What are the names of the statues on Easter Island? Giant stone statues on Easter Island (13 photos)
Easter Island is the most secluded corner of our planet, it is a small piece of land that is located in the Pacific Ocean and is far from the nearest inhabited island Pitcair at 2600 km.
The indigenous people call their Rapa Nui island. And it got its name known to the whole world because it was opened on Easter Sunday in 1722 by the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen.
The most famous mystery of Easter Island, which researchers have been trying to solve for hundreds of years, is giant stone statues, moai. These mysterious monoliths were carved from the petrified volcanic ash.
In total, there are 887 statues on the island, 397 of them are located near the Rano Raraku volcano, in the crater of which all other moai were made.
Many unfinished statues and even more abandoned axes were also found there, which suggests a sudden cessation of work due to some serious cataclysm.
There are two types of moai on the island. "Giants" from 10 meters tall, without pukao hats, they all mostly stand on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano, neck-deep in sedimentary rocks.
And four-meter "dwarfs" erected on ahu pedestals along the ocean coast, in original headdresses. They look younger than their 10-meter relatives, and their faces are not so long.
Then the theories and legends begin. One of the surviving legends says that people with long earlobes once ruled the island. They were subordinate to the short-eared. At this time, moai construction was in full swing, palm forests were mercilessly cut down, until the ecology of the island was brought to its current deplorable state. The population grew, there was nothing to eat, there was not enough wood even for the manufacture of boats, cannibalism began ... In a word, the short-eared could not stand it and overthrew the elite.
Most scientists agree with this version of the decline of the era of the mysterious creators of giant stone statues. Some even supplement the big picture with details. So, it is believed that the short-eared commoners were immigrants from Polynesia, and the long-eared elite were travelers from South America, who, having arrived on the island somewhere in 800, somehow managed to seize power over the natives for many years.
They also found a scientific explanation for the many abandoned axes in the Rano Raraku crater. Experts believe that these are used tools. And since it is much easier to make a new stone tool than to sharpen an old one, the ancient craftsmen threw away their old hand axes. So they gathered for hundreds of years fairly.
And the unfinished idols remained so, because, cutting them out of relatively soft volcanic tuff, the craftsmen stumbled upon harder rocks, which they could not overcome.
But how was it delivered? stone giants on Right place? Local residents cannot say anything definite about this, except that the statues walked by themselves. They even have a word in their language that means moving slowly without the help of legs. But what they meant is unknown.
And then there was a theory of movement by vertical rotation waddle. This is how heavy barrels and cylinders are moved. Successfully conducted field tests of this method put everything in its place: with the help of ropes and short wooden levers, the moai confidently "stepped" forward.
One of the most remote corners of our planet is Easter Island. To get to the nearest mainland, you will need to overcome a little over 3.5 thousand kilometers, or to the nearest populated place over 2 thousand kilometers. However, the island is famous all over the world, with regular flights, not deprived of guests, and this despite the fact that this is a piece of land in the middle of the ocean with a size of 164 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of Smolensk or Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. All this thanks to only one local attraction, which haunts many scientists, stone moai statues.
Moai stone idols, one of the mysteries of our time, no one knows for sure who built them and how they were moved around the island. The idols are carved in the form of human bodies with heads truncated to the waist. To date, 887 moai are known to stand along the coast of the island. The statues have different sizes and weights, and were made presumably by the Polynesian people during the 13th-16th centuries.
The most common sizes of moai range in height from 3-5 meters with a width at the base of about 1.6 meters and a weight of up to 5 tons. There are also idols 10-12 meters high and weighing about 10 tons. Many media sources and various publications describe an overweight, this is due to the average volumetric mass of the basalt from which the moai are hewn. El Gigante is considered the largest idol on the island, with a height of about 21 meters and a weight of up to about 165 tons, but this statue is not standing and not separated from the rock, which is still in the quarry.
As previously mentioned, how moai were delivered along the coast is still unknown. However, for Lately several plausible versions of such transportation have been put forward. For example, the famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl described one proven method, according to which, by lining logs under the bottom of the statue and alternating them, it was possible to gradually drag multi-ton stone blocks across the area. Locals perceive this method as probable, but they believe that the statues walked around the island on their own. There is another amazing moment associated with the moai, many idols are in quarries not separated from the rock, the most likely reason is the sudden cessation of all work on which the settlement has been engaged for several centuries.
