Arborglyphs,dendroglyphs,silvaglyphs, ormodified cultural trees are carvings of shapes and symbols into thebark of living trees. Although most often referring to ancient cultural practices, the term also refers to modern tree-carving.
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Carving names and initials intotrees is a common practice amonglovers; the carvings can last for decades, as a symbol of the permanence of the couple's love. This practice would appear to date back up to theclassical era, withCallimachus writing in hisAetia, "But graven on your bark may ye bear such writing as shall declare 'Cydippe beautiful'" (fragment 73). It also appears in theEclogues ofVirgil: "Resolved am I in the woods, rather, with wild beasts to couch, and bear my doom, and character my love upon the tender tree-trunks: they will grow, and you, my love, grow with them."[1]
This carving was also practised inRenaissance England, as evidenced by the writings ofWilliam Shakespeare (inAs You Like It, 1599) andJohn Evelyn (inSylva, 1664).[2]
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 throughxylem andphloem. Owing to the fungal systems that link some trees, disease may even spread to surrounding trees.[4][5]
People around the world have carved designs in trees imbued with cultural or spiritual significance. These includeAboriginal Australian peoples, including in present-dayNew South Wales,[6]Western Australia, andNorthern Territory.[7] In parts ofLatvia andEstonia, some rural-dwelling people carve a cross on a certain tree after someone dies. InDalarnas, Sweden, tree carvings from the 17th century calledfäbodsristning, made by girl shepherds, have been documented by the local museum.[8] In the western United States, there are incised drawings onaspens known as arborglyphs, made by shepherds and hunters,[6] and there are carvings made by theChumash people depicting astronomical features.[9]
The first[7] systematic survey of carvedboab trees in Australia was launched in 2021, in theKimberley region ofWestern Australia. Researchers from four universities worked with Aboriginal communities, usingphotogrammetry to record3D images of carvings on the huge trees.[10] In October 2022, the team published the results of their survey of such trees in theTanami Desert.[11] The carvings relate to the Lingka (King Brown Snake)Dreaming track across the desert. Many of the carvings are of snakes, but they also includeemu andkangaroo tracks; geometric markings; and, further west, crocodiles, turtles, andWandjina figures.[7]
In theChatham Islands (Rēkohu) of New Zealand, the indigenousMoriori people practised the art ofmomori rakau, or tree carving. The carvings depict Moriorikarapuna (ancestors) and symbols of the natural world, such aspatiki (flounder) and thehopo (albatross). They are all done on the bark ofCorynocarpus laevigatus, orkōpi, trees, which have thick, soft bark, and are all located near evidence of settlements in the form ofmiddens.They were done between sometime in the 17th century and around 1835, which is when theMāori people arrived on the island. Most of those seen today were made in the 19th century.[6]
During the 1940s, many fallen trees were found with carvings, in 31 different places on Chatham Island and at Te Puinga onPitt Island. A survey done in late 1998 found 147 trees with carvings in 5 locations on Rekohu, with 82 trees atHapapu.[6]
The carvings are mostly images of people, with many of them showing ribs, somewhat similar to theX-ray art found throughout the Pacific region. It has been speculated that at least some of the symbols represent the dead, based on the fact that in some, the figures have their knees pulled up to their chests, in the position that deceased Moriori were buried in dunes. There are also images of animals, such asflounders and birds, and one of a seal was found on Pitt Island. Others showed tree-like symbols and weapons, and many of the trees have horizontal carvings, like rings.[6]
The best known examples of momori rakau are atHāpūpū / 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]
Aspen carvings are arborglyphs made in thebark ofaspen trees byshepherds, many of themBasque andIrish American, throughout theWestern United States. They have been documented acrossnorthern California and in areas such asBoise, Idaho andSteamboat Springs, Colorado.[12] Basque immigrants from thePyrenees came to work as shepherds in the mid-19th century, and, spending long hours alone in forests, etched drawings and poetry into the aspen trees with a knife or even their fingernails. One expert alone has recorded around 20,000 tree carvings across California, Nevada, and Oregon, dating from the early 1900s. The markings turned darker against the pale bark as the tree healed itself. Aspens typically only live around 100 years, but arborglyphs have also been found on dead fallen trees. The subject of these carvings range from dates and names to quite detailed drawings, sometimes depicting explicit sexual themes. The carvings often reflect their lonely lives. Wildfires, disease, and natural deterioration are reducing the number of the aspen arborglyphs.[3]
A grove of aspens with Basque arborglyphs in theSteens Mountain region of southeasternOregon have been designated as Oregon Heritage Trees.[13]
A project was run by theUSDA Forest Service in 1997 to record and study arborglyphs in theFremont National Forest of southeastern Oregon, nearLakeview.[14]
The glyph on the "scorpion tree" (now known as the Chumash Arborglyph[9]) viewed fromPainted Rock inCarrizo Plain, California, shows the counterclockwise rotation of stars aroundPolaris, apparently showingUrsa Major in relation to Polaris.[15]
Paleontologist Rex Saint Onge, who saw the tree in 2006, realised that the tree was carved byNative Americans, specificallyChumash people. The ancient oak in theSanta Lucia Mountains in San Luis Obispo County had the outline of a lizard-like being with six legs, nearly 3 ft (0.91 m) tall, carved into its trunk, and included a rectangular crown and two large circles. The Chumash had painted similar designs on rock formations inCalifornia.[15]
Saint Onge was not the first European American to speculate that Chumash paintings might have astronomical implications. In the 1970s, anthropologist Travis Hudson's bookCrystals in the Sky combined his observations of therock 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 asundial, in which the stick is aligned with theNorth Star, and the lines drawn on the rock are traced from the movement of the stick's shadow on the days of the twosolstices andequinoxes, which held cultural significance for the Chumash.[9]
