Round the World 3.0: Easter Island exploring Thursday November 29

By Carolyn

This is a special place. I remember reading Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl in the 70’s. I never dreamed I would actually visit Easter Island. It’s both bigger and greener than I had expected, which probably makes sense if you think about the specialization and complex society that was able to create the massive monuments (Moai) which make this small island so special.

Arrival!

Unfortunately, that society was beginning to cave in on itself shortly before European discovery by the Dutch in 1722 on Easter Sunday. Ecological disaster is suspected as the main culprit, but other causes...too many people and too few resources, shifts in weather patterns, suspicion between the classes, civil war, decline of traditional knowledge contributed to a lawless and starving culture. Warriors gained more power and the Ancestor Cult (an hereditary power structure) was replaced by the Bird Man Cult (power gained through individual competition, specifically finding the first sooty tern egg). The Spanish visited in 1770, bringing Europeans diseases, slave trading, and more civil war, further reducing the population. Something was to blame and the venerated statues seemed a good place to start. If your reincarnated stone ancestors, custom made from the likeness of human sacrifices, weren’t doing their job protecting you, just tear them down. Eventually all were toppled and none were standing by the time French missionaries arrived in 1860. They remained face down until restoration efforts in the mid to late twentieth century re-erected 50 Moai to guard the island. Forgiveness for details omitted....I’ve tried to summarize over 1000 years of history and culture into one paragraph!

Moai numbers:

887 total Moai
288 moved and erected on a platform (ahu)
397 Moai remaining at the quarry
92 Moai dropped on route to an ahu
110 Moai fragments or museum pieces
Average Moai is 12 feet tall and weighs 12.5 metric tons

Today, we explored the western end of the island, visiting the Reno Kau crater and 50+ reconstructed circular stone homes used by the high society members of the Bird Man Cult. These homes were damaged and plundered for their frescos by various modern era sailors, including Americans and British. There are now efforts by the Rapa Nui people to reclaim treasures scattered in museums around the world.

View from Orango to Motu Iti and Moto Nui, where Bird Man contestants would swim

Collapsed coffered roof of stone dwellings, amazingly similar to structures in Scotland's Orkney Island

The largest crater, Rano Kau, full of reeds and freshwater

Since we had a rental car, we drove to several other ahu (platforms) including Vinapu (where the Moai are still face down, Hana Kio’e, and Tahai, with several lone statues and an ahu holding five upright Moai. We caught the museum 45 minutes before it closed.