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Stone Giants
On average, they stand 13 feet high and weigh 14 tons, human
heads-on-torsos carved in the male form from rough hardened
volcanic ash. The islanders call them "moai," and they have
puzzled ethnographers, archaeologists, and visitors to the island
since the first European explorers
arrived here in 1722. In their
isolation, why did the early Easter Islanders undertake this
colossal statue-building effort? Unfortunately, there is no
written record (and the oral history is scant) to help tell the
story of this remote land, its people, and the significance of the
nearly 900 giant moai that punctuate Easter Island's barren
landscape.
What do they mean?
The moai and ceremonial sites are along the coast, with a
concentration on Easter Island's southeast coast. Here, the moai
are more 'standardized' in design, and are believed to have been
carved, transported, and erected between AD 1400 and 1600.
They stand with their backs to
the sea and are believed by most archaeologists to represent the
spirits of ancestors, chiefs, or other high-ranking males who held
important positions in the history of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui,
the name given by the indigenous people to their island in the
1860s.
Archaeologist's, who has studied the moai for many years, believes
the statues may have been created in the image of various
paramount chiefs. They were not individualized portrait
sculptures, but standardized representations of powerful
individuals. The moai may also hold a sacred role in the life of
the Rapa Nui, acting as ceremonial conduits for communication with
the gods. According to Van Tilburg, their physical position
between earth and sky puts them on both secular and sacred ground;
secular in their representation of chief and their ability to
physically prop up the sky, and sacred in their proximity to the
heavenly gods. Van Tilburg concludes, "The moai thus mediates
between sky and earth, people and chiefs, and chiefs and gods."
What is an ahu?
The word "ahu" has two meanings in Easter Island culture.
First, an ahu is the flat mound or stone pedestal upon which the
moai stand. The ahus are, on average, about four feet high. The
word 'ahu' also signifies a sacred ceremonial site where several
moai stand. Ahu Akivi,
for example, is an ahu site with seven standing moai.
Moai Stats
The following statistics on Easter Island's moai are the
results of Van Tilburg's survey in 1989. She reported, "A total of
887 monolithic statues has been located by the survey to date on
Easter Island...397 are still in situ in quarries at the Rano
Raraku central production center.....Fully 288 statues (32% of
887) were successfully transported to a variety of image ahu
locations....Another 92 are recorded as "in transport," 47 of
these lying in various positions on prepared roads or tracks
outside the Rano Raraku zone."
Number of Moai
- Total number of moai on Easter Island: 887
- Total number of maoi that were successfully transported to
their final ahu locations: 288 (32% of 887)
- Total number of moai still in the Rano Raraku quarry: 397
(45%)
- Total number of moai lying 'in transit' outside of the Rano
Raraku quarry: 92 (10%)
Less than one third of all carved moai actually made it to a
final ceremonial ahu site. Was this due to the inherent
difficulties in transporting them? Were the ones that remain in
the quarry (45%) deemed culturally unworthy of transport? Were
they originally intended to remain in place on the quarry slopes?
Or had the islanders run out of the resources necessary to
complete the Herculean task of carving and moving the moai?
Size and weight of moai
Measuring the size, weight, and shape of the 887 moai on Easter
Island has been a 15-year process for Van Tilburg. The most
notable statues are listed below:
- Largest moai:
Location: Rano Raraku Quarry, named "El Gigante"
Height: 71.93 feet, (21.60 meters)
Weight: approximately 145-165 tons (160-182 metric tons)
- Largest moai once erect:
Location: Ahu Te Pito Kura, Named "Paro"
Height: 32.63 feet (9.80 meters)
Weight: approximately 82 tons (74.39 metric tons)
- Largest moai fallen while being erected:
Location: Ahu Hanga Te Tenga
Height: 33.10 feet (9.94 meters)
- Smallest standing moai:
Location: Poike
Height: 3.76 feet (1.13 meters)
Painstaking effort to inventory and carefully measure the
nearly 900 moai statues on Easter Island has enabled her to
construct a digital version of an average moai. The
dimensions are as follows:
- Statistically average moai:
Height: 13.29 feet (4.05 meters)
Width at Base: 5.25 feet (1.6 meters)
Width at Head: 4.86 feet (1.48 meters)
Depth through body at midpoint: 3.02 feet (92 cm.)
Total volume: 210.48 cubic feet (5.96 cubic meters)
Center of gravity: 4.46 feet (1.36 meters)
Total weight: 13.78 tons (12.5 metric tons)
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