EASTER ISLAND CLUBS

[Tim Simmons]

I meant the glyphs on the bluey white pendant stone above this one.

[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.