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
trees is a common practice among
lovers; 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 the
classical era, with
Callimachus writing in his Aetia, "But graven on your bark may ye bear such writing as shall declare 'Cydippe beautiful'" (fragment 73). It also appears in the Eclogues of
Virgil: "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]
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
Aboriginal Australian peoples, including in present-day
New South Wales,[6]Western Australia, and
Northern Territory.[7] In parts of
Latvia and
Estonia, some rural-dwelling people carve a cross on a certain tree after someone dies. In
Dalarnas, Sweden, tree carvings from the 17th century called fäbodsristning, made by girl shepherds, have been documented by the local museum.[8] In the western United States, there are incised drawings on
aspens known as arborglyphs, made by shepherds and hunters,[6] and there are carvings made by the
Chumash people depicting astronomical features.[9]
Australasia
Boabs in Western Australia
In 2021, a collaborative project to find and trace histories etched in
boab trees in
the Kimberley region of
Western Australia was launched. Researchers from four universities are working with Aboriginal communities and using
photogrammetry to record
3D images of carvings on the huge trees,[10] in the first systematic survey of carved boab trees in Australia.[7] In October 2022, the team published the results of their survey of such trees in the
Tanami Desert.[11] The survey records the dendroglyphs, which relate to the Lingka
Dreaming track across the desert. Also known as the
King Brown Snake dreaming, many of the carvings are of snakes, but also include
emu and
kangaroo tracks; geometric markings; and, further west, crocodiles, turtles and
Wanjina figures.[7]
Chatham Islands
In the
Chatham Islands (Rēkohu) of New Zealand, the indigenous
Moriori people practised the art of momori rakau, or tree carving. The carvings depict Moriori karapuna (ancestors) and symbols of the natural world, such as patiki (
flounder) and the hopo (
albatross). They are all done on the bark of Corynocarpus laevigatus, or kopi, trees, which have thick, soft bark, and are all located near evidence of settlements in the form of
middens.They were done between sometime in the 17th century and around 1835, which is when the
Māori 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 on
Pitt Island. A survey done in late 1998 found 147 trees with carvings in 5 locations on Rehoa, with 82 trees at
Hapapu.[6]
The carvings are mostly images of people, with many of them showing ribs, somewhat similar to the
X-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 as
flounders 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 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
bark of
aspen trees by
shepherds, many of them
Basque and
Irish American, throughout the
Western United States. They have been documented across
northern California and in areas such as
Boise, Idaho and
Steamboat Springs, Colorado.[12] Basque immigrants from the
Pyrenees 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 the
Steens Mountain region of southeastern
Oregon have been designated as Oregon Heritage Trees.[13]
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
Native Americans, specifically
Chumash people. The ancient oak in the
Santa 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 in
California.[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 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
sundial, in which the stick is aligned with the
North Star, and the lines drawn on the rock are traced from the movement of the stick’s shadow on the days of the two
solstices and
equinoxes, which held cultural significance for the Chumash.[9]
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