What are the stone statues on Easter Island called?

Averaging 13 feet (4 meters) high, with a weight of 13 tons, these enormous stone busts–known as moai –were carved out of tuff (the light, porous rock formed by consolidated volcanic ash) and placed atop ceremonial stone platforms called ahus.

What are the heads on Easter Island?

On average, they stand 13 feet high and weigh 14 tons, human heads-on-torsos carved in the male form from rough hardened volcanic ash. The islanders call them ” moai,” and they have puzzled ethnographers, archaeologists, and visitors to the island since the first European explorers arrived here in 1722.

Where did the Easter Island heads come from?

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. They are all monolithic the carvings are created in one piece and an average weight of 20 tons and measuring 20 feet tall or more.

Are there bodies under the Easter Island heads?

As a part of the Easter Island Statue Project, the team excavated two moai and discovered that each one had a body, proving, as the team excitedly explained in a letter, “that the ‘heads’ on the slope here are, in fact, full but incomplete statues.”

Why are there no trees on Easter Island?

Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today. There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. However there is evidence the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) was present from 900 and it seems clear that these rats caused widespread deforestation.

Who lives on Easter Island now?

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!

Does Easter Island have a flag?

The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro) is the flag of Easter Island, a special territory of Chile. It was first flown in public alongside the national flag on 9 May 2006.

Are there any Easter Islanders left?

The Rapa Nui are the indigenous Polynesian people of Easter Island. At the 2017 census there were 7,750 island inhabitants—almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast.

Is Easter Island one of the Seven Wonders of the World?

HANGA ROA, Chile (Reuters) – On one of the world’s most remote outposts, Easter Island, inhabitants are adamant the giant stone statues that dominate their landscape should be recognised as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Chile annexed the island in 1888 and has governed it since.

Why are there giant heads on Easter Island?

Moai statues were built to honor chieftain or other important people who had passed away. They were placed on rectangular stone platforms called ahu, which are tombs for the people that the statues represented.

What is the mystery of Easter?

The mystery of Easter began with joy on Palm Sunday; then with Jesus’ last farewell supper, through people turning against him on Long Friday, ending with his death on the cross, and, finally, turning to joy on Easter Sunday as Jesus rose from the dead ‘on the third day’. Some believed it, others did not.

Are Easter Island statues buried?

Most production of Moai had ceased in the early 1700s due to western contact. The two statues Van Tilburg’s team excavated had been almost completely buried by soils and rubble.

What is the tallest moai in the world?

The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.

Can you buy land on Easter Island?

Decades ago, the property was acquired by the government, and then traded between private owners. By law, only Rapanui can own land on Easter Island. But the law is not strictly enforced.