Skywizard
22nd February 2017, 23:29
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People were navigating long distances between islands in the Pacific for at least 2,000 years. How did they do it without astrolabes, sextants or modern satellite positioning technology? One group, the Marshall islanders, used unique stick charts and closely read the sea and its swells and currents for clues about where the islands were.
Distances between islands in the Marshalls and the rest of Polynesia stretch for hundreds and thousands of miles in the vast expanse of the Pacific. People lived there long before modern navigation implements came along, but for hundreds of years the Marshallese had their own effective technology.
It turns out Marshall Islanders of the Pacific Ocean and Polynesia used a couple of techniques. For one, they used rebbelib, charts made of sticks to show the currents and wind patterns and cowrie shells to show the location of the islands. They also used (and still use) a technique called wave-piloting or di lep
.
A brief article about rebbelib on Popular Mechanics says Marshall Islanders used the charts for centuries but adds they are not meant solely as visual maps because they’re not to scale. It would be difficult for someone unfamiliar with rebbelib to use them. “The bamboo sticks that make up the frame also represent ocean currents and wind patterns, which Marshallese sailors use as navigation guides,” the article says.
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A large rebbelib in a German museum
Wave-piloting to navigate the ocean involves seafarers finding their way between islands by the direction and shape of swells. Wave pilots know how swells are influenced by coming into contact with the islands. It is hard to do and very few people do it anymore.
As Westerners came to the islands over the years and disseminated modern navigation techniques, wave-piloting began to die out and was just used around the island of Rongelap to the north. In 1954, the United States bombed nearby Bikini Atoll with nukes, poisoning nearby Rongelap. The art of di lep , as practiced by ri-metos, or “persons of the sea,” was nearly lost but for the fortunate training of one man, now older, when he was a youth.
During a research expedition with anthropologist Joseph Genz, who was studying wave piloting, Joel took Genz sailing in yachts in the Pacific Ocean around the Marshalls. At one point in the voyage, Joel told Genz and Kelen that they were experiencing di lep , but neither of the other two men could feel it. Oceanographers from the University of Hawaii could not detect it with their equipment either.
Stick charts weren’t used by all sailors of the Marshall Islands. A select few learned the art and passed it from father to son. When fleets of canoes went voyaging between the islands, the lead canoe would have a ri-meto, who navigated for the entire group.
The people of the Marshall Islands had two other types of stick charts— mattang charts used for teaching navigation, and meddo charts that are smaller than rebbelib and don’t include all the islands of the chain.
These charts recognized four types of swells that came in contact with islands’ undersea slopes and that changed as they interacted with swells for differing directions.
Source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology/remarkable-ancient-navigation-system-marshall-islands-006382?page=0%2C1
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People were navigating long distances between islands in the Pacific for at least 2,000 years. How did they do it without astrolabes, sextants or modern satellite positioning technology? One group, the Marshall islanders, used unique stick charts and closely read the sea and its swells and currents for clues about where the islands were.
Distances between islands in the Marshalls and the rest of Polynesia stretch for hundreds and thousands of miles in the vast expanse of the Pacific. People lived there long before modern navigation implements came along, but for hundreds of years the Marshallese had their own effective technology.
It turns out Marshall Islanders of the Pacific Ocean and Polynesia used a couple of techniques. For one, they used rebbelib, charts made of sticks to show the currents and wind patterns and cowrie shells to show the location of the islands. They also used (and still use) a technique called wave-piloting or di lep
.
A brief article about rebbelib on Popular Mechanics says Marshall Islanders used the charts for centuries but adds they are not meant solely as visual maps because they’re not to scale. It would be difficult for someone unfamiliar with rebbelib to use them. “The bamboo sticks that make up the frame also represent ocean currents and wind patterns, which Marshallese sailors use as navigation guides,” the article says.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/rebbelib.jpg?itok=5fW4FjZa
A large rebbelib in a German museum
Wave-piloting to navigate the ocean involves seafarers finding their way between islands by the direction and shape of swells. Wave pilots know how swells are influenced by coming into contact with the islands. It is hard to do and very few people do it anymore.
As Westerners came to the islands over the years and disseminated modern navigation techniques, wave-piloting began to die out and was just used around the island of Rongelap to the north. In 1954, the United States bombed nearby Bikini Atoll with nukes, poisoning nearby Rongelap. The art of di lep , as practiced by ri-metos, or “persons of the sea,” was nearly lost but for the fortunate training of one man, now older, when he was a youth.
During a research expedition with anthropologist Joseph Genz, who was studying wave piloting, Joel took Genz sailing in yachts in the Pacific Ocean around the Marshalls. At one point in the voyage, Joel told Genz and Kelen that they were experiencing di lep , but neither of the other two men could feel it. Oceanographers from the University of Hawaii could not detect it with their equipment either.
Stick charts weren’t used by all sailors of the Marshall Islands. A select few learned the art and passed it from father to son. When fleets of canoes went voyaging between the islands, the lead canoe would have a ri-meto, who navigated for the entire group.
The people of the Marshall Islands had two other types of stick charts— mattang charts used for teaching navigation, and meddo charts that are smaller than rebbelib and don’t include all the islands of the chain.
These charts recognized four types of swells that came in contact with islands’ undersea slopes and that changed as they interacted with swells for differing directions.
Source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology/remarkable-ancient-navigation-system-marshall-islands-006382?page=0%2C1
http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/p/peace/graphics-peace-740037.gifpeace...