato, South Americans probably got a chicken, and there may have even been a Polynesian settlement in Chile. However, the Polynesians were the ones to make contact, not anyone from mainland South America.

Getting back to the initial post: yes, they are neat clubs, and I think that they are being carved for tourists even now. Thanks for showing them here!

F

[VANDOO]

WHEN ITEMS SUCH AS CLUBS ARE NO LONGER IN USE THEY ARE OFTEN SET ASIDE OR DISCARDED AND DESTROYED BY ROT OR BUGS. WHEN THE CULTURE OF THE EASTER ISLANDS COLAPSED AND AGAIN LATER WHEN THE RACE WAS DESTROYED BY SPAIN THERE WAS NO DEMAND FOR THEIR ARTEFACTS SO MOST WERE DESTROYED BY NATURE OR INTENTIONALY.
SO FEW AUTHENTIC ITEMS REMAIN BUT A DEMAND AROSE SO REPLICAS WERE MADE TO FILL THE DEMAND AND ARE STILL MADE TODAY. THIS APPLYS TO MANY CULTURES AND PLACES WHERE ARTEFACTS ARE RARE. THE BAD NEWS IS THESE ARE OFTEN SOLD AS OLD ANTIQUES AND THE PRICES ARE HIGH. THE GOOD NEWS IS SOME OF THE CARVERS ARE VERY SKILLED AND MAKE A GOOD REPLICA THAT MAY EXCEED THE OLD ORIGINALS, YET STILL STAY TRUE TO ORIGINAL FORMS. IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH SUCH REPLICAS AS IT WOULD TAKE REMARKABLE LUCK AND LOTS OF CASH TO AQUIRE AN ORIGINAL.
IF ANYONE HAS ANY PICTURES OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF WEAPONS FROM EASTER ISLAND, PLEASE POST THEM.
HERE IS A CARVING WITH A SHARP TAIL REFERRED TO AS A LIZZARD MAN DON'T THINK IT IS A WEAPON BUT IS POINTY. ALSO A PICTURE OF A NEWLY MADE RONGO BOARD

[tom hyle]

Interesting lizard man. I'm not entirely sure that is a tail

[kahnjar1]

I am a little surprised that mention of Thor Heyerdahl's book AKU AKU has not appeared here. Whilst it does not deal with the weapons of Rapa Nui, it does discuss at length, the possible/probable origins of the people of Easter Island, and particularly the MOAI (statues), and how they were sculpted.

[fearn]

All available evidence (archeological, linguistic, and genetic) strongly points to Rapa Nui being settled by Polynesians coming out of South East Asia. There certainly was contact between Polynesians and South Americans: Polynesians got the sweet potato, South Americans probably got a chicken, and there may have even been a Polynesian settlement in Chile. However, the Polynesians were the ones to make contact, not anyone from mainland South America.

Hi Kahnjar,

That was actually a swipe at Thor Heyerdahl. I've actually read Kon Tiki and things written by the archeologists that accompanied Heyerdahl to Easter Island, as well as books (such as Kirch's Road of the Winds) and even some South American archeology (Incas and their Ancestors).

Here are some of the problems:
1. Rapa Nui language, genes and artwork, wall-building, and rock carving all come unequivocally from Polynesia.
2. The reeds that Heyerdahl says came from South America had been there for >10,000 years, according to pollen evidence from the lake they grow in on Easter Island. They're also a different species than the totora reeds at Lake Titicaca.
3. Heyerdahl confuses the evidence from South America. He talks about connections with the Inca (a civilization that showed up AFTER Easter Island was settled) and previous Andean cultures (Tiwanaku AD 500-950). This is akin to mixing the Romans and Crusaders, and saying they collectively colonized the Canary Islands in the 8th Century AD.
4. To "prove" the Kon-Tiki raft from South America could make it to Polynesia, he had to have it towed 50 miles out of the Humboldt Current. It's not clear the raft could have actually cleared that current by itself (and they used the rafts to trade along the current).

Nonetheless, the archeologists are charitable. While they've never given Heyerdahl's ideas any credence, they laud his fund-raising and organizing efforts, because he made it possible for archeologists to work on Easter Island, which perhaps helped the Rapanuians to reclaim their own culture (as with the clubs that started this thread).

For Vandoo, I'd also point out that Easter Island wasn't the only place where Oceanic peoples came up with their own script. The Caroline Islanders created Woleai in the 19th Century.

Best,

F