How many stone figures were found on Easter Island Rapa Nui Chile?
Easter Island’s most dramatic claim to fame is an array of almost 900 giant stone figures that date back many centuries. The statues reveal their creators to be master craftsmen and engineers, and are distinctive among other stone sculptures found in Polynesian cultures.
Where are the heads on Easter Island?
Rano Raraku
Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island’s perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue.
How did the Easter Island heads get there?
Easter Island – The Statues and Rock Art of Rapa Nui. Using basalt stone picks, the Easter Island Moai were carved from the solidified volcanic ash of Rano Raraku volcano. Once completed, the statues were then moved from the quarry to their intended site and erected on an ‘ahu’.
How many heads are on Easter Island?
Archaeologists have documented 887 of the massive statues, known as moai, but there may up as many as 1,000 of them on the island. Most were carved from volcanic rock between 1100 and 1680.
Why are the Easter Island heads buried?
The heads had been covered by successive mass transport deposits on the island that buried the statues lower half. These events enveloped the statues and gradually buried them to their heads as the islands naturally weathered and eroded through the centuries.
Why are the Easter Island heads there?
Easter Island is famous for its stone statues of human figures, known as moai (meaning “statue”). The island is known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui. The moai were probably carved to commemorate important ancestors and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the seventeenth century.
Does anyone live on Easter Island today?
Today, the people living on Easter Island are largely descendants of the ancient Rapa Nui (about 60%) and run the bulk of the tourism and conservation efforts on the island. Many locals living on Easter Island have livelihoods that involve the water—which makes sense!
Who built the Easter Island heads?
Rapa Nui people
The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people.
Who made the stone heads of Easter Island?
The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
Where are the stone heads on Easter Island?
Rano Raraku is known as the “nursery” of the stone head Moai statues. As you approach the site from the road you will begin to see the giant heads dotted along the hillside. Look closer and you will find examples of Moai at each stage of development; much like a manufacturing line.
Are there any statues on Easter Island with legs?
Except for one kneeling moʻai, the statues do not have clearly visible legs. All fifteen standing moʻai at Ahu Tongariki. Though moʻai are whole-body statues, they are often referred to as “Easter Island heads” in some popular literature.
Why are the statues on Easter Island called moai?
Easter Island (Rapa Nui in Polynesian) is a Chilean island in the southern Pacific Ocean famous for it’s stone head statues called Moai. When you first see a Moai statue you are drawn to its disproportionately large head (compared to body length) and that is why they are commonly called “Easter Island Heads”.
What did the Rapa Nui call Easter Island?
The Easter Island heads are known as Moai by the Rapa Nui people who carved the figures in the tropical South Pacific directly west of Chile.
