aa r X i v : . [ phy s i c s . h i s t - ph ] S e p I N ORIGINAL FORM PUBLISHED IN :Habilitation at the University of Heidelberg arXiv: 2009.01663 [physics.hist-ph] v2: 6th September 2020
Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era
Emil Khalisi
D–69126 Heidelberg, Germanye-mail: ekhalisi[at]khalisi[dot]com
Abstract.
A dozen of high-magnitude solar eclipses accumulated near New Zealand in the 15th century ADwhen the Maori inhabited the two main islands. Taking today’s capital Wellington as the point of reference,we counted ten events with magnitude larger than 0.9 between 1409 and 1516 AD and two more just belowthis value. The eclipses need not have been all observed on account of weather conditions. An allusion to aparticular event that could be conveyed in a myth is discussed, but the dating turns out far from certain. We takethe opportunity here to meet the astronomy of the Maori and their understanding of this natural phenomenon.Moreover, an announcement is made to a cluster of five central eclipses of the sun that will encounter NewZealand from 2035 to 2045.
Keywords:
Eclipses, New Zealand, Maori, mythology, astronomical dating.
Every planet in our Solar System except Mercury and Venusfeatures eclipses. Some of the extraterrestrial obscurationswill appear unusual and strange to us as regards totality andduration and, in some few cases, their progress. But theyare nowhere as exciting as on Earth.The variety of our terrestrial eclipses is owed to the fine-tuning of several astronomical factors: the apparent sizesof the sun and moon, the inclination of two rotational axesagainst the orbital plane, and the non-negligible tidal effectresponsible for the slowing down of the daily rotation. Also,the shapes of tracks exhibit a diversity being unique in theSolar System. Different to other planets, an observer onEarth may experience a total or annular eclipse, computecertain cycles, and discover special features for his geo-graphical spot. Both astronomy and mathematics push thedoor open to a bouquet of ideas for investigation. Involvinghistorical aspects, the researcher is confronted with anotherrealm full of anecdotes and stories of life facing ethnology,cultural history, and, most of all, scientific dating. Severalissues have been encountered in our previous papers pub-lished on arXiv within the course of the current year.This paper focuses on the 14th and 15th century ADwhen an extraordinary series of eclipses occurred in or nearNew Zealand. Our list of events reveals four decades, atleast, with three or four closely spaced high-magnitudeevents. The islands were inhabited by the Maori people atthat time. There is no straight account on eclipses known,but information on the Maori past is often interwoven withmythology in chants, tales, and folklore instead of writ-ings. Such practice differs significantly from civilisationsbequeathing persistent documents. In this paper we seizethe opportunity to introduce a little bit of history of thispeople from the Pacific.
New Zealand remained untouched by man as one of the lastspots on the map. The first pre-historic settlements eman-ated presumably from the Polynesian Islands (Fiji, Tonga,and Samoa) at about 800–1000 AD or, according to otherestimations, at 200 BCE. The devastating decline of the bi-ota began shortly thereafter. The ecological consequencesupon the arrival of humans show similarities to many othersites in terms of deforestation and extinction of species.There are two archaeological models that set the initialcolonisation to either ≈
800 AD with a small founding pop-ulation of 10 to 20 individuals, or a later colonisation at1280–1300 AD with a larger group of 100 to 200 individu-als. Both assumptions can be however reconciled by a pauseof about 500 years between the immigrations. Radiocarbonanalysis supports the transformation of the wildlife by theintrusion of the omnivorous Pacific rat from 1280 AD on[12]. This moment marks the earliest “visibility” of humanpresence. Tradition constructs legends how the first settlersarrived to New Zealand at a time as early as the 11th and12th century [8]. Today, an iconic date of 1350 AD is adop-ted and entrenched in the nationwide education system. Itwas established by Percy Smith (1840–1922), a New Zea-land ethnographer, upon a mere exercise in averaging outgenealogical lines in old narratives.The first Polynesian settlers developed a distinct cul-ture on the islands, now known as Maori, and called theirhomeland “Aotearoa”, often translated as “land of the whitecloud”. Contact to European explorers opened up in 1642when the seafarer Abel Tasman (1603–1659) discovered theland, and James Cook (1728–1779) came across a hundredyears later mapping the coastline. Just as everywhere in theworld, the colonial era faced deconstruction of the culturalheritage of the Maori, displacement of people, and disreg-1 . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era ard of their belief. Our modern knowledge about the indi-genous people is quite sketchy, because useful relicts arerare. It turns out difficult to grasp the pristine concepts oftheir views on nature and creation. A few petroglyphs areknown but they depict predominantly humans and animals,barely natural phenomena. It will be daring to draw paral-lels between geometric figures and celestial objects to inter-pret a possible cosmology. Some ideas are fathomed outindirectly from the language itself. We know, e.g., that theMaori gave proper names to celestial objects. Besides plan-ets and bright stars, also transient appearances like cometsand meteors got their own name.Another issue is that the first ethnological studies wereperformed in the late 19th century, more than 100 yearsafter the contact with the European explorers. It is unclearhow many and which details of the original thoughts am-algamated with modern knowledge. Especially the voyageby James Cook was undertaken under the auspices of theVenus transit in 1769 involving astronomers [4]. None ofthe scientists thought of retaining the native culture for therecord but rather proudly explained their own astronomicalactivities presenting the latest optical devices. A recent re-vitalisation of the pre-colonial understanding of the sky waslaunched by Pauline Harris and Rangi Matamua among oth-ers [3].
