Solar Eclipses

**Solar Eclipses **

The following accounts suggest that many Aboriginal groups had a firm understanding that during a solar eclipse, an object was covering the Sun, although many explana tions were presented as to what that object was and why it covered the Sun. However, these explanations were dependent upon the person recording and translating these de scriptions, who were nearly always non Aboriginal people and were noted as a passing observation with little detail provided to the reader. We first present cases where the people understood the Moon was the object cov ering the Sun. The Moon and Sun during an eclipse, although the cause is not specifically stated. In these cases, it is clear the Aboriginal people understood that the Moon covered the Sun during the eclipse.