Retracing the story of the production of Tupaia’s maps using such a wide range of archival material is an important step forward. Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz have accomplished this expertise with great ability. Their analyses are remarkable, innovative and interesting. However, contra the authors’ affirmation, we do not think that Tupaia’s map is ‘readable in its entirety for the first time’ (p. 3). Why so? Let us review the core argument of what they call ‘Tupaia’s ingenious cartographic system’ (p. 29) or ‘Tupaia’s avatea system’ (p. 39). The authors’ hypothesis is that Tupaia’s map consists of a series of voyaging routes whose islands are placed relative to a cardinal point at the centre of the map, representing the noon position of the sun, or avatea (p. 33). From this point, a line is drawn to island A, then from A to island B. The avatea angle between the two, measured clockwise, is intended to represent the compass bearing (or azimuth) between the corresponding islands on a Mercator projection chart. How could such a system have been constructed? The authors only note that this system was an innovation, a ‘stroke of genius’ (p. 32), and that ‘Tupaia’s avatea bearings were no doubt informed by the experience of practical island-to-island voyaging’ (p. 38). Oceanic navigators, and especially Micronesians, memorize star courses and islands lying under them. Navigators are able to follow the changing relationships or bearings to the surrounding islands as they sail from one to the next, as did Tupaia on board the Endeavour, pointing out the bearing to Tahiti no matter where the ship sailed. But for an avatea angle to correspond to its true geographic bearing, either the islands must be drawn at their correct relative distance from the avatea point, or the correct azimuth, presumably already known, must be rotated so that north aligns with the avatea point. Alternatively, the route may have been constructed as a series of island compasses, without making use of the avatea point (see Figure 1). Only the latter case reflects the autochthonous knowledge system, where the avatea system is redundant.

中文翻译：

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Avatea系统是否提供阅读Tupaia地图的新钥匙？

使用如此广泛的档案资料来追溯塔帕亚地图制作的故事是向前迈出的重要一步。拉尔斯·埃克斯坦（Lars Eckstein）和安雅·施瓦茨（Anja Schwarz）都具有出色的能力。他们的分析非凡，创新且有趣。但是，与作者的确认相反，我们认为Tupaia的地图“不是第一次完整读取”（第3页）。为什么这样？让我们回顾一下他们所谓的“ Tupaia的巧妙制图系统”（第29页）或“ Tupaia的avatea系统”（第39页）的核心论点。作者的假设是，图帕亚的地图由一系列航海路线组成，其航行岛相对于地图中心的基点（代表太阳或阿瓦提茶的中午位置）放置（第33页）。从这一点开始，一条线绘制到岛A，然后从A绘制到岛B。顺时针测量的两者之间的avatea角旨在表示墨卡托投影图上相应岛之间的罗盘方位（或方位角）。如何构建这样的系统？作者仅指出，该系统是一项创新，是“天才之举”（第32页），而“ Tupaia的avatea方位无疑是从实际的岛到岛航行经验中得知的”（第38页）。 。海洋导航员，尤其是密克罗尼西亚人，记住星际航线和它们下方的岛屿。导航员能够像从Endeavour上的Tupaia一样，追踪从一个到另一个的周围岛屿不断变化的关系或方位，无论船在哪里航行，都指向塔希提岛。但是要使一个avatea角度与其真实的地理方位相对应，要么必须以离avatea点正确的相对距离来绘制岛，要么必须旋转大概已经知道的正确方位角，以使北与avatea点对齐。或者，该路线可能被构造为一系列海岛罗盘，而没有利用avatea点（请参见图1）。只有后一种情况反映了本地知识系统，其中avatea系统是多余的。