Easter Islanders raising a Moai into place (from Aku-Aku)

For my Savage Renewal: Archaeology Topic I thought I'd share some amazing photos of an Easter Island Moai Raising that took place during Thor Heyerdahl's (first?) visit to Rapa Nui. These photos come straight out of my hardcover American edition of Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl.

In the book, Thor convinces the Mayor of Rapa Nui to teach him his ancestor's secret of moving and raising the giant Moai statues into place. Over eighteen days, the mayor and his crew show Thor how it was done.

These images are very cool -- real Easter Island natives raising a Moai into place. There's more photos in the book and if people like these I can scan more.

(Sorry for the scan errors)

Below each photo I've posted the actual captions from the book.

:up: First three wooden poles lift the statue by fractions of an inch as the mayor shoves small stones beneath it. As more stones are added, their size increases.

:up: As the work progresses, the statue is lifted into the on an ever-growing tower of stones.

:up: With a heap of stones under it's stomach the figure moves upward and backwards until it stands in its old place on the wall. Twelve men with poles and stones set it up in eighteen days. On the last day the giant is held by ropes to prevent it from toppling off the high wall when it is tilted into the standing position.

:up: A landmark visible far out to sea stood at Anakena when the giant was restored to his former place on the king's old site, behind our camp.

:up: After excavating the ahu at Vinapu, Bill discovered this particular wall had been built by stone masons of the first Easter Island epoch. Later additions were done by less refined techniques. The expedition's archaeologists discovered three distinct epochs in the history of the island.

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore 2005-09-05 01:59 ]

Cool pics! Ive seen diagrams, but those photos are so much cooler. Pitty the place looks like a desert :)

hey there..
how ironic - i'm actually halfway thru reading this book and have just passed the section which you have quoted!
it really is an intriguing read - i encourage anyone who hasn't read it already to do so!
as a result i hope to visit Rapa-nui on my way to south america next year... have any TC'ers visited Easter island recently?

Mahalo, Hanford, for such a complete photoessay.

I need to get that book.

*On 2005-09-05 06:38, harro wrote:
*

as a result i hope to visit Rapa-nui on my way to south america next year... have any TC'ers visited Easter island recently?

Tikibars has, twice, and previously posted his link:

If you go to my web site at http://www.tydirium.net you will find a 42-page account of my trip to Easter Island in May of 2000. I believe I can say without fear of dispute that this is the most detailed first-person portrait of Rapa Nui that a TC'er will be able to provide for you

Thankks for posting the link to my site, Christiki.

That travelogue is from my 2000 trip.

Here are postings and pics right here on TC from the 2004 trip that Dangergirl and I took:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11815&forum=1&hilite=iorana

About 15 years ago some students from the university of Prague had a theory that the heads were moved with tubors which acted as a babit bearing rather than the traditional theory of the logs as rollers.

To prove it they made a cement head of roughly the same weight and dimensions and pushed it around town using potatoes. It only took a few people to move the head with the spuds...it was amazing (and quite funny)

Great photos!

thankyou christiki, dangergirl and tikibars for the links - i knew there would be some very informative and helpful people here!

tikibars i have read your thread from your 2004 trip and look forward to reading the EPIC that is the 42pg travelogue from your 2000 trip (might need a spare day or two and a few mugs of coffee for that one!).

the photos and info even on a quick scan are fantastic!

look forward to reading it more in detail when i begin to organise this trip soon.

cheers!

Great stuff, Hanford! Thanks!

I have a question; maybe somebody knows the answer.If the Europeans found Easter Island deserted, how are there native Rapa Nuians?

Oops! I forgot to add...very cool pictures.Thanks for the post. I am very much into ancient stone working techniques.

On 2005-09-06 15:28, saxotica wrote:
I have a question; maybe somebody knows the answer.If the Europeans found Easter Island deserted, how are there native Rapa Nuians?

These links link somewhat address that issue:

http://www.apj.co.uk/rapanui_primer/appendix_history_overview.asp

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7445&forum=1&hilite=Easter%20Island%20taxi

In a nutshell, the current Rapa Nui are intermingled, somewhat like many Hawaiians. Unfortuntately, the original Rapa Nui were enlaved and shipped off, wholesale, to work on the Guano farms in Tahiti.

Missionaries objected and were successful in having a significant number returned, only to inflict disease on the remaining population.

Consequently, it would be difficult to draw a direct link from today's inhabitants to the moai-builders.

However, the silver lining is that the Rapa Nui, during moai-builders were very clannish and did not intermarry much outside of the various clans, according to Kathleen Rutlidge, the grandmother of Easter Island anthropology.

Therefore, the "new blood" may actually enable Rapa Nui to persevere, even if the "pure" aboriginal blood-lines no longer exist, whereas the blood-lines of the Rapa Nui would have weakened to so much intermingling.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2005-09-06 18:23 ]

Hanford can you put more pictures?

Hanford ,Thank you for this post, I missed last time around. More picture, please. Doc Tiki

Thought I'd give this worthy old thread a bounce.

I picked up a hardcover copy of Aku-Aku last week in Las Vegas, and scanned most of the color pages from it. I've put the images in a gallery on my website. Feel free to stop by and have a look.

