Moai
NAVEL GAZING ON EASTER ISLAND
Long a subject of curiosity, speculation, and myth, the monolithic “heads” of Easter Island sit stoically in the same spots where they were erected during a very intense burst of creativity thousands of years ago. Scattered along the island’s coast, the statues, known as moai, are not just giant heads but full-length figures kneeling with their arms clasped around their stomachs, their visages meant to depict ancestors, chiefs, or other high-ranking males. Usually carved from volcanic rock found at a single quarry inside the extinct volcano Rano Raraku and traditionally decorated with white coral and black obsidian, many of the moai are buried up to their necks under many feet of silt. Averaging 14 tons apiece and nearly twice the size of the carver, the creation and transportation of these colossal statues required a concerted group effort; most required teams of half a dozen men using only stone hand tools to carve and more than 100 men to assist in moving the statue.
Many historians and archeologists speculate that only 300 of the nearly 900 statues created made it to their final resting places atop ahu, or flat stone plinths. As a result of clan warfare in the 1600s, many of the moai were toppled over, but about 50 have been re-erected since the 1950s. Due to its isolated location, one traditional Polynesian name for Easter Island was “the navel of the world.” Taking a flight from Chile some 2,000 miles due east, you too could gaze upon these stone giants, silent witnesses for millennia. —SBR
Two moai on the slopes of Easter Island.