The Maori people practised astronomy empirically. It wasentangled into a kind of astrology in their everyday life. Theastronomers were looked upon as “weather prophets” andhad the status of reliable advisers for travellers and fisher-men [1]. They knew the movement of stars, watched forspecial manifestations in the sky and made use of instantan-eous appearances to forecast atmospheric conditions. Fromthis they were able to gauge sea voyages, food-quest activ-ities, and other seasonal effects.Astronomical knowledge was firmly protected inside asmall circle of adepts like priests, medicine men, chieftains,and persons of rank. The Maori operated astronomicalschools visited by this circle [11]. Each year they assembledto compare their observations of the heavenly bodies anddiscussed the relevance of omens. Useful knowledge wasexchanged about crops, fishing, or food gathering. Almostevery village had such a school, according to the number ofits inhabitants. The course lasted for about 3–5 months, andfor non-members it was strictly prohibited to even sojournthe proximity of the educational lodge. When at a shortdistance the passers-by had to call to those within the hut.However, a Maori individual of those days knew about thesky more than an average person in our modern time.Storytelling held a central place in Maori life. Con-sidered as an important skill, this was the way how historywas passed on, person to person down the generations. His-torical events were embedded cryptically in descriptionsthat have become legends over time. Many stories andmyths of the Polynesians contain “semi-historical” realism,since they preserved remnant information on important in- cidents as well as the natural environment. This regards thegenealogical lineage of royal chiefs, volcanoes, cyclonicstorms, or local customs. They are all embedded into thedeeds of culture heroes who are themselves based on realpersons whose history has been transmuted in great mytho-logical cycles [10]. Certain details can be found across thebreadth of the Pacific islands suggesting a common originfrom about 2000 BCE.Though recitation played a central role in Maori tra-dition, education to an astronomer still must have been along-winded task without written records. In general, word-of-mouth transfer did hardly suffice to acquire the neces-sary practical knowledge about special phenomena. An „as-tronomer“ was usually a senior member receiving the ven-erableness of the local group. The mean age of a Maoriamounted to 31 to 32 years in the pre-European era (till ≈ real event would be remembered by the narrator, ifhe was lucky to witness it by himself. The reliability of anyhistorical information passed through the filter of oral trans-mission cannot be trusted for more than one or two genera-tions despite being viewed as “true” by the culture in whichthey are told. On the other side, it would be unwise to en-tirely dismiss such a traditional story, because Polynesians(as well as Aborigines in Australia) are very gifted observ-ers who have proven their ability in memorisation, and alsoin documenting and understanding nature. The historicalcore of the story can be objectively retrieved and studied,as done by William Masse and his collaborators [9]. Hedemonstrated that the myths of Polynesians do preserve im-pressively accurate details. The Maori language knows a number of terms for the sunin a specific context. It makes a difference when it is dealtwith a reddish sun close to the horizon, or when denotingthe time of day, or when it is used in a ceremonial act, orwhen personified with a deity — in each case a differentexpression was used. Elsdon Best (1856–1931), a writerand ethnographer who interviewed many Maori about theirmythology and culture, enumerates many personified formsof that luminary [1]. Considerable respect was paid to thesun in rituals. Best rejects some contrary opinions by earlyanthropologists that no exuberant devotion would have exis-2 . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era
