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Easter Island rivals Tristan de Cunha as one of the worlds most isolated inhabited islands, being over 3,500 kilometres from the coast of Chile. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island just over 2,000 kilometres away. The first people to arrive there, of Polynesian origin, occurred sometime between 300 to 1200AD. Ongoing archaeological studies now estimate a later date for its colonization nearer 1200AD.

Below are photo's of the Town of Hanga Roa, and sunset from the hotel bar.

Vinapu. Our first site & a mystery.
Our first introduction to the large Easter Island statues, called Moai, to find that all the ones here have been pulled down and broken (top of the ridge, 1st picture), as most are, due to inter-tribal wars in the Island’s history. The Moai were usually mounted on top of a stone encased platform, which are thought to be the burial site of the tribe’s leaders, rather like modern day graveyard memorials. It’s thought this was part of some ancestor worship culture, with the moai acting as guardians and protectors of the village. So when a tribe was defeated in battle the victors would destroy these cultural icons. More on Moai later. What makes this site unique is one of the stone plinths. Despite the ability to create these large stone Moai, the quality of the stonework making up the plinths was rather basic (2nd photo below), but here is the only known example in the whole of the Polynesian world of stonework that looks like that of the South American Incas (photo 3&4). How/Why ? Various theories have been proposed, the leading one at the moment is that this wall was built by the Inca “Tupac Yupanqui”, who it is alleged, while he was in Peru became aware of this distant island and sent out a large number of sailing rafts to conquer it (circa 1480’s). But this is still one of the many mysteries of Easter Island yet to be resolved.


Orongo & Rano Kau Volcano.
Orongo is the archaeological site of an ancient ceremonial village (photo 2&3), which was only inhabited by the tribal chiefs and competitors during the annual Bird-man competition, a test to decide who should be the effective overall ruler of the island. This only started after the cult of ancestors and moai was abandoned, circa late 17th centuary. Photo 1 shows the island below the cliffs where the competitors had to swim out to and return with an unbroken Sooty Turn’s egg. Immediately behind the village is the large caldera (Photo 4) of the extinct volcano Rano Kau. Its large water filled caldera about 1.6 Km in diameter, was until a few decades ago one of the main sources of fresh water.


Tahai
Tahai is one of the earliest settlements, dating back to 700 AD. It has 3 ceremonial platforms one with 5 moai, then a solitary moai at the head of a man-made slip way to an ancient harbour, and finally another solitary moai which has its red stone topknot or hat, and is the only one on the island with the white coral eyes installed. It is thought that the moai were carved and delivered to their platform with no eye sockets, only once erected in their final position were the eye sockets carved and finally the white coral eyepieces installed bringing the moai to life. As can be seen by the lighter cement marks on the necklines of the 5 moai group, all the standing moais have been restored and re-erected in recent times, having been toppled during the years of tribal conflict.


Ahu Akivi. The 7 explorers
Here there is a single platform with 7 moai, of average size, height 4.5 metres and each weighting about 5 tons, and transported by means unknown from the quarry Rano Raraku 15 km away. A legend relates these moai to 7 young explorers who were sent out to locate this island and explore its resources. But as this was built in the late period (circa 1440) this seems to be unlikely.


Puna Pau. The topknot or hat quarry
This is a small quarry where the red scoria stone was carved out and used to make the “Topknots” or hats seen mounted on top of the moai.


Ahu Huri a Urenga. Moai with 2 pairs of hands
Here there is just the one moai, but it appears to have 2 sets of hands. It is thought that either through wear on the stone or the hands being covered by soil, that a new pair of hands, slightly high up, were carved later.


Centro de Interpretación.
Is a new open air centre with a replica of a village built to show how things may have looked. Photos below show a stone chicken coup. It looked like a solid stone structure until our guide removed a stone and out started to come a stream of chickens. These were built to keep their chickens safe at night (prevent them being stolen by other villages) as chickens were a valuable food source on the island. The chickens being grown for their meat, not eggs, so any eggs laid in the coup would have been fertile and hopefully hatch. Stone walls are shown surrounding plants to offer the warmth and protection from any strong winds. Finally a house, when the first people arrived the simplest shelter was just to turn their canoes upside down, hence the shape of the house.


