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Results for moai:

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moai

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Colossal stone figure found on Easter Island carved between c 600-1500 AD. There are 800-1000 known quarried from the volcanic tuff at Rano Raraku. They can be up to 10 meters tall and weigh 28 tons. Many were put in ahu on the coast, on top and facing inland. The moai were probably ancestor figures. Most of the moai were knocked over during internal strife on the island. The term moai also refers to small wooden statue of uncertain religious significance, also carved on Easter Island. The figures are of two types, moai kavakava (male) and moai paepae (female). They were sometimes used for fertility rites but were more often used for harvest celebrations. During the time between these public festivals, the statues were wrapped in bark cloth and kept in private homes.

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Easter Island

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Rapa Nui
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The easternmost inhabited island of Polynesia, a small volcanic one, about 2500 miles from South America and 1250 miles from Pitcairn Island, its nearest inhabited Polynesian neighbors. It was settled by the Polynesians early in 1st millennium AD and developed a horticultural economy. By 700 AD, the inhabitants built large stone platforms (ahu), some of cut stone, and between 1000-1700 AD these platforms supported rows of huge stone statues (moai), some with separate top knots. Shaped by stone tools, as there is no metal on the island, from quarries in volcanic craters, there are about 300 platforms and about 600 statues. By about 1700, the warrior chiefdoms were fighting and all the statues were toppled from their pedestals. The platforms were used for human burial in stone chambers inserted into the stonework. There is a village of stone houses and many petroglyphs. The Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, after which the culture and population. The islanders also carved on wooden boards in an undeciphered script, Rongorongo. Easter Island culture represents the cultural development an isolated human community.

Mulloy, William Thomas (1917-1978)

CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who developed the cultural chronology of the northwest Plains, especially at Pictograph Cave in Montana. He also worked on Easter Island on orongo, ahu, and their moai.

Punapau

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Puna Pau
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A volcanic crater on Easter Island which was the quarry for the red tuff top-knots (pukao) or scoria (volcanic rock) originally placed on the heads of the Easter Island statues. All statues and top-knots were deliberately toppled during tribal wars before 1860. These were later placed on some major moai.

Rano Raraku

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An extinct volcanic crater on Easter Island which served as a quarry for the stone statues (moai) which were erected in rows on the many ahu on the island. The rock is a soft tuff and the main usage of the two quarries, one inside and one outside the crater, dates to between c 1000-1500 AD. The site is filled with almost 400 unfinished statues and with many finished moai erected. Thousands of basalt handheld picks were discarded at the site.

Vinapu

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Location of two important Easter Island ahu, one with a seaward face of close-fitted blocks of stone, similar to Inca masonry in Peru (c 1516 AD), the other of normal Easter Island type (c 857 AD). Both ahu have a series of moai.