Moai in Chile are the silent idols of Easter Island. Easter Island statues are one of the biggest mysteries on Earth

Our planet is only revealing its secrets to humanity. How many corners of it still remain to be visited and explored? How many amazing discoveries will be made in the foreseeable future? It is very difficult to give a definite answer to all these questions. At almost every step we all come across amazing phenomena and occurrences, which thousands of scientists around the world are trying in vain to explain. Unusual finds that are scattered across the globe are just waiting for their “finest hour” to reveal their true nature and purpose.

Read our article on how to get to Easter Island.

Today I propose to go together to one of the most unusual islands - Easter Island, which belongs to the Latin American state of Chile. It was here that amazing giants made of stone - monolithic Moai statues - first appeared before the discoverers of distant lands. They are officially known as the Easter Island idols. It is believed that the statues were created by the Aborigines who inhabited the island. The stone sculptures date back to the 10th-15th centuries. In addition, the island is simply “teeming” with interesting finds in the form of ancient caves, grooved alleys that go somewhere into the ocean. All this indicates that the island was once the center of a nation unknown to archaeologists with unusual traditions and unique customs. Interested? Still would!

Not every one of us knows why the island received such an unusual name. The first impression that the name is tied to a famous holiday turns out to be correct. The island was first visited by Europeans in 1722. It was in this year that a ship from Holland under the command of Jacob Roggeveen dropped anchor off the coast of a distant Pacific island. Since overseas lands were discovered just at the time of Easter celebrations, the island received the appropriate name.

It was here that one of the most impressive man-made phenomena of all civilization was discovered - the Moai stone statues. Thanks to the stone statues, the island has become famous throughout the world and is rightfully considered one of the main tourist centers in the Southern Hemisphere.

Purpose of statues

Since the statues appeared on the island in ancient times, their size and shape evoked thoughts of extraterrestrial origin. Although it was still possible to establish that the statues were created by local tribes that once inhabited the island. Despite the fact that several centuries have passed since the discovery of the island, scientists have still not been able to unravel the true purpose of the stone giants. They were assigned the role of tombstones and places for worship of pagan gods, they were even considered as real monuments to famous islanders.

The first descriptions of the Dutch navigator help to form a definite impression of the significance of the statues. For example, the discoverer noted in his diary that the aborigines lit fires and prayed near the statues. But the most surprising thing was that the aborigines were not distinguished by a developed culture and could not boast of certain achievements in construction or any advanced technologies even for that time. Accordingly, a completely logical question arose about how these tribes, living according to primitive customs, were able to create such amazing statues.

Numerous researchers have made the most unusual assumptions. Initially, it was believed that the statues were made of clay or were even brought from the mainland. But soon all these guesses were refuted. The statues turned out to be completely monolithic. Skilled authors created their masterpieces directly from rock fragments using primitive tools.

Only after the famous navigator Cook visited the island, who was accompanied by a Polynesian who understood the language of the island’s aborigines, did it become known that the stone sculptures were not dedicated to the gods at all. They were installed in honor of the rulers of ancient tribes.

How the statues were created

As already mentioned, the statues were hewn out of monolithic rock fragments in a volcanic quarry. The work on creating unique giants began with the face, gradually moving to the sides and arms. All statues are made in the form of long busts without legs. When the Moai were ready, they were transported to the installation site and placed on a stone pedestal. But how these multi-ton giants moved from the quarry of the volcano to the stone pedestals over a huge distance is still the main mystery of Easter Island. Just imagine how much force it could take to deliver a 5-meter stone giant, the average weight of which reached 5 tons! And sometimes there were statues more than 10 meters high and weighing more than 10 tons.

Every time humanity encounters something inexplicable, a lot of legends are born. This happened this time too. According to local legends, the huge statues were once able to walk. Having reached the island, they lost this amazing ability and remained here forever. But this is nothing more than a colorful legend. Another legend says that the untold wealth of the Incas was hidden inside each statue. In pursuit of easy money, antiquity hunters and “black archaeologists” destroyed more than one statue. But nothing but disappointment awaited them inside.

Has the mystery been solved?

Not long ago, a group of American scientists who were studying ancient giants announced that they were close to solving the Moai statues. Researchers claim that the statues were transported in groups using primitive lifting mechanisms, huge carts and even large animals. Since the statue was transported in a vertical position, from a distance it seemed as if the stone block was moving on its own.

