Deep Memory/ Clues to a deeper past
← Cluster index
Cluster · 1 line of comparison · 1 without an established route · 1 motif family · 2 registered objects

Mississippian Cahokia

Rapanui traditions

1 separate line of comparison join these two traditions in this collection. 1 of them has no established route.

All threads in the collection Map Dates

Motif families: Birds & human forms

Cultural context

Mississippian Cahokia

A provisional object lead. The tablet now has a photograph; its accession and dating records are still to be checked.

No numerical episode date is yet registered here.

  • Cahokia birdman tabletDate unresolved · unresolved
Cultural context

Rapanui traditions

Different media and episodes in Rapa Nui’s history. Statue construction, later carving, texts and modern records remain separate.

Registered dated episodes: 1,750 CE to 1,875 CE.

  • Orongo birdman boulderc. 1750–1875 CE · catalogue estimate
Line 01 · Research lead

A birdman on a small tablet

A North American lead, with the image’s status kept in view.

A small stone tablet on a museum mount, incised with a beaked human profile above a wing
Cahokia birdman tabletCahokia
The Orongo birdman boulder, photograph published in 1919
Orongo birdman boulderOrongo · Rapa Nui
What appears to correspond
  • Both presentations suggest avian and human elements.
What differs or remains uncertain
  • Both are now shown in photographs; the modern illustration of the tablet is kept as a second view, and the boulder's only image remains a 1919 photograph.
  • A small tablet and a relief boulder have different compositional constraints.
Transmission check

Transmission not yet assessed

The comparison is not yet identified or dated well enough to exclude ordinary transmission, later borrowing or an image-selection effect.

Open the full dossier: groups, dates and sources →

Keep in the frame

What would move this cluster forward?

Collected comparisons accumulate; they do not compound into proof. Each line still needs its own dated sequence.

  • Acquire a museum accession record and dated context for the tablet.
  • Compare the photograph with the illustration to see what the drawing restores or emphasises.
Already on the table

Ordinary explanations and documented context.

Documented local context A birdman’s local familyThe moai back belongs beside Rapanui rocks, boulders and painted slabs.Independent contact evidence What independent contact evidence looks likeRapa Nui and the Americas, through ancient genomes.
Follow the evidence

Sources & scope

Provisional editorial records with no independent specialist sign-off. Review stages describe how far sources were checked, not the probability of a historical connection.

  1. project · Deep Memory

    The project’s illustrated comparison archive

    Records comparisons assembled from this repository and supplied material. An external first proposer has not been traced for every pair.

  2. museum · British Museum / Google Arts & Culture

    Birdman boulder · Oc1920,0506.1

    Orongo provenance, birdman with rounded object, and an approximate 1750–1875 catalogue date.