by Carolyn
Rano Raraku (quarry) and Tongariki
Jose, back for more, met us for today’s journey to the quarry, which consumed about 1/4 of the Rano Raraku volcanic cone. We beat most of the tourists and once again learned more about the design, manufacture and mythology of these statues. These particular Moai were in much better shape, because they were younger, many had been protected underground until excavated in the 1900’s, and they were relatively far from the corrosive effects of the sea air. We saw where they were carved out of the mother stone of the cliff, and it was explained that if a Moai fell during transport, they would be left along the trail. Legend and (some twentieth century recreations) say the statues were transported upright, “walking”, via ropes and a crane made from tall poles lashed together.
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| The Quarry consumed almost 1/4 of the volcanic cinder cone |
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| Works in progress |
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| Can you find the face? |
(Jose has interviewed and recorded various families’ versions of legends associated with the Moai. Who is to say your truth is less true than someone else’s? One particular family claims each Moai is patterned from the individual’s penis...they didn’t exactly wear a lot of clothes in the classical period.)
Eye sockets are added only when the Moai are erected onto a platform (ahu)
Different statues sport different decorations, including elongated or stretched earlobes, tattoos, pockmarks, etc. All the final details such as eye sockets and paint would be added once the statue made it to an ahu. I think Jose told us it would take a year to carve a Moai from the quarry, but several generations to move it. Somehow, the way they viewed time is very different from how we view it...they didn’t see a person’s death as the end, merely a transition.
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| This guy had tattoos under his chin and on his left shoulder. |
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| The only kneeling Moai |
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| Excavations in the 1950's showed that 2/3 of a quarry Moai statues is buried under accumulated silt |
From the quarry we hopped over to the Ahu Tongariki, with 15 Moai, it is the largest ceremonial structure in all of Polynesia. These Moai, too, were face down by the time Captain Cook stumbled across the island in 1774. It was further destroyed by tsunami in 1960. Restoration efforts began in 1992 which raised the foundation platform several feet. We met the Traveller - a Moai that was in Osaka, Japan, for one year. In exchange, the Japanese funded the restoration we enjoy today. They used cranes and it went much faster.
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| The Traveller |
We decided to cook dinner ourselves tonight and visited a local grocery store. For a country where every conceivable tropical or subtropical fruit could be grown, fruit is absent in stores and restaurants. Vegetables are almost as scarce, but we found fresh onions, zucchini and tomatoes so we fixed a nice diversion from our fish, sweet potatoes and rice meals.
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| Jack, Carolyn, Becky and Josh...fearless foursome! |