Tourism

From the very moment when tourism began to develop at a crazy pace, when the popularity of this type of active recreation and spending time gained enormous popularity among exotic lovers and simply curious citizens, Easter Island became a real place of excitement. Thousands come from all over the world to look at the amazing stone statues. Each statue is unique and has its own unique decoration, shape and size. Many of them have bizarrely shaped headdresses. By the way, hats differ in color. And, as we found out, they were manufactured elsewhere.

Mounted on special pedestals, these silent creations of human hands evoke sincere admiration from everyone who is lucky enough to see them with their own eyes. They seem to peer with their “dead eyes” deep into the island or into the blue expanse of the ocean. If they could talk, how many interesting things could they tell about the lives of their creators? How many secrets could be comprehended without suffering from numerous guesses?

The most popular place to visit is the Tongariki platform. 15 statues of different sizes were placed on the stone base. The statues have preserved many traces of civil wars and other destructive events to which the island was subjected. There is information that in 1960, a monstrous tsunami hit the island, which threw stone sculptures 100 meters deep into the island. Residents managed to recreate the platform on their own.

Finding the platform is not difficult. It is located in close proximity to the Rano Raraku volcano, which became their deposit. Taking a photo among the giant Moai is the sacred duty of every tourist visiting the Chilean island. According to “experienced photo hunters,” the best time for photo sessions is sunset and dawn. In the rays of the sun, stone giants appear in a different, unusual beauty.

Just the sight of these stone giants evokes awe and respect for their creators, makes you think about your life and your true place in the Universe. The giants of Easter Island are one of the most mysterious creations, the secret of which we all have yet to learn. They came to us from the quarry of a volcano and carry within them a still unknown mystery for thousands of centuries.

How to get there

Unfortunately, getting to Easter Island is very problematic even today. Although there are two simple methods - air and water - they are still quite expensive. The first method will require you to purchase a ticket on a scheduled plane. You can fly from the capital of Chile, Santiago. The flight will take at least 5 hours. You can also get to Easter Island by cruise ship or yacht. Many tourist ships that pass off the coast of the island happily call at the local port, providing their passengers with a unique opportunity to touch the long history of the mysterious island.

There are still many mysteries on our Earth that remain 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 of the Pacific Ocean. Previously, the island was named Rapa Nui, which means Big Rock in Polynesian. This island belongs to Chile. Currently, approximately two thousand residents live there.

The residents themselves call themselves Rapa Nui. They are the descendants of a great civilization who were unable to preserve 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 the idols ended up on the shore. 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 are even up to 20 meters tall. Without any mechanical devices, these stone figures were transported tens of kilometers and installed on the ocean shore.

The heads of all the idols had “hats” - pukao, which were also carved from red rock. The weight of each hat reached five tons.

These carved sculptures stand on pedestals. The pedestals also inspire respect with their size. After all, the weight of the pedestal can reach hundreds of tons and have a length of up to 150 meters. There used to be about two hundred figures on the shore. Seven hundred were found along the road from the quarry to the ocean. At the quarries themselves, about 200 sculptures were found unfinished.

Who needed to make so many stone sculptures and install them on the ocean shore? Even our modern devices would find it difficult to cope with the job of carrying all these heavy loads. The statues were made and installed in the years 1200-1500. Then suddenly everything stopped. Archaeological finds claim that between 7 and 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 km 2? Although crops were grown there and people were engaged in fishing. Even the skeletons of dolphins were found.

Scientists say that in the 4th century AD, the islanders could sail boats and build large defensive structures. At that time, forests and a special type of palm tree grew on the island. The palm trees were up to 25 meters in height and had a girth of 180 centimeters. These palms could help in carrying heavy stone idols and for hollowing out boats for fishing. But then the large palm trees, forest and dolphins disappeared. The number of people on the island also began to decline. The history and culture of the great nation began to be forgotten. But it is possible that these huge figures were moved and installed this way.

Now no one can read what is written on the tablets, which were also discovered on the island. They only found out that they wrote on them from left to right. This is proven by the fact that on the right the end of the written characters breaks off differently, and on the left side all the characters are located on the same level. Now scientists are trying to find out on 20 tablets what is written on them. There are only 11 texts. Some tablets 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 tablets are called kohau.

