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Searching for the Astronomy of Aboriginal Australians RAY P. NORRIS Fig. 4. The carvings at Ngaut Ngaut, said to represent lunar cycles. were made, records kept, or structures set up to point to the rising and setting places of heavenly bodies? On the banks of the Murray River, north of Adelaide, is a site called “Ngaut Ngaut”. It belongs to the Nganguraku people, and engraved images of the Sun and Moon testify to its astronomical connections. Close to the engravings are a series of dots and lines carved in the rock, which, according to the traditional owners, show “cycles of the Moon”. This oral tradition has been passed through generations from father to son, but since initiation ceremonies were banned (along with the Nganguraku language) by Christian missionaries over a hundred years ago, only this fragment of knowledge survives, and it is not known exactly what the symbols mean. The rich record engraved on the walls of Ngaut Ngaut has so far defied attempts at decoding it. So, for the moment we must label it as intriguing, but not conclusive evidence of Aboriginal astronomy. Even closer to the Stonehenge Hypothesis is the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement in Victoria, which was built by the Wathaurung people before European settlement, but all records of its use have now disappeared. This egg-shaped ring of stones, about 50m in diameter, has its major axis almost exactly East-West. At its Western end, at the highest point of the circle, are three prominent waisthigh stones. Morieson (2003) pointed out that some outlying stones to the West of the circle, as viewed from these three stones, seem to indicate the setting positions of the Sun at the equinoxes and solstices. Norris et al (2008) have confirmed these alignments and have shown that the straight sides of the circle also indicate the solstices. However, a sceptic might still raise some doubts. First, the outliers are only accurate to a few degrees - could these alignments have occurred by chance? Second, although the stones of the circle are large and immovable, the outliers are small and could have been moved. 250 Fig. 5. The view across the Wurdi Youang stone circle, showing the positions of the setting sun at the solstices and equinox. Lower part of the composite. © John Morieson.
Third, besides the outliers indicating the solstices and equinox, there is an additional outlier whose significance is unclear. While these doubts may seem contrived, they have to be answered, and the best way to do so would be to find another site with similar astronomical alignments. Other stone arrangements in Victoria also indicate the cardinal points, from which we may conclude that the local Aboriginal people knew these directions with some precision, presumably by observing celestial bodies. But are there other sites which point to the position of the solstices? The search continues. Conclusion There is a growing body of evidence that traditional Aboriginal people were deeply fascinated by the sky, and the motion of the bodies within it, and had a far richer and deeper knowledge of the sky than is usually appreciated. However, while the evidence for actual measurements or records is suggestive, it remains unproven, although the clues are sufficiently tantalising to fuel the search for more evidence. Acknowledgements This project is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Australians who lost their lives after the British occupation of Australia in 1788. I especially thank the elders and people of the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, NT, for their help and hospitality, and for their permission to discuss aspects of their culture in this paper. I am also grateful to the other Indigenous groups who have welcomed us onto their land. I also thank Cilla Norris, who helped with much of the research described here, and my colleagues Hugh Cairns, Paul Curnow, and John Morieson for their help and collaboration. References BATES, D., 1944. The Passing of the Aborigines, London: John Murray. BLAKE, B.J., 1981. Australian Aboriginal Languages. London: Angus & Robertson. CAIRNS, H., 1996. Sydney Rock Carvings & Astronomy, unpublished manuscript. CAIRNS, H., HARNEI YIDUMDUMA, B., 2003. Dark Sparklers: Yidumduma’s Wardaman Aboriginal Astronomy, Northern Australia 2003. Sydney: Hugh Cairns. CLARKE, P.A., 2003. Where the Ancestors Walked. Australia as an aboriginal landscape. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. HARNEY YIDUMDUMA, B., 1959. Tales from the Aborigines. Adelaide: Rigby. HAYNES, R. D., 1992. Aboriginal Astronomy. Australian Journal of Astronomy 4, 127-140. HULLEY, C.E., 1996. Dreamtime Moon. Chatswood, NSW: Reed Books JOHNSON, D., 1998. Night skies of Aboriginal Australia: a noctuary. Sydney, N.S.W: Oceania Publications, University of Sydney. MCCARTHY, F. D., 1983. Catalogue of Rock Engravings in the Sydney-Hawkesbury District. Sydney: New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. MCROBERTS, R.W., 1990. Counting at Pularumpi. Library of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies. MORIESON, J., 2003. Solar-based Lithic Design in Victoria, Australia. In: World Archaeological Congress, Washington DC. MOUNTFORD, C.P., 1976. Nomads of the Australian Desert. Adelaide: Rigby. NORRIS, R.P., 2008. Crescent moons in Sydney Rock Engravings, in preparation. NORRIS, R.P., NORRIS, P.M. and MORIESON, J., 2008. Wurdi Youang: An Australian Aboriginal Stone Circle with solstitial indicators, in preparation. STANBRIDGE, W.E., 1857. On the astronomy and mythology of the Aborigines of Victoria. In: Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, Volume 2, 137-140. TULLY, J., 1997. Dja Dja Wurrung Language of Central Victoria including place names, privately published. WARNER, W.L., 1937. A black civilization: a social study of an Australian tribe. New York: Harper. WELLS, A., 1964. Skies of Arnhem Land. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Received: 25 October 2007; Revised: 7 January 2008 AUSTRALIJOS ABORIGENŲ ASTRONOMIJOS BEIEŠKANT Ray P. Norris Santrauka Australijoje egzistuoja apie 400 skirtingų vietinių kultūrų, turinčių savitą mitologiją, ritualus, meno formas. Daugelyje iš jų aptinkama ryškių astronominių žinių elementų. Vis dėlto šioms įvairioms kultūroms yra būdingi ir bendri vaizdiniai, kaip antai, „Emu danguje“ (emu – Australijos paukštis Dromaius novaehollandiae – vert. past.) – tamsių debesų telkinys Paukščių Take, taip pat žinomi įvairūs visiems bendri pasakojimai apie Saulę, Mėnulį, Orioną, Sietyną. Nors Saulės užtemimų buvo bijomasi, žinomi mažiausiai du nepriklausomi liudijimai, kad vietiniai žmonės užtemimus siejo su Saulės ir Mėnulio jungtimi. Mūsų projektas skirtas šių kultūrų studijoms dviem pagrindinėmis kryptimis. Viena kryptis – darbas su vietinėmis kultūromis, tokiomis kaip Yolngu, Šiaurės ARCHAEOLOGIA BALTICA 10 VI VI. LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ARCHAEO- ASTRONOMY 251