Akahanga. Fallen giant Moai by a white water bay
Akahanga is the remains of an old village near a small bay, near its entrance are the stone foundations of several boat-houses (photo 1). Near this bay there is a small cave (very useful for standing in during a passing shower). Originally the village would have had about 13 moai standing, but now all have been pulled down (photos 2&3).


Tongariki. 15 Moai, whose destruction in 1960 would transform modern Easter Island
This is the largest ceremonial structure built on Easter Island with a 200 metre long platform that has had 15 moai restored and re-erected. All the moai had been knocked down when the first Europeans arrived at the beginning of the 18th century. But worse was to come. On the night of May 22/23 in 1960 the area was hit by a very large tsunami, resulting from the strongest earthquake ever recorded in modern times (magnitude 9.5), epicentre near the city of Valdivia in Chile. The tsunami would go on to New Zealand and Japan, but due to the location of Hanga Roa, no one on Easter island was killed, but when people returned to Tongatiki the place was wrecked. Hit by a wave over 10 metres tall some of the fallen statues had been pushed a further 100 metres inland. The platform had been destroyed with its human burial remains scattered amongst the rocks, most being lost forever. The resulting devastation had a knock on effect. By October of that year, at the Ahu Akivi site, 7 moai were re-erected, the first to be raised for centuries, and this began the modern day study and restoration of these sites. In 1992 a joint Japanese and Chilean group began the recovery of the Tongariki site. During these works a further 17 destroyed moai were identified at Tongariki which delayed the work being finally completed until 1996. The moai here range in size from 5.6 to 8.7 metres, the heaviest weighing 86 tons.


Rano Raraku.The quarry.
This is the quarry where all the moai originated from (with the exception of their topknot/hats from Puna Pau). There are a large number standing upright in the hill surrounding the quarry, thought to be ones that once carved and freed from the open rock face higher up the hill, were moved down and erected temporarily for more detailed carving to be continued. Sometimes defects or cracks might be discovered in the moai while in this process, resulting in that piece being abandoned. In the upper quarry there remains the largest moai, still attached to the bedrock. If completed this moai would have had a length of 22 metres and weight about 200 tons. Finally (3rd photo) there is one statue which shows the whole body, and in a kneeling position, why is it the only one and so different to the others ? Who knows.


Te Pito Kura. Largest Moai ever raised.
At this site there are the fallen remains of what is thought to be the largest moai ever to be moved from the quarry and successfully erected. It would have been 10 metres tall and weighed 80 tons. This is thought to be one of the last moai to be knocked down, probably around the year 1838. Also here is a circular stone, about 80 centimetres in diameter called “Te Pito Kura”. This stone has a high iron content and is said to heat up more than the average stones, resulting in the belief that it had special properties.


Anakena. Moai by the beach
Anakena is the main beach on the island. It is also considered that here the first king of the island (Ariki Hotu Matu’a) landed with his men to establish the first settlement to begin the Rapa Nui culture. The oldest remains date from around 1200 AD. There is a platform here with 7 moai that was restored in 1978.

My final thoughts-

There are no marks for finding contradictions in any of the above descriptions, due usually to oral traditions or legends clashing with modern archaeological findings. One source has people landing there as early as 400 AD, while others, using carbon dating, state the earliest settlements started around 1400, then another source says that all the Moai were carved and erected in the period 1100 to 1680 AD. At the last count, remains of 887 Moai were identified, which if all done within 580 years makes it look as if they were churning them out on a production line… Although one source did say that they were carved from “compressed, easily worked solidified volcanic ash”, but add to that the transport, raising of the statues, on site final carving details, not to mention the building of the stone platform.

Then there is the mystery of the “Inca wall” at Vinapu.

I left thinking there is a lot more we don’t know, and probably never will, about what went on here than I’d previously thought.