Figure 1: Suggestion for Rona on the moon. ted throughout all of Polynesia incorporating sacrifices andshrines, as arranged in other cultures. The personificationof a natural phenomenon will already be a recognition of anadoration.Eclipses of the sun and moon are such striking phenom-ena disturbing normality that every culture wished for anexplanation. Any myth about eclipses proves that peoplespent thoughts about their cause. In New Zealand, the demi-god Maui who takes on a variety of roles in the folklore ofmany peoples throughout the entire Pacific region is said tohave fastened the sun to the moon such that, as the formerwent down, the other being pulled after it [13]. At statedseasons Maui places his hand between the sun and the earththat there will be no light.Like in the case of the sun, various names are applied tothe moon, mostly female names. Colloquially she is called“Marama”, but the personified form is “Hina”. Both namesare widespread in Polynesia, with some dialectic changes,adopting diverse roles in respect of the demigod Maui. Forexample, Hina is sometimes made his sister, or his mother(Hawaii), or wife (Tuamotu Islands), or daughter of othermythical beings with varying relationship to the protagonist.The moon itself is not considered as a deity but rather a kindof patroness watching over labours peculiar to women suchas weaving and, most of all, childbirth.In analogy to our “Man in the Moon” the Maori mytho-logy renders a “Woman in the Moon”, her name being Rona.She acts as a malignant being trying to attack and destroythe orb [1]. A popular fireside story is that Rona once livedon earth and went out to a spring for water one night car-rying her gourd water-vessels. On her way back the moondisappeared behind a cloud, and Rona could not see the path.She stumbled in the dark across a root protruding out of theground and cursed the moon for her fall. Marama, the moon,heard this and snatched her up into the sky. Rona tried to im-pede the assault by clinging to a tree, but the tree was tearedout of the ground, together with its roots, and transferred tothe moon, too. Yet, Rona is seen there in the shape of thedark patches as well as the tree and the gourd-vessels (Fig.1). During a lunar eclipse Rona battles with the moon, thus, the latter cannot be seen. After the combat the moon bathesin the “waters of life” and returns reinvigorated, young andbeautiful.Similar stories about a girl who is taken to the moonis known from a number of Siberian peoples [4]. In somecases they deal with an orphan, in another version she isfreezing, another again speaks of a girl with an evil step-mother. A striking parallel to the Maori story is that the girlwas likewise on her way fetching water.
Taking up a more scientific view, we were not able to de-tect a firm record on a distinct eclipse for dating purposes.In search for outstanding events in the time before theEuropeans we deployed the
Five Millennium Canon of Ec-lipses by Fred Espenak [2]. Table 1 presents all occurrencesof magnitude larger than 0.5 in the 14th and 15th century.The magnitude (mag) of an eclipse denotes the ratio ofthe diameter of the moon, θ M , to the diameter of the sun, θ ⊙ , as seen from earth:mag = ( θ ⊙ + θ M − ∆ ) / θ ⊙ , (1)with ∆ being the distance of the centres of the two disks.Both θ ⊙ and θ M have an angular diameter of ≈ . ◦ , whiletheir minute variations are due to the alternating distance ofeach body at its perihelion/aphelion and perigee/apogee, re-spectively. If mag is >
1, the eclipse will be total. The mag-nitude is not the same as “obscurity” which is the fractionof the area of the sun’s disk covered by the moon. A solareclipse is not necessarily noticed, since the lighting condi-tions will change above a magnitude ≈ > . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era Table 1: Solar eclipses over New Zealand with a magnitude > ◦ S, 174.8 ◦ E). Eclipse types: (T)otal, (A)nnular, (H)ybrid, and (P)artial. Clusters of specialinterest are highlighted. The lower part of the table contains only central tracks over the mainland in the 21st century.