Hieroglyphs with figures of frogs, stars, spirals, turtles, lizards, and a winged man are carved on the shiny surface of the toromiro tree. Until 1864, tablets with texts were kept in all houses on the island. In total, 14 thousand hieroglyphs were found on the tablets. The number of images on them varies everywhere, from 2 to 2300. A calendar is supposedly carved on one tablet. But so far we have not been able to fully guess anything. For one hundred and thirty years now, everyone has been trying to guess the hieroglyphs and read what is written. We hope that soon the secrets of the ancient Rapanui people will begin to reveal their written instructions, and we will be enriched with the knowledge that we have lost.

In Santiago, in the Museum of Natural History, lies the Santiago Rod, which used to be in the possession of the leader of Easter Island until 1870. The staff also has hieroglyphs and icons. The wand resembles a wooden scepter with 2,300 hieroglyphs carved into it, and is 6.5 cm thick and 126 cm long.

All text on the staff is divided into unequal sections by vertical lines. On the right side there is a phallus-shaped sign carved out, which is called a suffix. There is an assumption that on the scepter it is written about the creation of the world with male and female principles. The triadic structure 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.

Currently, the islanders are engaged in fishing, farming, and raising livestock. Travel agencies receive many tourists, for whom local residents began to make souvenirs. Many people make money by entertaining tourists.

Video: Easter Island idols

Or the tuffite of the Rano Raraku volcano quarry ( Rano Raraku). It is possible that some of the statues come from deposits of other volcanoes, which contain similar stone and are closer to the installation sites. There is no such material on the Poike Peninsula. Therefore, few small statues there are made from local rocks. Several small statues are made of another stone: 22 - from trachyte; 17 - from red basaltic pumice of the Ohio volcano, in Anakena Bay, and from other deposits; 13 - from basalt; 1 - from mujerite of Rano Kao volcano. The latter is a particularly revered 2.42 m tall statue from the cult site of Orongo, known as Hoa Haka Nana Ia ( Hoa Hakananai'a) . Since 1868 it has been in the British Museum. The round pukao (hair bun) cylinders on the heads of the statues are made from basalt pumice from the Puna Pao volcano.

Ahu Tongariki

Size and weight

In many publications, the weight of the moai is greatly overestimated. This is due to the fact that for the calculations, basalt itself is taken (volumetric mass about 3-3.2 g/cm³), and not those light basalt rocks listed above (less than 1.4 g/cm³, rarely 1.7 g/cm³). cm³). Small trachyte, basalt and mujerite statues are indeed made of hard and heavy material.

The usual size of a moai is 3-5 m. The average width of the base is 1.6 m. The average weight of such statues is less than 5 tons (although weights are indicated at 12.5-13.8 tons). Less commonly, the height of the statues is 10-12 m. No more than 30-40 statues weigh more than 10 tons.

The tallest of the newly installed ones is the Paro moai ( Paro) na ahu Te-Pito-Te-Kura ( Ahu Te Pito Te Kura), 9.8 m high. And the heaviest of the same category is the moai on ahu Tongariki. Their weight, as is customary, is greatly overestimated (82 and 86 tons, respectively). Although all such statues are now easily installed by a 15-ton crane.

The tallest statues are on the outer slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. Of these, the largest is Piropiro, 11.4 m.

In general, the largest statue is El Gigante, measuring about 21 m (according to various sources - 20.9 m, 21.6 m, 21.8 m, 69 feet). They give an approximate weight of 145-165 tons and 270 tons. It is located in a quarry and is not separated from the base.

The weight of stone cylinders is no more than 500-800 kg, less often 1.5-2 tons. Although, for example, a cylinder with a height of 2.4 m in Paro Moai is overestimated and is determined to weigh 11.5 tons.

Location

Almost half or 45% of all moai (394 or 397) remained in Rano Raraku. Some were not completely cut down, but others were installed on stone-lined platforms on the outer and inner slopes of the crater. Moreover, 117 of them are located on the internal slope. All these moai remained unfinished or did not have time to be sent to another place. Later they were buried by colluvium from the slope of the volcano. The remaining statues were installed on ahu ceremonial and funerary platforms around the island's perimeter, or their transportation was never completed. There are now 255 ahus. Ranging in length from a few meters to 160 m, they could accommodate from one small statue to an impressive row of giants. The largest of them, Ahu Tongariki, has 15 moai. Less than a fifth of all statues were installed on ahu. Unlike the statues from Rano Raraku, whose gaze is directed down the slope, the moai on the ahu look deep into the island, or more precisely, at the village that once stood in front of them. Many broken and intact statues ended up inside the platforms during their reconstruction. Also, apparently, many are still buried in the ground.

