Moai stone statues. Easter Island: statues

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.

Island stone 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 in the form of busts with disproportionate big head, accounting for almost a third of the size of the statue. The peculiarity of the statues is a large and wide nose, a protruding chin, long ears rectangular shape, deep eye sockets and lack 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 along the perimeter of Easter Island or on 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 inside 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 route, a large number of statues were discovered, 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, you need incredible human power, metal tools and special equipment, 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 as strong as to an ordinary person and belong to local indigenous tribes, and still others are the work of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Located in the South Pacific Ocean, almost 4,000 kilometers west of the coast of Chile. This island, also called Rapa Nui, was discovered in Easter Sunday in 1722 by a Dutch captain. At that time it was almost uninhabited, but on its territory there were hundreds of giant statues, each weighing several tons. The traditional term for the name of these idols has become

the word "moai". The statues have an eyeless face. The largest of them is Paro, weighs about 82 tons and has a height of about 9.9 meters.

So who built them and how did they get there? No one still knows the exact answer to these questions, but many are trying to find the answer. It was almost impossible for the island's inhabitants to carve and place moai in vertical position without transport, only with their primitive tools.

One theory suggests that Easter Island was settled by Polynesian sailors who traveled in their canoes, guided by the stars, the rhythms of the ocean, the color of the sky and the shape of the clouds. They first arrived on the island in 400. It is possible that there were two classes of inhabitants on the island - those with short and long ears. The long-eared people were rulers and forced the short-eared people to carve the moai. This is why most of the statues on Easter Island have long ears. Then the short-eared people rebelled and killed all the long-eared people.

Apparently, the Easter Island statues were carved from the top edge of the wall of a volcano located on the island. They were moved using ropes made from ancient, tough grass. The rope was wrapped around the moai, and then a large group

the men were pulled forward by one end.

Another group, smaller in number, acted as a counterweight and pulled the other end of the rope back.

Thus the Easter Island statues moved towards the ocean. Moving one idol could take a month, as the process was very difficult.

The population is believed to have reached 11 thousand people. Due to the small size of the island, its resources were rapidly depleted.

When they were all exhausted, people resorted to cannibalism - they began to eat each other. Work on the statues stopped. When

The first Europeans arrived on the island, most of the inhabitants had already died out.

Another question is what functions the moai served and why they were erected. Archaeological and iconographic analysis shows that the Easter Island statues were symbols of power, both religious and political.

In addition, for the people who created them, they were actually repositories of the sacred spirit.

Regardless of what the moai were intended for or why they were built, today their popularity is higher than ever.

Currently, the modern tourism industry is thriving on the island; hundreds of travelers and lovers of the unknown come there to see with their own eyes the majestic idols looking out to the sea.

For many decades, scientists have been trying to uncover the mystery of the construction of giant moai idols on one of the most mysterious islands - Easter Island. Researchers carefully studied not only the statues themselves, but also the area around them, trying to find an answer to the question of how the moai were transported, as well as how the multi-ton red pukao stone hats ended up on their heads. The application of the laws of physics, archaeological methods and 3D computer modeling made it possible to finally find the answer to this phenomenon.

The most mysterious island

Easter Island is fraught with many secrets and mysteries. For many years Scientists are trying, one by one, to discover its secrets. An amazing civilization that existed on the island about two thousand years ago left its descendants with impressive moai figures. According to researchers, the giant idols are deified figures of the ancestors and relatives of the ancient Polynesians.

According to research, civilization itself practically ceased to exist long before the moment a person set foot on the island. There were two versions put forward as to why this could have happened: a murderous war that exterminated the tribes that existed on the island, and exhaustion natural resources islands.

Spearheads of mat "a. / Photo: www.oursociety.ru

However, studying different types the spearheads of “mat” allowed us to conclude that they were not a murder weapon, but could only wound the enemy. Therefore, the assumption about the disappearance of civilization as a result of the war was not confirmed.

Rather, there was a depletion of resources, and then the arrival of Europeans on the island with its actual occupation by slave traders. At that time, the Moai culture had almost completely disappeared and was replaced by the more aggressive culture of the “bird people”. Thus, somewhere by the middle of the 19th century, the remains of the ancient civilization were completely destroyed.

The destruction of the culture itself and the native speakers became the main difficulty in unraveling the secret of the stone idols. Scientists were extremely concerned about the appearance of pukao on the idols, these amazing hats weighing up to 15 tons each.

The study of the gigantic sculptures showed: the body and the hat contain different volcanic rocks, which are located at a very great distance from each other, at different ends of the island. American anthropologists spent many years searching for a solution and were finally able to answer the burning question about the mechanism for constructing moai idols.

The researchers took into account not only the condition of the surface and the presence of scratches and damage on the idols and their hats, but also all the artifacts found and the condition of the island’s soil.

Ancient moai scientists

As a result of scrupulous calculations, it was concluded that the only possible way placing the hat on the head of the idol. At the same time, the issue was resolved with small forces: colossal deforestation and participation were not required large quantity people in construction.