Date Type LT Alt. [ ◦ ] Magn. Remark1285 Nov 28 H 12:39 68.9 0.770 off the northern coast1293 Dec 29 A 18:06 15.1 0.867 central in the north, sunset1301 Aug 05 T 13:12 31.6 0.907 total on the northern coast1308 Mar 23 T 14:05 37.0 0.5191310 Jul 27 T 12:52 30.1 0.8421315 Oct 29 A 13:04 59.4 0.6021317 Mar 14 T 13:40 43.7 0.8611324 Oct 19 A 7:56 32.9 0.5201330 Jan 20 A 7:29 25.7 0.776 central on the southern tip1348 Jan 31 A 18:11 11.0 0.531 at sunset1355 Sep 07 T 12:11 44.6 0.7851359 Jun 26 A 15:08 12.8 0.778 central on the southern tip, sunset1364 Aug 27 T 11:55 41.8 0.6961368 Jun 16 A 8:35 9.5 0.854 central on the northern tip, sunrise1369 Nov 30 A 14:05 57.1 0.6001371 Apr 16 T 13:27 32.3 0.8071376 Jan 21 T 6:12 11.1 0.819 off the northern coast, sunrise1379 Nov 10 A 8:55 47.5 0.6541381 Apr 25 P 12:22 32.7 0.5731384 Feb 21 A 7:15 16.4 0.832 central on the southern tip, sunrise1390 Apr 15 H 9:54 28.7 0.5431409 Oct 09 T 13:04 52.7 0.986 total on North Island1424 Jan 02 A 15:12 47.2 0.904 central on southeastern coast1430 Feb 23 T 7:35 19.8 0.910 total on South Island, sunrise1433 Dec 12 A 8:22 41.5 0.937 central in Wellington1435 May 28 T 9:34 17.9 0.938 off the SE coast, sunrise1437 Sep 30 T 12:38 53.0 0.7301438 Mar 26 A 6:07 − − − ≈
100 km)4 . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era
Figure 2: Three annular eclipses (yellow) and three total eclipses (grey) within 14 years in New Zealand in the 15th century.The last three events of 1435, 1437, and 1438 would be seen partial onshore. had been perceived by the same observer, they would haveleft a lasting impression. Such a state of affairs we claim,e.g., for the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten who might havewitnessed three high-magnitude eclipses, see [5]. One pos-sible Maori account is discussed in the next section below.Further triples occurred in the time intervals from 1163 to1167 as well as 1545 to 1554 (both not in the list) with theirmagnitudes ranging at somewhat lower values than above.The second half of the 15th century was character-ised by a phase of low solar activity, the so-called Spörer-Minimum. This is a period of suspended sunspot activitylasting from 1460 to 1550 AD. The total eclipses of 1463and 1491 over the South Island could have presented a palecorona and probably no prominences. These concomit-ants of totality, which are not visible in partial or annulareclipses, were already mentioned in European literaturebefore, but the scientific discussion picked up momentumin the late 17th century. An individual, who usually seesa total eclipse once in his lifetime, has the disadvantageof no direct comparison of events. The observer refers tothe sudden darkness and its psychological impact. It is themultiple experience that would have raised awareness ofthe existence about such things like the corona and promin-ences. Ancient scholars were much too amazed about theabruptness that they did not pay attention to such intricaciesfor many centuries. In our time, eclipses lost their dread. They have becomea tourist attraction, and eclipse chasers will have their for-tune in the years 2035 to 2045. New Zealand will be hit bya quintuple of central events (Fig. 3). There exits a smallregion about 75 km off the Eastern coast of North Islandwhere four of the five eclipses can be seen centrally (quad-ruple point). The eclipses in the 21st century surpass bynumber those of the Maori era. The histogram in Figure4 gives an overview of central events per century that tra-versed the main islands during the past millennium up until2500 AD. The area size of New Zealand is akin to UnitedKingdom, but it is blessed with eclipses in our time. Theprincipal advantage of the country, however, is its elongatedshape (1400 km in North-South direction vs. 900 km for theUK) boosting the probability to be crossed by an umbra orantumbra.
A recent study on the early Maori settlement made a dat-ing attempt based on an alleged eclipse from ancient times.Ockie Simmonds and Kiyotaka Tanikawa believe that twoPolynesian tribes from the eastern Pacific arrived later thancommonly believed, in late 1408, and witnessed the solareclipse of 9 October 1409 [8]. That statement made us re-check the circumstances.5 . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era
Figure 3: Five eclipses between 2035 and 2045 (same col-ours as in Figure 2).
