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The statues of Easter Island have mystified generations. How were they built? Who erected them and why? What is their significance? All these questions have gone through many minds, including mine, when they look upon pictures of these blind statues. I decided to do a little research and write this article to help myself answer some of these questions. Here is what I’ve learned about these large, impassive statues.
Background: Easter Island if a very remote island in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbor, Pitcairn, is 1000 nautical miles away. And while it’s currently considered Chilean territory, it is still debated as to whether its first inhabitants were from South America or Polynesia.
The first European to “discover” Easter Island, a Dutch explorer by the name of Roggeveen, did so on Easter Day 1722 (hence the name). Of course, the small isle isn’t referred to by this name by its inhabitants. They call it Rapa Nui, although it has also been called Te Pito O Te Haunua, which roughly translates into “The Navel of the World.”
The Statues: The 360 statues or moai of Easter Island litter the landscape. The largest upright one is 16 tons and 30 feet tall. No two of these are exactly alike, but their facial features are quite similar to other statuary of Polynesia. They were carved by softening the volcanic rock of the quarry with water, and then chiseling the statues out with stone tools. No metal tools were used in their creation.
The largest moai was never even removed from the quarry. It is known as El Gigante. It still lays in the quarry, and researchers question whether or not this 65 foot tall, 270 ton monolith was ever meant to stand. It may have been designed to be a giant petroglyph (a carving or line drawing on rock).
Most of the statues of Easter Island are gender neutral. However, markings on their backs seem to replicate islanders’ tattoos that signify rank in their community. This adds to the theory that many of these maoi’s were erected to give honor to the chieftains that ordered them carved. If this is the case, they were also probably meant to store the chief’s magical/spiritual power after his death. The red “hat” stones atop some of the statues are known as pukao, and they represent the red hair of the ruling classes of Rapa Nu society. (Native islanders today are still split between fair, red-headed and darker skin Polynesian appearing people.)
Also feeding into this theory is the fact that the statues that stare landward from the shore-side platforms are believed to have had removable “eyes” that were made of coral and scoria. These mineral eyes would have been inserted on special days so the ancestors whose spirits are kept in the moai would be able to be a part of the tribe once again. If this is true, these statues should not be considered works of art, but instead repositories to conserve ancestral power.
This is just a short introduction to the mysterious statues of Easter Island. For more information and
pictures of these great maoi, check out one of the following books or websites.
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