Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 22(3), 521‒535 (2019). THE MOUNT TARAWERA VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN NEW ZEALAND AND MĀORI COMETARY ASTRONOMY Wayne Orchiston National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, 260 Moo 4, T. Donkaew, A. Maerim, Chiang Mai 50180, Thailand, and Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland, Toowomba, Queensland 4350, Australia. Email:
[email protected] and John Drummond PO Box 113, Patutahi 4045, New Zealand. Email:
[email protected] Abstract: In The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, which was first published in 1922, the Dominion Ethnologist Elsdon Best mentions that the name Tiramaroa was applied to comets, and that Tiramaroa was seen about the time of the Tarawera eruption (which occurred on 10 June 1886), and also during the siege of Te Tapiri in 1865. In this paper we identify naked eye comets that were visible from New Zealand in 1865 and 1886, and examine other comets seen during the half-century from 1850 that also were associated with disasters of some kind. We also list other Māori names that were used for comets. Keywords: Aotearoa/New Zealand, Māoris, Elsdon Best, comets, Tiramaroa, Mount Tarawera eruption, Te Tapiri Pa, disasters, Māori fatalities 1 INTRODUCTION the brighter stars, the Milky Way, the coal Sack, both Magellanic Clouds, and even the The Māori were the initial human settlers of Zodiacal Light. There also were names for Aotearoa/New Zealand, and during the thirteen- comets and meteors. (Orchiston, 2016: 33). th century CE they brought with them a well- established astronomical system from their a- European settlement of New Zealand dur- ncestral homeland in the Cook Island‒Society ing the first half of the nineteenth century saw Island area of the Pacific.