The arguments rely on the genealogy of the tribes in-volving 24 generations of 25 years on average. Using thesenumbers, the authors estimated the two seafaring groupsby tracking down the names of chieftains from their mod-ern ancestors at 1900 AD. In their conclusion, that journeyacross the ocean would have taken place about 600 yearsago providing an approximate time range for further ana-lysis in more detail.The mythological story to which the heroic individualsof the tribes are connected is said to contain information ona sudden darkening. The persons must have witnessed thetotality of an eclipse, the authors of the study assume. Ad-ditionally, the names of two or three geographical places onNorth Island would point to the newcomers’ walking tourwhen they explored the volcanic plateau around Lake Taupofollowing their arrival. These places are named after themembers of that tribe. One of them, for example, is saidto have been pursued by an “evil witch”. He sought shelterin a rock and escaped her. That place is now sacred in thememory of the Maori and, moreover, a government protec-ted site. Using extra information on key persons, the authorsinfer the eclipse of 9 October 1409 as the most appropriateevent that swept over the region (Fig. 5).The work is characterised by an industrious collectionof semantical details on Maori legends, an ability of properrecitation, and a decent sense of locality. However, the reas-oning appears weak to us from the scientific point of view.The authors point out in their introduction how crude andunsatisfactory the 25-years-generation-count actually is forestablishing a chronology. In spite of their own warningsthey adhere to the relative sequence of traditional genealo-gies and eventually fail to provide absolute historical mark-ers. The happenings are solely pinned to that alleged ec-lipse. It would be much appreciated, if a few intermedi-ate pillars backed those 600 years between then and now(comets, encounters of planets, or natural disasters). An-other advantage would arise from independent evidence, forinstance, samples for radiocarbon analysis or other substan-tiated material. Even without this kind of hard evidence we
Figure 4: Number central eclipses (annular + total) percentury touching the mainland of New Zealand. cannot approve of the smooth linearity of rulerships of 25years, as if there were never premature deaths nor conflictsamong contender rulers nor any other troubles affecting thetimeline somehow.Among other inconsistencies we wonder about thosethree protagonists of the tribe, one of which is said to haveperished in the cold. From our point of view, this is noproof for the onset of snow, nor does it tell anything aboutthe season. The authors go on suggesting locations on theNorth Island where the persons might be overtaken by theshadow of the solar eclipse. Comparing their suggested loc-ations with the track of 1409, all of them would have stayedoutside the zone. If accepting that sudden darkness to bean eclipse, we discovered two other events for the North Is-land including Lake Taupo: 23 Apr 1735 and 8 Feb 1739(Fig. 5). They exhibit an almost identical path. Both wouldagree with the locations proposed by the authors much bet-ter, although we express serious doubts whether their exactpositions can be retrieved at all. There would even be a thirdtotality in 1748, a bit outside the region in question though.It would be easier to suspect a slip in the story than a dis-placement of the eclipse track at will in order to please theplot. We abstain from discussing other flaws in the line ofargumentation.As pointed out by Rawiri Taonui [10], migratory storiescontain the greatest mix of history and symbolism. Theyare the most difficult to interpret and have led to much dis-tortion in publications as writers often overemphasised thecontent. For New Zealand more than 40 “first arrival tradi-tions” are known, and each large tribe claims one or moreancestors to have settled there at some time between 950and 1350. Even in case of the lineage being true, one solehint centred on the eclipse will hardly suffice to withstandthe test as regards the absolute timescale.
Our investigation of solar eclipses in the southern hemi-sphere of the earth revealed a good number of closelyspaced tracks in the region of New Zealand: triples andquadruples within a decade. Three such blocks piled up in6 . Khalisi (2020): Clusters of Solar Eclipses in the Maori Era
Figure 5: Four total eclipses on North Island. Red dotsshow the locations of the Maori explorers in the myth assuggested by [8]. The track of 1748 is unshaded for clarity. the 15th century when the Maori inhabited the islands. Aquintuple will commence in 2035. Such clusterings are stat-istical outliers making eclipses on Earth something specialamong the planets.We gained beneficial insight into the native cultureof New Zealand that used to preserve its history in semi-mythological tales. Being aware of the risks at judginga mental attitude completely different from the modernEuropean comprehension, we cannot hearken back to sub-stantiated accounts about an observation of an eclipse. As-tronomical dating out of myths remains precarious. Wewant to encourage those being familiar with the mythologyand folklore of the Maori to search for probable eclipsesbut likewise hand out advice to be cautious at interpretation.Not every mention of a sudden darkness means an eclipse.Sky dimming may have manifold reasons. A total event un-der an overcast sky could pass unnoticed, even if standinginside the totality zone. There will be a lot to discover inthe old narratives when exercising due care.
Acknowledgements
This paper is rooted in Chapter 19.4 of the Habilitation sub-mitted to the University of Heidelberg, Germany [4]. Theentire work was accomplished in despite of serious hard-ships. The author thanks all his friends and acquaintanceswho supported him in times of trouble. The sketch in Figure1 is by Grace Abbott published in 2015.
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