Most of the moai are carved from the basalt tuff of the Rano Raraku volcano. Almost half of the idols remained standing at the foot of the volcano. Earlier idols are set on ahu platforms (ceremonial platforms) around the perimeter of the island. There are 255 such platforms, ranging in length from a few to 160 meters. They can intervene as one or a number of statues. Less than 20% of all idols were installed on ahu. On the largest platform of Tongariki, there are 15 moai. Some idols have cylinders weighing from 500 kilograms to 2 tons on their heads.
As for the history of creation, it is obvious that the manufacture of moai required huge labor costs. The first Europeans who arrived on the island were surprised how the idols were made and dragged. In all likelihood, the process of extrusion took place by means of stone hammers. Statues were made from volcanic rock by frequent blows of hammers, and during the crushing of basalt, the tool was also crushed at the same time. Therefore, during the manufacture of moai, a supply of stone hammers was simultaneously being made in order to continuously replace the crushed ones with new ones. On the issue of transportation, another theory was put forward by a researcher from the Czech Republic, according to which the moai were turned over. Archaeologist and engineer Pavel Pavel in 1986 with Thor Heyerdahl set up an experiment in which 17 people with ropes moved the statue in an upright position.
There are still many mysteries on our Earth to be solved. Some of these mysteries are stone idols and text messages with hieroglyphic writing on tablets from Easter Island.
Volcanic origin, which is located in the eastern part Pacific Ocean. Formerly an island bore the name Rapa Nui, which in translation from Polynesian means Big Rock. This island belongs to Chile. Currently, about two thousand inhabitants live there.
The inhabitants themselves call themselves Rapanui. They are the descendants of a great civilization who failed to retain their knowledge. When sailors from Holland sailed to the island in 1722, they renamed it Easter Island. There are no tall trees on the island that could explain how the tall and heavy figures of idols got ashore. It has already been proven that the figures themselves were carved in quarries. Each figure weighs approximately more than 80 tons and reaches a height of 10 meters, and some even have a height of up to 20 meters. Without any mechanical devices, these stone figures were moved for tens of kilometers and installed on the ocean shore.
The heads of all the idols had "hats" - pukao, which were also carved from rock Red. The weight of each such hat reached five tons.
These carved sculptures stand on pedestals. The pedestals also inspire respect for their size. After all, the weight of the pedestal can reach hundreds of tons and have a length of up to 150 meters. About two hundred figures used to stand on the shore. Seven hundred were found on the road from the quarry to the ocean. At the quarries themselves, about 200 sculptures were found still unfinished.
Who needed to do so much stone statues and install them on the ocean? Even our modern devices would be difficult to cope with the work of carrying all these weights. The statues were made and installed in the years 1200-1500. Then suddenly everything stopped. Archaeological finds claim that from 7 to 20 thousand people lived on the island. This doesn't seem likely. How could such a population feed itself on an island with an area of 165.5 km2. Although crops were grown there and people were engaged in fishing. Even the skeletons of dolphins have been found.
Scientists say that in the 4th century AD, the islanders could sail on boats and build large fortifications. At that time, forests and a special type of palm trees grew on the island. Palm trees were up to 25 meters high and 180 centimeters in girth. These palms may have been helpful in hauling heavy stone idols and for hollowing out boats for fishing. But then the big palm trees, the forest and the dolphins disappeared. The number of people on the island also began to decline. History and culture great nation began to be forgotten. But it is possible that these huge figures were moved and installed in this way.
.jpg)
Now no one can read what is written on the tablets, which were also found on the island. They only learned that they wrote on them from left to right. This is proved by the fact that on the right the end of the written signs breaks off in different ways, and on the left side all the signs are located on the same level. Now scientists are trying to find out on 20 tablets what is written on them. There are 11 texts in total. Some boards copy each other. The inhabitants of the island now speak a different dialect, and there is no way to find out what the ancient tribes wanted to convey with their texts. The boards are called kohau.
Hieroglyphs with figurines of frogs, stars, spirals, turtles, lizards, and a winged man are carved on the shiny surface of toromiro wood. Until 1864, tablets with texts were kept in all the houses on the island. In total, 14 thousand hieroglyphs were found on the tablets. The number of images on them is different everywhere, from 2 to 2300. A calendar is presumably carved on one plate. But so far nothing has been fully revealed. For a hundred and thirty years, everyone has been trying to guess the hieroglyphs and read what is written. We hope that soon the secrets of the ancient Rapanui will begin to open their written instructions, and we will be enriched with the knowledge that we have lost.
