- IJ
85: Spiral petroglyphs of Polynesia
I wanted to revisit the issue of carved rock spirals. Not so much how they got here, but how they didn't get here. We do that by examining the incidences of spiral petroglyphs within the Polynesian Pacific, and that includes New Zealand.
Now keep in mind that Maori were supposed to have come from Polynesia around 1280AD. The only spiral art on rocks recorded in NZ is very old and dates as recent as 1200 and back many hundreds of years before that judging by the worn nature of the designs compared to other countries where such designs are thousands of years old.
But lets us assume that Archaic Maori carved these designs as we are told by Archaeologists. These archaeologists maintain that Polynesia is full of spirals. But where exactly did they copy the spiral from? They cannot point to any because the Polynesian Maori had no spirals at home! Mmmm, some of you may have just twigged to that.
Yes, that is right. There are no spirals in any Pacific country where Maori could have come from, (not that we have seen yet). Not from the Society Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, or even Easter Island… But Fiji has one, just one. Fiji is of course in Melanesia - (Edit: I have since found one in Hawaii on Lanai)
So here is the point – the spiral in NZ rock art (from which the Maori copied onto wood and make even more elaborate and exquisite carvings) was here long before the Polynesians we call Maori arrived here. Some say it as because the Celts arrived here. Well hey, maybe by some miracle a boatload did reach here once, but we don't subscribe that that theory, and anyway; the spiral is a very old symbol worldwide. But strangely - not in the centre of the Pacific…
An awful lot of Pacific petroglyphs are in the form of human figures such as shown below. This type of figure is common all around the Pacific in the most ancient of representations.
Not even in The Marquesas Islands do you find a true spiral. The only thing close enough to a spiral is this...and that is akin more to designs in Europe.
The only true spirals anywhere near are from New Caledonia in the far west near Australia. Here is one such example...
Does that means the spiral came with the Melanesian migration to Aotearoa that arrived before the Polynesian immigration. Maybe it did? Are the ones we seek a race of ancient and every tall red headed Melanesians? After all there are many Melanesians with red hair... but back to the spirals.
The only other type is on the far side of the Pacific…in Alaska. We wonder what that might mean...?
Then you have to go to the likes of Indonesia, Africa and Europe to find other examples. There is to much conjecture to know for sure where the origins began until we have the DNA evidence we seek from the bones.
And below is another one being damaged by time and tide on a West Coast beach. As with the Raglan rocks, also on the West Coast of the North Island (where local Maori knew nothing of them when they were first discovered by a European), they are left to the elements with no formal protection. Others like those at Matira, those still in the hills, and some on remote beaches like this one overturned by waves, are still being found. Raglan though, is an interesting example. It is odd that no one protects such easily accessible rock carvings considering such a site should have been sacred to Maori. But if they are not carved by your ancestors – they are just rocks, right? (!)
For the moment, forgetting about where the influence of spirals came from that appeared in NZ, lets us ask a pertinent question. The Pacific of Polynesia is practically devoid of spirals, yet NZ has many supposedly done by Maori who came from Polynesia who did not know spirals in their islands of origin? Why is this?
There is only one probable answer – because Maori did not carve the ancient rock spirals found in boulders and rocks around the country. Those designs were here before those we now call Maori arrived. They were created by the races that were here first, the first inhabitants of Aotearoa (the name Maori obtained from the previous inhabitants)…the true Tangata Whenua.
We at Tangatawhenua16 are not too interested in how the real Tangata Whenua developed the spirals, or from whom they copied them, - DNA testing of the skeletons may hint on any ancient bloodlines from elsewhere. What we are interested in is showing just by logic that many Maori styles were learned and adapted styles, not ones created by Maori. And the logical proof is stated above even if those learned academics who thrive on logic continue to deny it. You have to support your denial by explaining how a race that did not know the spiral suddenly started carving spirals on rocks as soon as they arrived (as stated by archaeologists saying the rock petroglyphs here are archaic Maori carvings). There is an example of a turtle carved on the Anaweka waka, which is a canoe that is made from NZ wood. This is because the turtle was a form they were familiar with from the home islands and could still remember. Of course wood rots which is why only two examples remain in existence so far.
But rocks...they last a very long time.
