T. Heyerdahl (1968) has offered a number of evidences of early Peruvian-Rapanui contacts. One story tells of a voyage of the Peruvian Indians to an island called Qüen which had a chief called Qüentique, and two others named Uquenique and Camanique (Heyerdahl 1968: 84-5). In my opinion, the name Qüen is comparable with Rapanui kena 'white booby'; Te Kena 'name of tribal union'; Heyerdahl's comparison of the term tique with Rapanui teque-teque [teketeke] 'chief' is correct. Interestingly, "the signatures" of the Rapanui chiefs on the Spanish Treaty, 1770 also contain the words Kena and teke (Rjabchikov 1993). Besides, Rapanui kena 'white booby' compares with Tahitian, Tuamotuan kana 'to shine'. The two Rapanui place names contain the term kana: Te Kana haure and Kanapu (Barthel 1962: 105; Barthel 1978: 174). Kana haure can be connected with the birdman cult and military organization of the society, cf. hau 'chief', ree 'winner'. Glyph 49b (ariki) mau 'king' is a compound one, it consists of two parts: 14 hau 'chief' and 41 ree 'winner'. The second place name, Kanapu, contains the term pu which describes the sun god and god-creator Tangaroa/Tane/Tiki/Makemake, cf. Rapanui hua; pu, hotu 'fruit; to produce (fruit)' (Rjabchikov 1996: 257).
The chief's name, Uquenique [Ukenike], can be split into two parts: Uoke 'an epithet of the god Rongo' (2) and niko, cf. Rapanui niniko 'garland; wreath' and the name of the Marquesan platform Kamuihei which contains the word hei 'necklace; crown'. The chief's name, Camanique [Kamanike], consists of three parts: ka (Rapanui ka 'dawn; to set fire to'), ma (Maori ma 'white, clean') and niko (see above). This is the god Tangaroa's name. Table 1 contains the kings' names and approximate dates of their reigns, taking into consideration W.J. Thomson's (1891) list of the kings' names and the chronology of the Rapanui prehistory based on dates of solar eclipses and appearances of Halley's Comet (Rjabchikov 1994). Notice that I apply the time measure of 25 years to a generation.
The king's name Approximate date of his reign Te Urua-kikena A.D. 1322 Tu-terei-manara A.D. 1347 Ko te Kura-tahoau (Te Kura-tahongo) A.D. 1372 Taoraha-Kaihahanga A.D. 1397 Tukuma A.D. 1422 Te kahui-te-hunga A.D. 1447 Te tuuhunga-nui A.D. 1472 Te tuuhunga-roa A.D. 1497 Te tuuhunga mare kapiau A.D. 1522
The king's name, Te Urua-kikena (Te Urua ki Kena), means 'An entrance to (the tribal union) Kena' and can be a variant of the name Qüentique. Te Urua-kikena's reign has been dated to ca. A.D. 1322. The king's name, Tu-terei-manara (Tuu te rei mana ra'a), signifies 'The canoe of the supernatural power of the sun is swimming'. In my opinion, this ruler (ca. A.D. 1347) was named in honour of the Peruvian sun deity. This chronology corresponds to such data: the Classical Period of the Easter Island prehistory has been dated by H.-M. Esen-Baur (1993: 151) to ca. A.D. 1350-1650; according to C.M. Stevenson (1984: 163), the first platforms ahu were constructed ca. A.D. 1301 - 1400.
1. This glyph usually reads as taha 'frigate bird', but it reads also kena 'white booby' in the Aruku-Kurenga text (Rjabchikov 1990: 9).
2. See Fedorova 1978: 23.
Barthel, T.S., 1962. Easter Island Place-Names. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 18: 100-7.
Barthel, T.S., 1978. The Eighth Land. The Polynesian Discovery and Settlement of Easter Island. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Esen-Baur, H.-M., 1993. The Tangata Manu of Rapanui. In: S.R. Fischer (ed.) Easter Island Studies. Contributions to the History of Rapanui in Memory of William T. Mulloy. Oxbow Monograph 32. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 146-52.
Fedorova, I.K., 1978. Mify, predaniya i legendy ostrova Paskhi. Moscow: Nauka.
Heyerdahl, T., 1968. Sea Routes to Polynesia. American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific. Chicago - New York - San Francisco: Rand McNally & Company.
Métraux, A., 1940. Ethnology of Easter Island. Bishop Museum Bulletin 160. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1990. Tayny ostrova Paskhi. Vol. 1. Krasnodar: RIO.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1993. O datirovke rapanuyskikh doshchechek. Krasnodar: Kubansky Kur'er.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1994. Khronologiya rapanuyskoy istorii. Krasnodar: DENOS. (This paper, The Chronology of the Rapanui History, was read by the author at the "Macklay Readings", April 14-15, 1994, St. Petersburg, Russia).
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1996. Easter Island Place-Names: Myths and Reality. Beiträge zur Namenforschung. Neue Folge, 31: 255-9.
Stevenson, C.M., 1984. Corporate Descent Group Structure in Easter Island Prehistory. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University.
Thomson, W.J., 1891. Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island. Report of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1889. Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution for 1889. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 447-552.
Copyright © 1998 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.