Arborglyph
Arborglyphs, dendroglyphs, silvaglyphs, or modified cultural trees are carvings of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. Although most often referring to ancient cultural practices, the term also refers to modern tree-carving.
Love carvings
Carving names and initials into
This carving was also practised in
Damage to trees
Carving in the bark may damage the tree, by allowing diseases or pests to enter the tree.[3] Bark acts as a protective layer similar to the way skin does in humans, keeping pests and harmful bacteria out of the organism. Breaking the protective layer not only allows disease in, but it may also cause cellular damage if the cut penetrates below the bark, disrupting its ability to transport nutrients through xylem and phloem. Owing to the fungal systems that link some trees, disease may even spread to surrounding trees.[4][5]
Culturally significant dendroglyphs
People around the world have carved designs in trees imbued with cultural or spiritual significance. These include
Australasia
Boabs in Western Australia
In 2021, a collaborative project to find and trace histories etched in
Chatham Islands
In the
During the 1940s, many fallen trees were found with carvings, in 31 different places on Chatham Island and at Te Puinga on
The carvings are mostly images of people, with many of them showing ribs, somewhat similar to the
The best known examples of momori rakau are at Hāpūpū / J M Barker Historic Reserve, where the carvings and trees are protected by a fenced enclosure and the protection of being one of only two National Historic Reserves in New Zealand. The reserve was fenced in 1980 to provide protection for the tree carvings from grazing stock and is now showing good recovery.[6]
North America
Aspen carvings
Aspen carvings are arborglyphs made in the
A grove of aspens with Basque arborglyphs in the Steens Mountain region of southeastern Oregon have been designated as Oregon Heritage Trees.[13]
A project was run by the
Chumash arborglyph
The glyph on the "scorpion tree" (now known as the Chumash Arborglyph[9]) viewed from Painted Rock in Carrizo Plain, California, shows the counterclockwise rotation of stars around Polaris, apparently showing Ursa Major in relation to Polaris.[15]
Paleontologist Rex Saint Onge, who saw the tree in 2006, realised that the tree was carved by
Saint Onge was not the first European American to speculate that Chumash paintings might have astronomical implications. In the 1970s, anthropologist Travis Hudson's book Crystals in the Sky combined his observations of the rock art of the Chumash people with cultural data recorded by ethnographer John P. Harrington nearly a century earlier.[15]
The lower half of the lizard-like image is actually a graphic representation of the movement of a shadow over the course of a year. This was made with a Chumash invention similar to a
Gallery
-
Initials of several couples carved into a tree. Most bear dates from the 1920s and 1930s
-
"Haisy 92" carved on a tree; the characters have stretched as the tree has grown
-
Message reading "we miss you" carved into a tree, with no dates or names accompanying it. Found in Patapsco, Maryland. Other carvings on this tree date between 1970s and present time
References
- ^ "They are names of lovers". en.antiquitatem.com. 10 December 2014.
- ISBN 9780486120324– via Google Books.
- ^ a b Messenger, Steven (11 October 2018). "Archeologists Study the World's Oldest Tree Carvings". Treehugger.
- ^ Erin & Brice (25 August 2020). "What Happens When We Carve Into Trees?". Leave No Trace. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ "The Harmful Effects of Tree Carving". Boyce Thompson Arboretum. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f "Hapupu dendroglyphs". Wondermondo. 6 January 2011.
- ^ a b c Salleh, Anna (11 October 2022). "Race against time to preserve Lingka Dreaming carvings on boab trees in Tanami Desert". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- ^ "Fäbodsristningar". Dalarnas museum (in Swedish). Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ a b c "How a tree carving changed the way we understand Chumash rock paintings". Chumash Science Through Time. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- ^ "Tracing history via the Kimberley's "upside down" trees". WA Parks Foundation. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- S2CID 252869226.
- ^ Kelly Bastone, "Aspen Diaries" Archived February 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, "Steamboat Magazine", Summer 2005
- ^ "Oregon Travel Experience". Oregon Heritage Trees. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
- ^ Pedersen, Carol (12 October 2003). ""Mike Lucey: My Favorite Herder": Arborglyph Recording Project". passportintime.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2006. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Kettmann, Matt (9 February 2010). Time https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1960661,00.html. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
{{cite magazine}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help)
Further reading
- DeKorne, James (1970). Aspen Art in the New Mexico Highlands: James DeKorne. Santa Fe: ISBN 9780890130414.
- Mallea-Olaetxe, J. (2000). Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in California and Nevada. Basque (Hardcover). University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0-87417-358-1. Retrieved 13 October 2022.