In Santiago at the Museum natural history lies the Rod of Santiago, which used to be with the leader of Easter Island until 1870. The wand also has hieroglyphs and icons. The wand looks like a wooden scepter with 2300 hieroglyphs carved, 6.5 cm thick and 126 cm long.
All text on the wand is divided by vertical lines into unequal sections. On the right side, a phallic sign is carved, which is called a suffix. There is an assumption that the scepter is written about the creation of the world with male and female principles. The triadic construction of the text is similar to cosmogony, the song about the creation of the world "Atua Mata Riri", which was recorded in 1886 by American soldiers at Ure Wa "e Iko.
.jpg)
Currently, the islanders are engaged in fishing, farming, and cattle breeding. Travel agencies receive many tourists, for whom the locals began to make souvenirs. Many earn by entertaining tourists.
Video: Easter Island idols
At an early stage in the development of civilization, it was common for people around the world to establish megalithic structures. Let us recall at least Stonehenge in the UK, numerous dolmens or phallus-like blocks. But from this series of ancient megaliths, those that Easter Island is famous for stand out. The statues erected there amazed the Europeans from the very beginning. And they continue to amaze me to this day. After all, their secret has not yet been fully unraveled. In addition, the question of where the first people came to this small piece of land, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, three thousand kilometers from the mainland, has not been disclosed. In this article, we will briefly talk about the secrets of Easter Island. After all, this land is simply overflowing with attractions.
Where is Easter Island
Moai statues were the first to be met in 1722 by European navigators. The ship under the leadership of Captain Jakob Roggeven moored to unknown shores on Holy Week, so it was decided to name the island in honor of the upcoming holiday. The natives themselves called their land Te-Pito-o-Te-Khenua, Rapa-Nui and Mata-Ki-Te-Range. But the word Pascha (Pascua) was more familiar to the ear of Europeans, and on all maps of the world the island appears that way. It is located in east corner Pacific Ocean and is a triangle of land with a face length of not more than twenty-four kilometers. The island has volcanic origin, so he is mountainous. highest point- 539 meters above sea level. Administratively, this land belongs to Chile, although it is three thousand six hundred kilometers away from the nearest city of Valparaiso. Easter Island has wonderful climate, conducive to measured rest. The waters near its shores are warmed up to + 24 degrees all year round, and the beaches are strewn with interesting pinkish sand. But the main attraction that attracts many tourists to Easter Island is the statues.
The history of the discovery of a lost civilization
The Dutch navigator J. Roggeven was the first to suggest that the idols rising along the entire coast of Rapa Nui could not have been made by the natives whom he found. The people who inhabited the island at the beginning of the eighteenth century reached the level of development of primitive society. They had primitive tools, and it was doubtful that they could make such sculptures and deliver them from the quarries to the shore. Roggeven spent only a day on the island, but he managed to observe how the natives sat around the idol, lit a fire and sang ritual songs. A second expedition led by Felipe González arrived in 1770. The Spaniards suggested that stone idols were brought here from the mainland. But who delivered the statues to Easter Island and from where? Excavations carried out in the 20th century helped to establish that the moai are of local origin. A quarry was also found. She was in a crater. extinct volcano Early Raraku.
mysterious people
Statues of Easter Island, photos of which are calling card this Chilean province is not the only mystery of these places. Even the first sailors described what they found among the natives of representatives of three races. There were blacks, and Asians, and people with completely white skin. J. Cook guessed to bring a Polynesian with him to the island, who somehow managed to communicate with local residents. They said that twenty-two generations ago, their leader Hotu Matua arrived here. But from where - they could not really say. The natives also explained that the stone statues on Easter Island are not images of gods, but of their former rulers, whose souls continue to take care of their descendants. Where did its first inhabitants sail to the lost island? IN scientific world many hypotheses have been put forward. Opinions were expressed that the natives came from Egypt, India, Scandinavia, the Caucasus and even the disappeared Atlantis. Thor Heyerdahl made a successful attempt to sail to the islands of Polynesia from the coast of Peru on a primitive raft, but this does not yet prove the Aztec origin of the inhabitants of Rapa Nui.
