What is the history of the Easter Island statues?

Located nearly 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, Easter Island is famous for the nearly 1,000 enormous stone statues, known as moai. The massive works were erected there starting around the 13th century A.D. by the Rapa Nui, an ancient Polynesian society that later collapsed mysteriously.

Why were the statues on Rapa Nui tipped over?

Statues getting toppled Later visitors report on more statues that have fallen as the years pass, and in the end of the 19th century, not a single statue is standing. The most common theory to this is that the statues were overthrown in tribal warfare to humiliate the enemy.

What are the theories of the Rapa Nui moai statues?

The moai were likely not representations of aliens (as proposed by some authors) but played a role in religious rites. They are explained as holy sites to venerate the mana, the lifeforce of the ancestors, as burial sites, or as symbolic protectors of the island.

Who enslaved the Rapa Nui?

But the most likely cause of the downfall of Rapanui society is disease brought about by slavery. According to Easter Island: The Truth Revealed, approximately 1,500 to 2,000 people – half the population – were taken in 1862 in a raid by slave traders from Peru to work there, predominately in agriculture.

Where did the Rapa Nui come from?

The Rapa Nui are the Polynesian peoples indigenous to Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile.

What is Isla de Pascua?

Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues. Sculptures cut from volcanic rock, Easter Island.

What happened to the original inhabitants of Easter Island?

In this story, made popular by geographer Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse, the Indigenous people of the island, the Rapanui, so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline.

How did Rapa Nui move moai?

With one rope around the head of the statue and another around the base, they “walked” the moai replica forward by swiveling and rocking it from side to side. Using this method, Pavel Pavel estimated that an experienced crew could move a statue approximately 650 feet each day.

How did the Rapa Nui build the moai?

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. Once completed, the statues were then moved from the quarry to their intended site and erected on an ‘ahu’.

Where did the Rapa Nui originate?

Easter Island
The Rapa Nui are the Polynesian peoples indigenous to Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile.

Are the Rapa Nui extinct?

First of all, the Rapa Nui haven’t been wiped off the face of the Earth: the Rapa Nui people still make up over half the Polynesian population today. Their ancestors likely arrived on Easter Island, now part of Chile, roughly a millennium ago.