Statue with reconstructed eyes.

Early Moai

Moai Hoa Haka Nana Ia

Not all moai mounted on ahu were equipped with red (originally black) pukao cylinders. They were made only where there were pumice deposits on nearby volcanoes.

Watercolor drawing by Pierre Loti dedicated to Miss Sarah Bernhardt. The drawing has the inscription “Easter Island January 7, 1872 at approximately 5 o’clock in the morning: the islanders are watching my sailing. The island depicts moai, stone idols of Easter Island, skulls, ua (Rapanui clubs), as well as the Rapanui people themselves, whose bodies are decorated with tattoos.

Island stones in local terms

They are arranged in the order in which the strength of the rocks decreases.

1) Maea mataa(maea - stone, mataa - tip [Rapanui]) - obsidian.

Maea rengo rengo- chalcedony and flint pebbles.

2) Maea nevhive- black heavy stone (black granite according to W. Thomson), in fact these are trachybasalt xenoliths. He went for big chops.

Maea toki- basaltic xenoliths of basic and ultrabasic rocks included in tuffs and tuff conglomerates. Used for hammers and choppers.

3) Hawaiiite (andesite) basaltic lavas and mujerite (a type of basaltic tuff according to F. P. Krendelev); maybe also trachyte (this is not basalt) - used for several small statues. Most likely, these breeds belong to the “maea pupura”, point 4.

4) Maea pupura- flagstone of andesitic basaltic tuffs, used for the manufacture of fences, house walls and monumental ahu platforms.

5) Maea Matariki- large-block tachylyte basalt tuff or tuffite, which was used to make the bulk of moai statues. The size of the blocks determined the size of the statue.

6) Kirikiri-tea- soft gray basalt tuff, used for making paint.

Maea hane-hane- black, then reddening basalt pumice, used for pukao hairstyles, some statues, in construction, for paints and abrasives.

Pahoehoe- pumice of andesitic basalts (Tahitian).

Notes

Literature

Krendelev F. P., Kondratov A. M. Silent guardians of secrets: Mysteries of Easter Island. - Novosibirsk: “Science”, Siberian Branch, 1990. - 181 p. (Series “Man and the Environment”). - ISBN 5-02-029176-5
Krendelev F. P. Easter Island. (Geology and problems). - Novosibirsk: “Science”, Siberian branch, 1976.
Heyerdahl T. Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the Eastern Pacific Ocean (2 volumes of scientific reports)
Heyerdahl T. Easter Island art. - M.: Art, 1982. - 527 p.
Heyerdahl T. Easter Island: A Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989)
Jo Anne Van Tilburg. Easter Island Archaeology, Ecology and Culture. - London and Washington: D.C. British Museum Press and Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. - ISBN 0-7141-2504-0 http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/eisp/

Links


Culture

One of the most remote corners of our planet is Easter Island. To get to the nearest mainland, you will need to travel 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, and is not deprived of guests, and this despite the fact that it is a piece of land in the middle of the ocean measuring 164 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of Smolensk or Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. All this is thanks to just one local attraction, which haunts many scientists, the stone moai statues.

Stone moai statues are 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 torsos 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 presumably made by the Polynesian people during the 13th-16th centuries.

The most common moai sizes 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 the overweight, this is due to the average volumetric mass of the basalt from which the moai are hewn. The largest idol on the island is considered El Gigante, with a height of about 21 meters and a weight of approximately 165 tons, but this statue is not standing and not separated from the rock, which is still in the quarry.

As previously mentioned, how the moai were transported along the coast is still unknown. However, recently 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 placing logs under the bottom of a statue and alternating them, it was gradually possible to drag multi-ton stone blocks across the terrain. Local residents perceive this method as probable, but they believe that the statues walked around the island on their own. There is another amazing point associated with the moai, many idols are in the quarries not separated from the rock, the most likely reason may be the sudden cessation of all work on which the settlement had been working 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. The earlier idols are installed on ahu platforms (ceremonial platforms) around the perimeter of the island. There are 255 such platforms, ranging in length from several to 160 meters. They can interfere with 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 on their heads weighing from 500 kilograms to 2 tons.

