Moai Easter Island at dawn sunrise
The large stone statues, or moai, for which Easter Island is world famous were carved during a relatively short and intense burst of creative and productive megalithic activity. 887 monolithic stone statues have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. Although often identified as "Easter Island Heads", the statues actually are heads and complete torsos. Some upright moai, however, have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. The period of time when the statues were produced remains disputed, with estimates ranging from 1000/1500 CE to 1500/1700 CE. Almost all (95%) moais were carved out of distinctive, compressed, easily worked volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site called Rano Raraku. The Rapanui who carved them had no metal or powered machinery, only stone hand tools - mainly basalt toki. Only a quarter of the statues were installed on the coastal ahu platforms, with nearly half still remaining in Rano Raraku and the rest elsewhere on the island, probably on their way to final locations. Moving the huge statues seems to have been laborious and very slow. Most currently standing statues, some 50 in total, have been re-erected in modern times, except for those on the slopes of Rano Raraku. Tukuturi an unusual bearded kneeling moai. While the vast majority of Moai follow a fairly standard design there are a few radically different moai on the island, in most parts badly eroded and broken. These are believed to predate the better-known moais, including a kneeling statue with hands on its knees, parts of a statue with clearly carved ribs and a headless, rectangularly shaped torso. Similarities to Indian stone statues around Lake Titicaca in South America are striking, whether this is accidental or not.
Size: 4774px × 3198px
Location: Rano Raraku Easter Island Chili
Photo credit: © Jean-Christophe Godet / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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