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Comets triggered Aboriginal tales of doom

comet  PIA08438

Aboriginal culture includes a colourful history of comets in the Australian skies(Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL))

Australia's first people viewed comets as portents of doom, a new study of Aboriginal astronomy has found.

Writing on the pre-press website, Duane Hamacher from Sydney's Macquarie University who led the research, says Aboriginal people developed an extensive culture regarding the night sky with stories and detailed observations.

"Different Aboriginal groups had different seasons linked to certain stars which correlated to the availability of certain food sources, or when Indonesian fishermen would come to trade," says Hamacher.

"Aboriginal societies typically associated comets with fear, death, omens of sickness, malevolent spirits and evil magic, which is consistent with many other cultures around the world."

The oral tradition

Hamacher examined 25 accounts of comets from 40 Aboriginal communities citing both supernatural perceptions and historical accounts.

"While the description and location of some stories in the 19th and 20th centuries can be linked to actual historical events, others don't correspond to any particular comet," he says.

Hamacher managed to find Aboriginal accounts for about half a dozen major comets including events in 1843, 1844 and 1861.

"In fact, there were a lot in the 1800s and a couple up to 1910 and 1927. The March 1843 comet was easy to identify, but others involved very general descriptions, so you had to try and figure out what comet they were talking about."

"In 1901 locals on Cape York Peninsula spoke about a fire lit by two old women. A year earlier a very bright comet was seen in that latitude with two distinct tails and the head pointing down just below the horizon."

"It's not definitive that it's the comet they were talking about, but the description certainly seems to indicate it," says Hamacher.

Several Aboriginal groups saw comets as smoke, which is also how the New Zealand Maori and some native South American people saw them, especially if the comet was angled off the horizon with the tail flowing upwards looking like smoke.

Hamacher says one of the difficulties in researching Aboriginal astronomy is finding people who know the stories associated with individual comet events. A problem made more difficult when researching events prior to the 1800s.

"Much of the oral history has been lost, especially near British colonies, entire cultures, including the language, customs, and oral traditions, were virtually destroyed," says Hamacher.

"Another common theme in several Aboriginal groups involved comets representing bundles of spears, while meteors were spears being hurled."

Rock art

Rock art and paintings were the other primary method of passing on stories about comets in Aboriginal culture, but Hamacher says this can be quite speculative.

"There is a place called comet rock in the Kimberley with pictures that look like a comet and there were stories about a star with trails that fell out of the sky into the ocean, causing massive tsunamis."

"There are also rock engravings around Sydney showing Aboriginal heroes wearing head dress. But there's some debate that it could be bundles of spears instead."

"Because of the association between spears and comets, and because the engravings also show the Sun and the Moon, it's possible they represent comets, but that's going to take further research."

Hamacher says the only way to know for certain is to talk with the traditional owners.

"But where the cultures have been damaged, those stories have been lost, so you're only left with the archaeological evidence, and that can be a real challenge."