As for the history of creation, it is obvious that the production of moai required a huge amount of labor. The first Europeans who arrived on the island were surprised at how the idols were made and transported. In all likelihood, the hewing process took place using stone hammers. The statues were made from volcanic rock by frequent blows of hammers, and when the basalt was crushed, the tool was also crushed. Therefore, during the making of the 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 and Thor Heyerdahl conducted an experiment in 1986 in which 17 people with ropes moved the statue in a vertical position.

Easter Island, a small piece of land lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, has long aroused the genuine interest of anyone who has visited this mysterious and enigmatic place.

Stone island statues

One of the main secrets of the island is the huge monolithic human figures, called moai in the local dialect. The stone statues are presented as busts with a disproportionately large head, almost a third of the size of the statue. The peculiarities of the statues are a large and wide nose, a protruding chin, long rectangular ears, deep eye sockets and the absence of legs. Some of the idols have “hats” made of red stone weighing up to 10 tons erected on their heads.

On average, the height of the statues is 4 meters and their weight is 12.5 tons. Local residents distinguish between several types of statues. Ten-meter giants called " paro", weigh up to 10 tons. The tallest sculpture, which was discovered unfinished, would have been 21 meters high when completed and would have weighed 270 tons.

A total of 887 giant statues were discovered on the island. The most ancient ones are located around the perimeter of Easter Island or in open space on special burial and ceremonial sites made of volcanic rock. Local residents call such pedestals “ahu”. Ahu platforms are up to 160 m long and can accommodate from one small statue to 15 idols. The statues installed on the ahu are a fifth of all stone figures.

Some colossi were erected on the outer and inner slopes of the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano on stone platforms, of which 117 stand on the inner side of the slope. Slightly less than half of the statues (45%) were installed in the crater of the volcano, and some of the statues remained here and were not completely cut down. In the mid-19th century, all the figures that were outside the crater of the volcano, as well as most of the quarry, were overturned. The reason for this could be both human factors and natural phenomena: earthquakes or tsunamis.

Many of the statues have been destroyed or are in poor condition. Currently, scientists have restored about 50 statues, which are erected on ceremonial platforms or sent to museums around the world.

Origin of the statues
Monolithic giants have been towering on Easter Island for many hundreds of years: at least from the 10th to 16th centuries. The origin of the stone colossi is unknown for certain and is based only on assumptions. The fact remains that the statues were made from fossilized rocks of the Rano Raraku volcano: compressed volcanic ash (tuff), as well as basalt, trachyte and red slag.

Scientists were able to recreate the process of creating the statue. The cutting began with the face, then the sides, ears and arms on the stomach were processed. When the giant's back was freed from excess rock, it was moved to the foot of the volcano. Along this path it was discovered a large number of statues destroyed during the transfer process. To move the stone giant from the crater of the volcano, the moai statue was placed on specially made wooden carts.

Having reached the foot of the volcano, the statues were installed vertically, the workers then modified and decorated the idols. The main decoration of the giant was a “stone hat”, which was carved separately and perched on a vertically mounted idol. The finished figures were transported outside the volcano.

Scientists have calculated that it took at least one year to build one statue. To create such a stone figure, incredible human strength, metal tools and special equipment are needed, but in the 10th century, people in those places did not yet have the appropriate tools and stone processing skills. How a person managed to cut down huge giants and move them from a volcano crater, having only primitive tools, experts do not yet have an answer.

The history of the discovery of statues - moai
Easter Island was first visited by the Dutch in 1722, led by Jacob Roggeveen. The expedition was extremely surprised to see stone colossi looking towards land. The local aborigines did not greet the travelers kindly: they threw stones at the travelers and tried to rob them. During the conflict, several local residents were killed.

Later, expeditions from Peru and the famous captain James Cook visited the island, who also encountered unfriendly behavior of the local residents.

Only several centuries later, scientists landed on the island to study the mysterious statues. The English expedition arrived in 1914, the Franco-Belgian one in 1934, and the American one in 1956.

Scientists to this day disagree on the hypotheses of the origin and purpose of the statues on Easter Island. Some believe that they were erected by developed civilizations, which, for some reason, died or left the island. Others claim that the work on making the statues was the work of an ordinary person and belongs to local native tribes, while still others find the work of extraterrestrial civilizations.