The Easter Island Statues

By Raffi N.

A Geographical View

Easter Island is one of the most isolated inhabited islands on the planet! It is 3,600 km west of Chile and 2,075 km east of Pitcairn (Pitcairn is a bunch of islands in the Pacific that are neighbors to Easter Island). The total area of the island is 163.6 square kilometers or 63.1 square miles.

History on the statues

No one knows how or when the statues were created, but many people are very curious and have investigated with the latest high tech equipment. Some people think that they were to call some type of god or maybe to ward off attackers to the island. The heads are positioned all around the island at different angles. Some recent discoveries have been made and shown that some of the heads have bodies!

Pictured is a map of Rapa Nui and the most important heads.

Easter Island Terms

Moai: the islanders’ term for the statues

Rapa Nui: Easter Island

Theory 1 (on why the moai are all different or partly

destroyed)Some people think that when famine came upon the people living on the island, they split up into tribes/clans and rival groups toppled each other’s statues.

Group 1 Group 2

We don’t like each other!!

Theory 2 (with other thoughts)

Some scientists think that the moai can be different sizes and shapes because they were made by different people with different ways and beliefs.

Also, some of the same scientists thought that some statues might have toppled because of volcanic activity, old age, and weathering.

Theory 3

Another thought was that there were two tribes (the Ha-nau-aa-epe and the Hau- nua-mo-moko).The Ha-nau-aa-epe was recognized for their long ears and for being substantially taller than other tribes’ people. This explains why some of the statues have very long ears and are taller than the others. But, soon after these statues were constructed, the Hau-nau-mo-moko killed all but three of the Ha-nau-aa-epe. So that’s why there are only a couple of the tall, long-eared statues left.

You can see that this head has a long ear.

Personal Theory

I think that because the island is volcanic, the heads have sunken into the ground due to earthquakes and volcanic activity. Another thought was that when different explorers visited, they found traces of different people. This gives some explanation on why the heads all have different body features and they are all different shapes and sizes.

This shows the head’s diversity

Work Cited

www.worldmysterier.com

www.phillipcoppens.com

Conclusion

I hope you are now interested

Easter Island and the statues.

Thanks for watching!