Moai

You move on the slopes of the quarry of the volcanic cone Rano Raraku.

A moai (from Rapanui: moai, 'sculpture') is a monolithic humanoid statue located on Easter Island (Chile). The moáis are the main tourist attraction of the island.

Description and history

Map showing the location of the Mois on Easter Island.

Jakob Roggeveen analyzing a moái; 18th century engraving.

The more than nine hundred known moáis sculpted by the ancient Rapa Nui are distributed throughout the island. Most of them were carved in tuff from the Rano Raraku volcanic cone, where more than four hundred moai remain in different phases of construction. The historical period of all the development of the various construction techniques extended between 700 AD. C. and 1600 d. C. Everything indicates that the quarry was suddenly abandoned and half-carved statues were left in the rock. Virtually all of the completed moai, originally placed on a ceremonial platform or altar, called ahu in the Rapanui language, were later torn down by the native islanders in the period after construction ceased in the XV. Since 1956 a few of them have been restored.

At first, these giant statues also wore red stone tufts or bows weighing more than ten tons called pukao, which were extracted from the Puna Pau crater. Once it was carved, it had to be raised to the proper height to place them on the heads.

With the restoration of the ahu Nau-Nau on Anakena beach in 1978, it was discovered that, in the eye cavities, they used to place coral plates as eyes. These were removed, destroyed, buried or thrown into the sea, where they have also been found. This is consistent with the theory that the villagers themselves felled them, perhaps during tribal warfare.

The first European sailors who, at the beginning of the XVIII century, reached Easter Island could not believe what they They were watching. In that small area of land, they discovered hundreds of huge statues spread across the surface of the entire island.

Meaning

The meaning of the moai is still uncertain, and there are various theories surrounding these statues. The most common of these is that the statues were carved by the Polynesian inhabitants of the island, between the 9th and 16th centuries, as representations of deceased ancestors, so that they projected their mana (supernatural power) onto their descendants.

They had to stand on the ahu (ceremonial platforms) with their faces towards the interior of the island (except the seven located in the Ahu Akivi and a four-handed moai signaling the winter solstice in the Ahu Huri A Urenga) and, after placing coral eyes with obsidian or red volcanic rock pupils, they became aringa ora ('face living face') of an ancestor—the full name of the statues in the local language is aringa ora o te tupuna ('living faces of the ancestors').

A study by Lipo, Matt Becker, and Tanya Bronson of California State University, Long Beach suggests that these ceremonial statues were placed to mark the locations of drinking water, a resource hard to find on that island volcanic. They discovered that in places where there are no moai there is also no fresh water, and in places where there are moai, even in the interior of the island, there are nearby sources of drinking water.

Hypothesis about its construction

Moái in the quarry

Volcanic rock could be cut relatively easily with basalt and obsidian tools, giving them their basic shape in the quarry itself. Later they were extracted and semi-buried nearby to sculpt the details.

It is not known exactly how they were moved, but it is almost certain that the process required the use of sleds or wooden rollers. A second theory from 1982 by the Czech engineer Pavel Pavel, proposes the simplest and most practical solution to transfer up to now, balancing his weight upright and making him "walk" (according to tradition, the moai "walked"), a theory put into practice with a concrete model in the Czech city of Strakonice, and later experimented in 1985 on the island together with Thor Heyerdahl and Sergio Rapu, with a real moai, and using materials from the island, later the archaeologist Carl Lipo and the anthropologist Terry Hunt tested again this theory with a rudimentary concrete model.

During the summer of 2000, an American archaeological team discovered data suggesting the use of complex machines on the island centuries ago. Geologist Charles M. Love and a team of seventeen students excavated sections of the three main roads that served to transport the giant statues. Some of these roads were originally carved into the island's bedrock, formed mainly of volcanic rock of a type known as pahoehoe.

Mois quarry in Rano Raraku

Interestingly, the roads are not flat but their section shows a characteristic "V" or "U" shape. Its average width is 3.5 meters and a high level of engineering knowledge is required. In some sections, the roads are flanked by lines of rocks.

But perhaps most surprising is that these rocks are not simply placed there, but embedded in holes carved into the bedrock that forms the island's floor. A relevant detail is that this type of hole occurs in sections where the road runs uphill. Dr. Love speculates that these holes were placed there to accommodate some kind of mechanism designed to help move the gigantic stone heads and bridge gaps that would otherwise require considerable effort.^{[< i>citation required]}

These holes, as well as the curious "V" shape of the roads, indicate that there are still important unknowns about the system used by the natives of Easter Island to erect their mysterious moais.

