Notice: This is the official website of the All Empires History Community (Reg. 10 Feb 2002)

  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

2 immense Easter Island achievements
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 234
Author
  Share Topic Share Topic  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: 2 immense Easter Island achievements
    Posted: 21-Mar-2008 at 23:49
Originally posted by Mixcoatl

I cant think of any other longer ancient voyage , fully oceanic and non- stop that can be proven.

Perhaps the people who populated Madagascar? They were Austronesians, so they came at the least from Indonesia.
 
Well, Polynesians, Micronesians and Malgache people are all related and speak Austronesian languages. I bet theirs naval engineering was shared in the ancient past.
 
Austronesian peoples were, indeed, the best sailors of the ancient world, up to the European Age of Discovery.
 
 
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Mar-2008 at 23:47
Originally posted by rider

Hmmh. The Incan quipo was much more sophisticated than our writing systems and therefore I consider their achievement greater.
 
I dissagree with quipos. All the evidence points to the fact they were accounting books, and nothing else. They recorded numerical data according to cathegories. In fact, Incas had schools for people to memorize events, and that was the main source for Spanish and Indian colonial historians to record the history of the Inca Empire, which is very detailed indeed.
 
The Rongo-Rongo tablets have a more mysterious origin. Some say the script is very old and came from South East Asia, no matter than in there nor in any Polynesian island a script has been found so far. Other theory, that I believe is more realistic, is that Polynesians had the idea of the script when they had the first contact with Spaniards. Spanish adventurers were very formal and always carried a lawyer with them. They made a writen act of possesion on from of the islanders and made them to sign the deal. And then read it aloud. The idea of writing was there, although all the caracters of Rongo Rongo are polynesian.

Originally posted by rider


And I also think that if we speak of statues on the southern hemisphere, such great buildings as the cultures of South America built for thousands of years are unrivalled even amongst the Polynesians.
 
Well, as far as I know, there aren't statues so large in the Andes region at all. What exist is larger buildings and more complex engineering. However, not as big monuments as totems made of a single stone.
 
 
 
 
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Mar-2008 at 23:13
I cant think of any other longer ancient voyage , fully oceanic and non- stop that can be proven.

Perhaps the people who populated Madagascar? They were Austronesians, so they came at the least from Indonesia.
Back to Top
rider View Drop Down
Tsar
Tsar

Suspended

Joined: 09-Aug-2004
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4664 		  Quote rider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Mar-2008 at 22:22
Hmmh. The Incan quipo was much more sophisticated than our writing systems and therefore I consider their achievement greater.

And I also think that if we speak of statues on the southern hemisphere, such great buildings as the cultures of South America built for thousands of years are unrivalled even amongst the Polynesians.
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Mar-2008 at 02:32
Originally posted by Sander

Second big achievenent ? Ok. Additionally to the whole southern hemisphere, those statues are also the largest ancient ones in the whole western hemisphere ! LOL
Kidding Wink( although its probably true as well )
... 
I cant think of any other longer ancient voyage , fully oceanic and non- stop that can be proven. 
 
.... 
Besides, most likely the ( initial ) voyage was much longer than 1500 km ocean. Its seems supra natural to believe that , from where ever they came went straight to easter island, if they did not even know the place before they left.
 
Good chance there is some extra stuff for  Easter island promotion campaigns. LOL

 
That's very interesting, although I know some other great achievements:
 
(1) They were the only polynesian people that invented writing. And perhaps the only people in the southern hemisphere that had it. (Incas lacked it, and Mayans aren't in the Southern Hemisphere)
 
(2) They remember the first historical person in the history of Chile: Hotu-Matua (amazing, isn't?), whose memory was preserved orally since the 7th century A.D.
 
(3) They developed high forms of medicine, poetry, astronomy and agricultural practises that few people, besides experts, know.
 
Back to Top
Sander View Drop Down
AE Moderator
AE Moderator


Joined: 20-Mar-2007
Location: Netherlands
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 597 		  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Mar-2008 at 01:50
Second big achievenent ? Ok. Additionally to the whole southern hemisphere, those statues are also the largest ancient ones in the whole western hemisphere ! LOL
Kidding Wink( although its probably true as well )
 
We know that the polynesians were amazing seamen and the voyage to Easter island will always be a great job. Neverthless, there seems to be  some good ( and solid ) ground for giving it an extra honour:
 
Its seems the longest non- stop oceanic voyage ever made in ancient times ( pre- Age of Discovery) of which we even have true proof. From where ever they came; it was always at least 1500 kms of open ocean. The Pitcairns are some 1500 km away and the rest is even further. Its true that Sala Y Gomez is a bit closer but this island is never suggested. That aside, Sala Y gomez itself is more than 1500 km away from any island, so even in that case, the ancestors of the Easter islanders must have crossed at least 1500 km of sea without any possible landfall.
 
I cant think of any other longer ancient voyage , fully oceanic and non- stop that can be proven. Vague references ( if there at all  ) in for example ancient western, sanskrit , Oceanic whatever texts , surely cant compete with the scientific evidence the easter islanders have. Such records could have omitted one or more of the possible stops/landfalls ( quite common ) that were always within a range of 1500 km. There can be the element of boasting or even fiction, to take skepticism to the extreme. None of this applies to the voyage to easter island, of course.  No written or oral records are even needed here. Its very simple : no earlier landfall was possible.
 
Besides, most likely the ( initial ) voyage was much longer than 1500 km ocean. Its seems supra natural to believe that , from where ever they came went straight to easter island, if they did not even know the place before they left.
 
Good chance there is some extra stuff for  Easter island promotion campaigns. LOL



Edited by Sander - 20-Mar-2008 at 02:20
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Mar-2008 at 12:38
It is trye that Easter Island belong to the Polynesian people and traditions and that has a common root with all the people of the Pacific, so the place is in here by geography. However, for Chileans, the island tokens are part of our national publicitary campains LOL
 
The eyes of the moai are freaky because they represent the "soul" of the statue.
 
I am still waiting for the second achievement. Don't wait to long to let us know Big%20smile


Edited by pinguin - 15-Mar-2008 at 12:41
Back to Top
Parnell View Drop Down
Suspended
Suspended

Suspended

Joined: 04-Apr-2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1409 		  Quote Parnell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Mar-2008 at 10:20
Those eyes freak me out...
Back to Top
Sander View Drop Down
AE Moderator
AE Moderator


Joined: 20-Mar-2007
Location: Netherlands
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 597 		  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Mar-2008 at 01:02
I made some comment in Pinguins Easter island thread but  its replaced by another one and transported to  this tread . This way I can combine it with another thing I was planning to post already Big%20smile  
 
Because Easter island is politically part of an american nation its not out of place to discuss some things in that sector. But, geographically, linguistically and culturally its Pacific. Since the following achievenments are  pre contact and therefore Pacific history in the first place, I'm placing them here (does not matter much if some things are discussed in more sectors of course ).
  
Achievement 1
 
Everbody knows the statues,  but what 's not so well known (never heard anybody about it ) is that the tallest Moai (some are 9 meter or more) are actually the largest ancient /pre-contact statues in the whole southern hemisphere.
 
No small honour Clap. After all, also below the equator there were worldwide several ancient cultures/ civilzations that did great things with stone (Peru, Bolivia, Zimbabwe,  Java to name a few ). 
 
 
 
 
 Next time , big achievement 2


Edited by Sander - 13-Mar-2008 at 01:54
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 234

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.56a [Free Express Edition]
Copyright ©2001-2009 Web Wiz

This page was generated in 0.063 seconds.