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ARCHAEOLOGIA BALTICA10 Astronomy an
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UDK 902/904 Ar 46 Volume 10 Editori
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Vytautas Tumėnas. The visual and t
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PREFACE Jonas VaiškūnaS Preface T
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS List of Contri
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List of Contributors Dimitar Kolev
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List of Contributors 16 Dainius Raz
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Second Parts can always be better!
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Conference Summary: A Historian’s
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THE MILKY WAY AND ITS STRUCTURING F
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THE MILKY WAY AND ITS STRUCTURING F
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CECILIA PAULA GÓMEZ Venus And The
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CECILIA PAULA GÓMEZ Venus And The
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Astronyms in Belarussian Folk Belie
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Traditional Astronomical Knowledge
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Traditional Astronomical Knowledge
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A Solar Calendar from Latvian Daina
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A Solar Calendar from Latvian Daina
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SAULĖS KALENDORIUS PAGAL LATVIŲ D
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Mesopotamian Influences on Persian
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THE BIRTHDAY OF ASAKKU ARKADIUSZ SO
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ARKADIUSZ SOŁTYSIAK The Birthday o
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NOEMI MIRANDA, JUAN A. BELMONTE, MI
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NOEMI MIRANDA, JUAN A. BELMONTE, MI
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Tracing the Celestial Deer - an Anc
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Tracing the Celestial Deer - an Anc
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Calendrical Deer, Time-Reckoning an
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The Visual and the Mythical- Poetic
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Some Peripheral Forms of the Medite
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Were the 185 A.D. and 369 A.D. “G
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Indigenous Astronomical Traditions
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A new attempt to date the Xia, Shan
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GÖRAN HENRIKSSON A new attempt to
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Eleventh-Century Supernovae: Anothe
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The Date of Purim and Calendars in
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L’abbé Jean Lebeuf, (1687- 1760)
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Orientations at the Minoan Peak San
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Reading, Writing, and Recording the
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Reading, Writing, and Recording the
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David W. Pankenier, Ciyuan Y. Liu,
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The Xiangfen, Taosi site: a Chinese
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On the Origin of the Roman Idea of
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GIULIO MAGLI On the Origin of the R
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On the Origin of the Roman Idea of
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The Nuraghic Well of Santa Cristina
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ARNOLD LEBEUF The Nuraghic Well of
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ANDREI PROKHOROV Images on the Ston
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Images on the Stones at Scebiaraky
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Images on the Stones at Scebiaraky
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Thracian Dolmens and their Orientat
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Antonio César González García, V
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Thracian Dolmens and their Orientat
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JOHN MCKIM MALVILLE, MICHAEL ZAWASK
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JOHN MCKIM MALVILLE, MICHAEL ZAWASK
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Cosmological Motifs of Peruvian Hua
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Cosmological Motifs of Peruvian Hua
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MARCELLO RANIERI A Geometrical Anal
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A Geometrical Analysis of Mesoameri
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LUCILLA LABIANCA, IDA SCIORTINO, SI
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An Archaeoastronomical Study of the
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