Significant moáis and ahus

The ahu Akivi

The Moái Paro

• The Ahu Akivi is a ahu with very precise astronomical orientation, the axis of the platform was oriented from north to south, getting the faces of the Moai look exactly to the point where the sun sets during the equinox of the southern spring (21 September) and their backs face the sun of dawn during the autumn equinox (21 March), is the only one whose mois look to the sea. It was restored in 1960.
• The Ahu Vinapu is made with construction techniques seemingly similar to those of Cuzco.
• The Moái Paro is the highest moái of all finished, and is located on the platform I pito kuraIt was 11 meters and weighed about eighty tons. It is currently torn down and split into three parts.
• In the quarry of Rano Raraku there is an unfinished statue of twenty-one meters.
• The Ahu Tongariki is the largest of the existing platforms with two hundred meters long and fifteen moi upon it. It was restored by the Easter Island Institute of the University of Chile between 1992 and 1997.
• In 1929 the inhabitants of the island gave a moái to President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, but the president got rid of him since he tells the legend that an adviser told him he was in bad luck.

The ahu Tongariki

Types of moai

Moái Hoa Hakananai'a, on basalt, on display at the British Museum

Of the approximately nine hundred moai on Easter Island, some four hundred are found in the Rano Raraku quarry, 288 linked to the ahu, and the rest scattered in different parts of the island, probably abandoned on the route to some ahu.

Of the total, more than eight hundred were carved from the lapilli tuff of Rano Raraku, twenty-two from white trachyte, eighteen from red scoria, and ten from basalt.

The average height of the moai is about 4.5 meters, but the ancient Rapa Nui were able to work and move two ten-meter-high statues.

The standard weight is around five tons and no more than thirty to forty statues weigh more than ten tons. These correspond to the time of full development of the Rapanui culture called the Ahu Moai Period, located between the years 1500 and 1600 AD. C.

There is a varied typology of moai, undoubtedly responding to an evolution in design —which became more stylized and ornate over time—, size, techniques, and materials. They can be classified by height as follows:

The biggest one

In the main quarry of Rano Raraku, a moai of 21.65 m, known as Te Tokanga (The Giant), was still unfinished in its niche, which would have weighed more than two hundred and seventy tons, something unthinkable even for the modern technology. Island tradition holds that this Moai was intended for the Ahu Vinapu.

The larger statues are found abandoned on the slope of the quarry, which shows that the Rapanui society was engaged in a competition that was finally resolved by abandoning these monumental constructions.

The oldest one

The Tukuturi moai, the oldest, was discovered by Thor Heyerdahl in 1955, it is a female figure in a sitting or kneeling position and with her head slightly raised towards the sky, her hands in a praying position. Unique in its form, it was dated to approximately the VI (500) century -600 AD)

Moai Kava-Kava

It is a male figure carved in wood, originally made of toromiro, skeletal with a sunken belly and prominent ribs, which is precisely what the Rapanui word “Kava Kava” (ribs) means. The trunk is long and the extremities short with small feet. The face is sharp, with thin cheeks and an aquiline profile and usually ends in a small beard. It has long pointed ears and eyes that appear wide with a frightened expression and are made of bone and obsidian. Some have high reliefs on their skulls, others have a kind of helmet or hat, and sometimes they are adorned with human hair. It is also one of the most recognized souvenirs on the island after the colossal moais.

According to the mythology of the island, this figure would represent the aspect of the spirits or Aku-Aku sighted in Puna Pau by the ariki Tu'u Koihu, eldest son of Hotu Matu'a, by whom he was watched and could not count above them, so he carved the gaunt figures in wood.

Moai Papa'a

Female version of the Kava-Kava moai, very similar in shape but with slight variations, such as flatter-looking low-prominent ribs, pendulous breasts, and lacking feminine curves, rather masculine-looking because they are skinny, bald, and even with little beards.

Moai Tangata

Male figure, with practically human proportions and features, but totally opposite to the figure of the moai Kava-Kava, it has a prominent belly and an enlarged head.

Moai Tangata Manu

Male figure that has the same aesthetic characteristics as the Kava-Kava moai, although with an avian head with a prominent beak.

Gallery

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  Moái Te Tokanga (El Gigante)

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  Moái Tukuturi, the oldest

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  Different types of moái carved in wood

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  Moái Kava-kava

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  Detail moái Tangata

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  Detail Moai Kava-Kava face

In popular culture

• The Moai has gone to popular culture, becoming one of the star enemies of video games Gradiusand Arkanoidamong others.

• In the movie Rapa Nui (1994) is attributed to its construction the fall of the Paschal society and the revolution of the Short Sheeps.

• The character of SpongeBob Calamardo Tentacles lives in a Moai.

• In the video game saga PokémonPokémon Nosepass and its evolution Probopass are inspired by a moai.