Enjoy!

Weblog: Eye of the Goof

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2006-07-02 07:33 ]

The photos in this book are priceless. I found a copy at a junk store & read it cover to cover in just a few sittings. The way Thor fondly describes some of the people's idiosyncrasies I found hilarious.

this book was the first time that I learned the heads had bodies below the surface.

Anyone think that Thor was a little dishonest to the natives to get a hold of there things. Maybe could have been done differently.

This is how they discovered there were bodies
hidden beneath the ground.

GROG funny!

AKU AKU does rock--I got my paperback copy at a little crap thrift shop for a dime---WELL worth it because it had all the pix in it! I've read KON-TIKI and that--next is RA--they are kind of a DRY READ..... tough to get thru but worth it. KON TIKI is probably his best.

On 2005-09-05 09:25, christiki295 wrote:

*On 2005-09-05 06:38, harro wrote:
*

as a result i hope to visit Rapa-nui on my way to south america next year... have any TC'ers visited Easter island recently?

I was there at the beginning of this year. Fantastic. Check out my travelogue, The Law of the Island (with lots of excellent photos from the trip by my wife):

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19012&forum=12&hilite=easter%20island

I also have a blog: http://rapanuinews.blogspot.com that attempts to keep abreast of current affairs with respect to Rapa Nui.

Take care,
Chris

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris 2006-07-07 08:21 ]

On 2005-09-05 09:25, christiki295 wrote:
I believe I can say without fear of dispute that this is the most detailed first-person portrait of Rapa Nui that a TC'er will be able to provide for you

Maybe. But there are other TC'ers accounts that might be worth a looksee.

Mahalo,
Tiki Chris

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris 2006-07-07 06:29 ]

Neat photos.
http://woutervelthuis.web-log.nl/photos/travel_easter_island/paaseiland_4.html

yeah. I love this guy from Holland's pictures. Fantastic. It makes me so want to go there.

I don't know how many of you watch the History Channel's excellent show "Digging For The Truth," but in the first season they did an episode on the Giants of Easter Island.

History Channel does a lot of reruns so you can keep an eye out for them showing this again, or you can buy the video of the episode on their website.

The take they had on the moving of the Moai was a bit different than this one. Here's the host's take on it from his podcast (which was shown during the show):

http://www.history.com/minisites/diggingforthetruth/viewPage?pageId=652

Making and Moving the Moai: "José shows me how to carve the soft volcanic tuff into a Moai, and it's fascinating. Within hours the face begins to appear, and I can see how an artist would take great pleasure and pride in creating a monument to honor the ancestors. But making the Moai, while time-consuming, isn't much of a mystery. MOVING them is. Sergio Rapu explains that the backs of the Moai were shaped like canoes, enabling them to slide down from the quarry to the flatland below. Once there, the bottoms of the Moai (what we'd consider the feet) were rounded a bit to enable the Moai to 'walk'—they'd wobble the statue from side to side much like we move cabinets or refrigerators today. Using long enough ropes and a trained team, a transport specialist would oversee the movement of these megalithic statues across miles of established roads. Walking along these roads, it's very obvious to me that this was a major production—hundreds of Moai are either at the quarry awaiting completion, at the base of the quarry awaiting transport, or on the roads in the middle of their journey. And having tried to move a mini-Moai using both the horizontal (wooden beams) and vertical (walking) methods, I agree with Sergio that vertical is easier and more likely. It also explains the fallen Moai much more accurately, since they are almost all face-down in the earth with their feet toward the quarry."

If you have the opportunity to watch this episode I highly recommend it.

Nice post, Kilty, and welcome.

That is the most straight forward explanation of the moai"walking I've heard."
Like the canoe anology, too.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2007-02-08 22:21 ]

Aliens. Antigravity. Antidisestablishmentarinism. (well, maybe not that.)

Soon the truth will be revealed...

Whatever you do, don't cut down all the bleedin' trees, eh?

(p.s.: Check out "Rapa Nui" on video. Sensational tale of what may have happened there, back when, with an excellent cast, transporting cinematography, and hypnotic score by Stuart Copland. Oooo.)

The island does look so desert-like in everything I have seen. So much different than lush tropicl islands. Had there not been the beautiful and mysterious Moai, probably the island would be of little interest to the world.

[i]On 2007-02-08 23:06, Son-of-Kelbo wrote:
(p.s.: Check out "Rapa Nui" on video. Sensational tale of what may have happened there, back when, with an excellent cast, transporting cinematography, and hypnotic score by Stuart Copland. Oooo.)

It is a good story, with adequate footage of the moai.
FYI- the filming of the movie added quite a bit (relatively) of wealth to the island.

On 2007-02-08 22:19, christiki295 wrote:
That is the most straight forward explanation of the moai"walking I've heard."
Like the canoe anology, too.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2007-02-08 22:21 ]

It's been a while since I saw that episode, but as I remember it was really neat to see them do it, even with a smaller "test" moai.

One of the things that constantly impresses me about ancient civilizations is their ingenuity. They do things with simple tools that we don't even consider any more with our technology. It makes me wonder what WE'd be capable of if we had to think outside of the big-machinery box... I think we'd be pretty helpless sometimes.