The ubiquitous and mysterious M-figures demand explanation: we suggested, after searching many relevant alphabets, that it is a perfect match for only one, the letter “hawt” (ሐ) in the ancient Ethiopian Amharic alphabet, pronounced “ha”.
The common and mystical M-figures demand description: we recommended, after searching many appropriate alphabets, that it's a perfect suit for just one, the letter "hawt" (ሐ) in the old Ethiopian Amharic alphabet, pronounced "ha".
Remarkably, however, we also found this symbol in cavern art from Borneo believed to have to do with 2,000 years of ages, and in nothing else cavern or shake art throughout the Indo-Pacific area. In some Austronesian languages (the varied language family that prolongs from Malagasy on the west to far-off Hawaii and Rapa Nui in the Pacific), words "ha" is a call for the "breath of life".
All these feasible links advise us that Madagascar's individuals, language, and society remain in themselves syncretic, mixing African and Oriental influences to produce a unique Malagasy individuals.
The highly detailed and varied art is noteworthy also for what it does not show.
No Christian, Muslim or Hindu significance is depicted, and no fairly modern themes such as the Latin alphabet, cars, planes or flags. Also the common zebu (cattle), the culturally critical symbol of the last thousand years or more in Madagascar, are missing.
It is hard to know exactly when these illustrations were made. Direct dating of cavern art is infamously challenging, and proved so in this situation as the black pigment was made from dark inorganic minerals with just a small element of charcoal we could use for radiocarbon dating.
The presence of vanished pets, and the lack of modern themes and the alphabet used in modern Malagasy, evaluate greatly versus the concept of a current beginning for the art.
We defendant that the art has to do with 2,000 years of ages - going back to the moment of Cleopatra or before, based upon the spiritual themes. If it's, that's amazing and useful to know because it may provide proof for that colonised Madagascar when.
If, on the various other hand, a set of pre-Christian spiritual ideas has made it through for centuries or also centuries amongst certain ethnic teams in very remote locations of the enormous island - keeping recognisable influences from Egypt, Ethiopia and Borneo - that would certainly be perhaps more amazing. Town informants hinted at that opportunity, by firmly urging that the "sorcerer" pictured was a participant of a mystical team of "Vazimba" or "Bosy") that resided in the woodland nearby.
So, whose art is this? We wish we understood, but hints are mainly doing not have. The just feasible writing, besides the M-figures, is a line of pass out manuscript in the lower right corner of this rock-art extravaganza.
Our best guess is that the clear center 6 of 8 personalities, inferred to be sorabe, archaic Malagasy writing in Arabic manuscript, may say "D-A-NT-IA-R-K".
Does that describe Antiochus IV Epiphanes? This king of the Seleucid Realm (western Australia or europe) in the Ptolemaic duration built a large navy, dominated a lot of Egypt in 170 BCE, and sent out exploring and trading expeditions down the Red Sea and the eastern African coast. Cream color investors because duration spread out Roman products as much southern as ports in Tanzania southern of Zanzibar, to profession with Azania.
Until more art or appropriate historical proof shows up for old African and Oriental influences in Madagascar, we can just hypothesize.
