According to diamond and heyerdahls version of the islands history, the huri mo aistatuetopplingcontinued into the 1830s as a part of fierce internal wars. While the initial name of the island was considered to be te pito o te henua, which means the navel of the world, it was renamed in 1722 when the dutch explorer jacob. This is partly because of the disproportionate size of most moai heads and partly because, from the invention of photography until the 1950s, the only moai standing on the island were the statues on the slopes of rano raraku, many of which are buried to their shoulders. The religious practice that persists in the island up to this day is called ivi atua, and it is based on the immortality of the soul. We visited easter island in sept 2017 and have compiled this list of best easter island books for the curious traveler. Easter island is the story of two women who went to the island and did research. The famous stone statues on easter island are called moai and. Easter island had about 5,800 people living there in 2012. This kit comes with four miniature replicas of stone heads of easter island in various shapes and sizes. How to draw easter island heads childrens books the. Easter island covers roughly 64 square miles in the south pacific ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from chiles west coast and 2,500 miles east of tahiti. Etsy is the home to thousands of handmade, vintage, and oneofakind products and gifts related to your search. What remains of this culture today, and what lessons can we learn from their legacy. No matter what youre looking for or where you are in the world, our global marketplace of sellers can help you find unique and affordable options.
To link to this page from your website, simply cut and paste the following code to your web page. Easter island easter island has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation. The easter island heads have heavy brows and deepset eyes. On a long stretch of green coast in the south pacific, hundreds of enormous, impassive stone heads stand guard against the ravages of time, war, and disease that have attempted over the centuries to conquer easter island. The book is engaging even as it rescues rapanui culture from being reduced to a. Easter island heads are called moai and gulp, they have bodies too. For hundreds of years, the stone heads of easter island have sat perched on their platforms, gazing mystically out over land and sea.
Migrations and settlements, the evolution of a culture, wars between tribes, and ultimate decimation of a whole population define the course of easter island history. The famous moais easter island heads are gigantic rock statues scattered across easter island that make up the main focus of the rapa nui national park. In this extraordinary fiction debutrich with love and betrayal, history and intellectual passiontwo. Easter island heads have great bodies uc geography.
As befits the head of the institute of polynesian languages and literatures in auckland, new zealand, he has produced a scholarly and readable account of the island s turbulent history. According to diamond and heyerdahls version of the islands history, the huri moaistatuetopplingcontinued into the 1830s as a part of fierce internal wars. Certainly, the easter island heads moais are the most relevant expression of rapa nui art. Easter island, chilean dependency in the eastern pacific ocean. The governor of easter island has tearfully begged the british museum to return one of its famous statues, saying. The prevailing accounts of the islands history tell a story of selfinflicted. The mysterious stone statues carved and erected by the rapa nui people have enthralled people since their. Located on the remote chilean territory of easter island, they tell a mysterious story of the island s early people and their obsession with rock carvings. One of the most interesting parts of their beliefs is also the subject of todays. The culture and the mythology of the indigenous easter island people the rapa nui were very unique and diverse, and stood out from other polynesian cultures. To its original inhabitants the island is known as rapa nui, and its population is predominantly of polynesian descent.
The easter island heads are known as moai by the rapa nui people who carved the figures in the tropical south pacific directly west of chile. The easter islanders were easy prey for 19th century slave traders which depreciated even more their precarious culture, knowledge of. It is most famous for the 900 or more huge stone heads called moai which are only found here. Study claims to have solved mystery of giant easter island. The monumental statues of easter island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out. The moai monoliths, carved from stone found on the.