Statues in Easter Island
Moai knowingly caused a stir among researchers and gave rise to so many scientific hypotheses. After all, it was not the very presence of megalithic sculptures that was strange, but the fact that the existing primitive society could not create them in any way. First of all, the size of stone idols is impressive. The height of most of them is about ten meters, and the average weight is fifteen tons. The most huge statue reaches parameters of 21 meters and 90 tons. How could hunters and gatherers carve them out of solid rock and take them to their destination? All this gave rise to the esoteric hypothesis that the statues were brought to Easter Island by aliens from outer space. No less interesting and appearance moai. Long-eared, with flat cheekbones - they are not like any of the human races. Some idols are decorated with imitation tattoos or necklaces. Others wear a strange stone headdress on their heads.
What the excavations have shown
Some clarity on the question of the origin of the moai was brought modern research. It turned out that the idols do not belong to a civilization that existed thousands and even millions of years ago. They were installed from the 10th to the 16th century. And they were carved in the crater of an extinct volcano Rano Raraku. AND most of statues remained in the quarry. A few more were broken in transit. The sculptures were transported using ropes and platforms with rotating rollers. Work began with the face and headgear. The eyes of the idols were filled with white coral and black obsidian. But the bodies of the statues from Easter Island were more stylized.
Mysterious tablets
Modern archaeologists have also discovered something that, unlike idols, was not visible to anyone, and even from afar. They were wooden boards covered with inscriptions. And these artifacts, most likely, were brought. Because there is not a single tree on the island. Unfortunately, the mentioned texts have not yet been deciphered. What is written on the tablets is still a mystery. Basically, it seems that in the 10th century, representatives of more than advanced civilization. Gradually, society, due to extreme isolation, degraded. The inhabitants forgot the script and stopped creating new moai.
Other attractions
What else is able to surprise the traveler Easter Island? Statues (excavations have found about 300 more, sprinkled with volcanic alluvium) are not the only attraction of this lost piece of land. Take at least the pedestals on which these stone idols are installed. It is believed that these are tombstones, on which from one to several statues were ritually erected. IN administrative center Hanga Roa you can get acquainted with the history of Easter Island. It is also recommended to visit the Au Tahai fortress. modern island Easter is paradise lined with luxury hotels.
Do heads on Easter Island have legs? June 26th, 2014
Moai(statue, idol, idol) - stone monolithic statues on the Pacific island of Easter, owned by Chile. Made by the native Polynesian population between 1250 and 1500. Now 887 statues are known.
Have you ever wondered, what is there in the ground near the heads of Easter Island? Here we are used to seeing them like this:
Photo 1. 
And now, after 12 years of excavation, scientists discovered the bodies of stone idols.
A research team led by Anna Van Tilburg, head of the Easter Island Sculpture Project, found that the Easter Island statues not only have heads, but also bodies. The dimensions of the bodies of the idols are comparable in size to the heads - the length of the bodies reaches 7 meters.
Photo 2. 
The researcher notes that the idea that the idols of Easter Island have only heads is due to the fact that photographs most often capture only 150 sculptures dug into the ground up to their shoulders. Meanwhile, there are about 800 of them on the island. According to archaeologists, the statues were not originally buried. They sank underground under the influence of climate change.
During the excavations, archaeologists found out that the statues were painted with red pigment, writes the Mirror newspaper. In addition, human burials were found near the statues.
Photo 3. 
It is noted that during the excavations, mechanisms were also found that allowed the installation of colossi. Scientists have found that the idols were dragged to the installation site in a horizontal position, and then installed in a dug hole. Ropes and tree trunks were used as guides.
The backs of the stone idols are covered with inscriptions, archaeologists say. Anna Van Tilburg suggests that the petroglyphs covering the torso of the "beauties" may be the signature of the sculptor or a group of statue owners.
Photo 4. 
The 887 stone giants of Easter Island represent the island's patrons. The Easter Island statues are also called Moai. Contrary to popular belief, they do not look towards the ocean, but inland. Some moai have red stone caps. Moai were made in quarries in the center of the island. And their height sometimes reaches 20 meters.
Photo 5. 
Photo 6. 
Photo 7. 
Photo 8. 
Photo 9. 
Photo 10. 
Photo 11. 
Here is a variant of a souvenir from a trip to the island:
Photo 12. 
In general, of course, there is such a version of all this.