The statues themselves turned out to be made in such a way that they had the ability to straighten themselves if there was not too much inclination. This made it possible to move the statues by slightly moving them alternately in different sides. This is the way people today move large bulky objects, in small steps from side to side. The idols slowly but surely moved over considerable distances.

But the hats did not reach the idols completely ready. From the quarry where the pukao blanks were made, they were simply rolled, which is confirmed by scratches on the surface. Already near the idol for which the hat was intended, the blank was modified and, using a very simple method, put on the stone owner.

The natives of Easter Island built a fairly flat hill from sand and rubble, then wrapped a rope around the pukao and tied it to the idol. By pulling out the free end, they lifted the hat onto the hill, where it was simply turned on its side and placed on the head of the monument.

This version has found a lot of evidence: the remains of slides on some of the lying idols, a notch on the pukao, with the help of which the hat is held on the head. Additional confirmation was the fact that all the idols initially stood at a slight angle to the ground. It was this tilt that made it possible to put a hat on the monument, and then straighten it, simply by removing some stones from the back of the pedestal.

This method made it possible to do without the participation of a large number of people. To install the giants, the ancient Polynesians used their sharp minds, the laws of physics, a handful of people and small quantity natural resources. And they left a memory of themselves for centuries.

Another unique sitting moai is Tukuturi.

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 weight, 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, for lately 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 thing associated with the moai; many idols are found in quarries inseparable from the rock itself. probable cause may serve as a sudden cessation of all work on which the settlement had been engaged 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.

Today we will take a trip to the famous Easter Island, which is famous for its Moai stone sculptures. The island is shrouded in many secrets and mysteries that are unlikely to ever be solved. We will try to consider the most common theories of the origin of stone statues created ancient civilization Rapa Nui

This is one of the most isolated islands in the world, since ancient sailors sailed here in canoes 1,200 years ago and chose these shores. Over the centuries, a unique community developed in the island's isolation and, for unknown reasons, began carving giant statues from volcanic rock. These statues, known as Moai, are some of the most amazing ancient relics ever found. The people of the island called themselves Rapa Nui, but where they came from and where they disappeared is unknown. Science puts forward many theories about the mystery of Easter Island, but all these theories contradict each other, the truth is unknown as always

Modern archaeologists believe that the first and the only people islands - separate group inhabitants of Polynesia, who once arrived here, then had no contact with their homeland. Until the fateful day in 1722, when, on Easter Day, the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to discover the island. What his crew witnessed sparked heated debate regarding the origins of Rapa Nui. Researchers reported a mixed population of the island, with both dark-skinned and light-skinned people. Some even had red hair and tanned faces. This does not quite fit with the Polynesian version of the origins of the local population, despite long-standing evidence confirming migration from another island to Pacific Ocean. Therefore, archaeologists are still discussing the theory of the famous archaeologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl

In his notes, Heyerdahl talks about the islanders, who were divided into several classes. The fair-skinned islanders wore large discs in their earlobes. Their bodies were heavily tattooed and they worshiped giant statues, performing ceremonies in front of them. How could light-skinned people live among the Polynesians on such a remote island? The researcher believes that Easter Island was inhabited in several stages by two different cultures. One culture was from Polynesia, the other from South America, possibly from Peru, where mummies of people with red hair were also found

Heyerdahl also points out common features Moai statues with similar monuments in Bolivia. According to his theory, thousands of years ago people had already mastered the ocean, and sailed in large canoes over vast distances. Heyerdahl himself traveled from the shores of Peru to Easter Island on a homemade raft in 1947, proving that such a movement was possible

Modern archaeologists strongly disagree with Heyerdahl. They point to long history habitats of Polynesians in the South Pacific region. In addition, according to linguistic studies, the most likely origin of the local population is the Marquesas or Pitcairn Islands. Researchers turn to the legends of Easter Island, which speak of origin from the west. In addition, botanical and anthropometric studies confirm that the island was colonized only once - from the west

There is a third theory, a very young one. Around 1536, the Spanish ship San Lesmems disappeared off the coast of Tahiti. Legends speak of Basques surviving and marrying Polynesian women. What's interesting is genetic testing showed the presence of Basque genes in the blood of Rapa Nui

But there is a third origin story that has as far brought as it seems to have scientific proof behind it. Around 1536 the Spanish ship, San Lesmems was lost near the Island of Tahiti. Legends speak of Basque survivors intermarrying with Polynesians. Either they or their descendants set off from Tahiti to try and return home in the 1600s and were never seen again. Interestingly, genetic testing of pure Rapa Nui blood showed the presence of Basque genes

Perhaps Easter Island was settled by a lost crew of Spanish and Polynesian sailors?


Of course, over time, science will give us the answer to who the Rapa Nui were. They built a highly organized society on a small island, and during the short time of their existence they created a mystery that puzzled the whole world and has not been solved to this day.