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The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: Aldebaran and the Pleiades

2016/10/26 by Sergei Rjabchikov, Rjabchikov, Sergei
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #physics.hist-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1610.08966

Archaeoastronomy; 28 pages, 35 figures, 3 tables, 1 photo; a few misprints have been corrected

openalex publication_date 2016/10/26 · arxiv created 2016/11/30 · arxiv updated 2016/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

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.

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