Easter Island's Moai--grand representatives of the Rapa Nui

the Moai at Tongariki

The first settlers, probably from French Polynesia, arrived on Easter Island sometime in the fifth century AD, according to our guide.  They crossed 2000 miles of the Pacific, most likely on a catamaran, topped by a very large raft, carrying several hundred people, food, water, seeds and animals (chickens and large, edible rats).

the long ears of the moai

The first wave elongated their ears and are called “long ears”.  The moai they carved all have long ears.  They established 6 tribes and a royal family.  Each tribe had an assigned part of the island and an area where they could erect their enormous stone moai, the representatives of the ruling families in the afterlife.  They were erected on terraces which were much longer than the moai so that future rulers could also erect statues in perpetuity.  The moai were placed on a platform atop the terrace.

These were burial grounds for the royals, but only their heads were buried.  The body was anointed, put out to dry and only then was the head detached.  Remaining bones were used for jewelry and other items, probably a necessary use of available resources on a volcanic island with no native animal species.  Common people were cremated.

Around the eighth or ninth century, a second wave of Polynesians arrived and were allowed to stay if they became virtual slaves for the long ears.  This group was called short ears.  They are not represented in the moai, though they were no doubt the artisans who carved the great stones and certainly the laborers who excavated the moai, moved them often long distances, and erected them on their platforms.

moai quarry at Rano Raraku

Finally, in the 16^th century, the short ears rebelled against the repressive long ears.  In their many years of war, they toppled the moai from their perches, probably to remove any benefit they might have provided.  While there were 20,000 people living on Easter Island, a vastly larger population than the island could sustain, by the early 19^th century, only 111 Rapa Nui lived on the island.  Most had died of starvation and war, but an estimated 5000 were hauled off by European whalers and slave traders to become slaves.  For a fascinating analysis of the environmental catastrophe that befell this lovely island, read Collapse by Jared Diamond.

moai left on the slopes of Rano Raraku

moai that visited Japan

There are 2 quarries on Easter Island which supplied the moai.  Most came from one, Rano Raraku.  Over 900 of these huge statues were carved in all, but only 400 were actually erected.  Many of them lie on the slopes of the volcano where the stones were quarried while others lie around the island, left there before they could get to their terraces to be erected.  Inside the volcano that is the quarry, many more moai rest.  Over the last 6 decades, archaeologists, including Thor Heyerdahl, have hauled many of the moai back into place so that today we tourists can see how massive and grand they were in their heyday.

moai to knots on the ground at Tongariki

the only moai with legs and feet

At Tongariki, site of the largest number of standing moai, a tidal wave flattened the statues.  One of them was taken to Jtheapan on exhibit, greatly impressing the Japanese.  A large Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer agreed to pay for the restoration of the site, including sending one of their cranes to Easter Island to lift the sprawled moai to their proper places.

In their glory days, the moai had top knots, just like the Rapa Nui men, made of red lava stone and lifted atop the standing statues whose heads had been leveled to hold them.  How the Rapa Nui got them their I can't imagine.
Moai had huge heads, long ears, hands displaying long fingernails (a sign of royalty--no work) and large torsos, but no legs.  Except for one still at Rano Raraku (below) whose feet you can see poking out as if he's kneeling.