Much research has been carried out on these famous statues and many of the damaged and fallen statues have since been restored around the island. Of volcanic origin, easter island is mostly covered with grasslands and is swept by strong trade winds. Easter island is one of the remotest populated islands on earth. Easter island heads set of 3 by brendan lewis the heads arrived quite quickly after the courier contacted me to arrange a convenient time. Located on the remote chilean territory of easter island, they tell a mysterious story of the islands early people and their obsession with rock carvings. I really enjoyed this book, it was interesting and informative. The secrets of easter island history smithsonian magazine. The moai are some of the worlds most fascinating and widelyrecognised monolithic statues. Though moai are wholebody statues, they are commonly referred to as easter island heads. Although their origin in time has not been determined, oral tradition states that king hotu matua brought the first head to the island. Many books about easter island are superficial fluff. Given that around 150 of the bodies are buried deep into the slopes of the volcano here on easter island, most people just believed that the heads were just that, heads. In one of the earliest excavations in 1914, it was discovered that the statue heads were attached to torsos hidden underground due to natural erosion of the island over the centuries, landslides had. See more ideas about easter island, island and easter island statues.
Draw two lines from the brow to the mouth as guidelines for the nose and add a little more detail to. The mysterious stone statues carved and erected by the rapa nui people have enthralled people since their discovery. In easter island tourism you will find all the information you need on. The giant heads on easter island get a lot of press, but not so much the tangata manu, the birdman cult, which was at least as fascinating. What happened along the way that caused the island ecosystem to collapse. It is estimated that these figures of stone were built around the year 0 ad. Within the polynesian triangle, it is located at the southeasternmost point. There is also a small thread of a german world war i naval squadron present in the book. Is easter island a warning about unrestrained environmental destruction. Another version indicates that the first settlers did this. The island is planted with monstrous great statues, the work of i dont know. Elsa beazley arrives at easter island in 1916 with her new husband and her mentally handicapped sister. The huge stone figures of easter island have beguiled explorers, researchers and the wider world for centuries, but now experts say they have cracked one. The heads of easter island have bodies which have been.
Jennifer vanderbes, in her first novel, easter island, plays loosely with. A lot of people believe that the statues are just heads. With our beliefs, customs and general life needs, societies become dependent on our environment and resources. Easter island, guide for inquisitive minds hidden inca tours. We are a online travel agency, dedicated exclusively to rapanui, we offer advice and travel bookings, putting at your disposal the multiple possibilities a tourist would want to access in easter island. Call the island rapa nui and you will make friends faster. Other statues stand proudly and totally unearthed, but its a common misconception that the heads were just large heads standing on. Facts about easter island inform us with a chilean island in spanish.
It is the easternmost outpost of the polynesian island world and is famous for its giant stone statues. Easter island, or rapa nui as it is known in the polynesian language, is a small remote island a few thousand miles west of south america. See more ideas about easter island, island and easter. How and why did its inhabitants carve and transport the massive statues which surround the island. Easter island, or rapa nui, in the polynesian language, is a small remote island a few thousand miles west of south america. Easter island has a unique history that outlines key theories of how man can have detrimental effects on nature. Score a book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. List of books and articles about easter island online. The early rapa nui people had created 887 extant monumental statues in easter island.
The easter island heads are frequently photographed and have been studied over the years since european explorers first observed them in 1722. The statue was made by having an outline located at the rock wall. But did you know that each of these moai are in fact complete bodies, often buried up to their necks. Katherine routledge is a central figure in the history of easter island, one of. Some of them over time have of course been buried a bit by sand, but they have torsos and most of them end at the top of the thigh, and others are complete kneeling figures. History, traditions, texts by steven roger fischer.
About half of the inhabitants are of polynesian stock. Nearly half are still at rano raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island s perimeter. There is no such flummery in steven fischers new book. This book avoids being another cliched entry on easter island replete with the overdramatizations of the mysteries of the islands infamous giant stone statues. One of the most interesting features of this island is its 887 giant monolithic statues named moai. Easter island natives the rapa nui with a moai monolith. A brief history of easter islands incredible moai statues. They are very heavy and well protected on a pallet. Now the impressive pacific site can be viewed on a desktop near you. Its comforting to imagine that aliens placed those inscrutable statues on easter island. The type of religion that has characterized easter island from the beginning states a series of prohibitions and precepts, all of them related to what they consider sacred, and which receives the name of tapu.
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