Misterio de la isla de pascua

Por
Juliana Baena

What is moai and what represents?

Moai, the gigantic stone statues of the Island of Passover, constitutes the most
important expression of the escultrico art Rapa Nui and they have become its sign of
identity. However, in spite of its world-wide fame and the multitude of studies made on
them, still they are left many questions without solving around these stone giants. We
will try to respond some.
The complete name of the statues in its local language is Moai Aringa Prays, that
means alive face of the ancestros. These stone giants were made by Rapa Nui to
represent their ancestros, governors or ancestors important, that after deads they had
the capacity to extend his flows or to be able spiritual on the tribe, to protect it.
The kings had this power of innate way; others could acquire it in the course of their
lives, but for it it had to make a series of extraordinary feats, and were forced to
demonstrate it constantly not to lose it.

How made them?

The statues of Island of Passover were carved, at first, in
basalt, traquita and red dreg, but shortly after the talladores
paid attention to volcano Maunga Eo (that means aromatic
hill), more known like Rano Raraku. The volcanic stone of
grayish yellow color, that occurs exclusively in that place of
the island, is a type of compact ash with basalt incrustations.
This material, call tufa lapilli, turned out to be more suitable
than the soft dreg or the hardest basalt, for the massive
construction of statues by means of the use of simple tools.

How moved them?

Practitioner has proven itself that is feasible, although not very,
to make walk moai of about three meters of height, doing it to
tilt alternatively at the same time that he throws himself of each
side of the base towards ahead.
Another successful experiment shows the transfer of moai
recostado on a platform of logs like sleigh, that is thrown with
cords on cross-sectional trunks. Probably, they developed
different techniques throughout the time, based on the size and
weight of moai, and the resources available.

How many moai has in the island and

where they are?
900 have been registered about moai in the Island of Passover.
Of these, about four hundred are in the quarry of Rano
Raraku, 288 associated to ahu, and the rest dispersed in
different points from the island, probably left in the route
towards some ahu. Of the total, more than eight hundred they
were carved in the tufa lapilli of the Rano Raraku, 22 in white

So

large What has moai?

The medium altitude of moai is of about 4.5 meters, but

the old specialists were able to work and to transfer two
statues of 10 meters of stop, that arrived at the Ahu
Hanga Tetenga in the South coast, and to the Ahu You
Kura Whistle in the North coast, in the sector of the
Prouse, to about six kilometers of distance of the
quarry.

Thanks