Easter
Island Statue Project History: Dispatches
Three
New Moai Discovered!
EISP, the
Rapa Nui Community, and Island Agencies Cooperate to Preserve
the Archaeological Record.
Notes by Jo Anne
Van Tilburg.
October-November 2002
Photos by Alice Hom © EISP.
Returning to Hanga Roa from fieldwork
in Rano Raraku, we followed the same route every day for a month.
Nearing the village, we always turned to run parallel with the
airport runway. My eyes grew accustomed to the same daily blur
of greenery along the opposite side of the road, and details were
registered only in passing. Then one day I suddenly realized that
an awkward shape standing in Nely Pakarati Manutomatoma’s
neatly trimmed garden was oddly familiar. Cristián turned
the truck around and we drove into her driveway where, standing
propped against the house, we were stunned to recognize a large,
broken, and only roughly carved red scoria moai! Nely
told us that she and her family had recently found the statue,
buried face up, when they had laid a foundation and concrete floor
for a new terrace. She was very fond of her statue and thrilled
when we carefully documented it for the EISP database. It joins
the very small number of important and, in many ways, enigmatic
red scoria statues we have recorded to date.
Late October, 2003
Island youngsters Edison Herrera Flores,
Te Kohu Cristino, Patricio Perez, and Alberto Alarcon were digging
a shallow hole to erect a paepae (temporary house) near
one of the boys’ homes in the vicinity of Mataveri. Suddenly,
their shovels struck a rock they immediately recognized as Rano
Raraku tuff! They promptly reported their find to the proper authorities.
On a rainy Sunday in early November we visited their paepae
and, with their willing help, uncovered a torso and a fragment
of a head—once a moai about 1 m tall. This area
of the island had been, it was thought, thoroughly surveyed more
than 30 years ago, but this new statue was never seen. It has
been duly added to the ever-growing EISP database and the boys,
needless to say, deserve a big “hooray!” for their
good citizenship!
Sketches and measurements by Cristián
Arévalo Pakarati © EISP.
November 16, 2003
EISP is a systematic, quadrant by quadrant
survey that is always undertaken in an organized manner. We usually
know what to expect, but we still encounter the unexpected!
One day earlier this year, while horseback
riding between Ahu Tepeu and Ahu Akivi, we stopped to take in
the view. Looking down, we saw a cluster of what appeared to be
ordinary rocks. Most of them, we thought, had probably been thrown
up recently by a passing road grader. We were stunned when closer
inspection revealed one of them to be a moai torso! Broken
and very eroded, it was just 1.33 m long! We made a mental note
to come back and have a closer look, and then rode away.
Photo by Pam Davies
© EISP.
Photo by Pam Davies © EISP.
In November—during our yearly
touring as accompanying experts with British Museum Traveller—we
passed by our discovery again and decided to capture the moment.
The bus pulled over and some of our more game participants eagerly
jumped from the bus, climbed the barbed wire fence, and set to
photographing and taking compass bearings. With their kind help,
this little torso is now properly recorded in the EISP database!
Sketches and measurements by Cristián
Arévalo Pakarati © EISP.
EISP
is an Open and Growing Database
Our observation, based upon the three
new moai described here, is that our computerized database
will never be closed. It must remain an open, adjustable, and
growing body of information that responds to new discoveries.
As the island community begins to use the land in new ways, and
as people increase in number and expand their boundaries of activity,
it is probable that additional statues will be found. These can
and should continue to be added promptly to the EISP inventory.
We are grateful for the open lines of communication and cooperation
that EISP enjoys with so many Rapanui people and island agencies.
Archaeology, in this way, becomes a valuable bridge between the
past, present, and future, and insures the preservation of Rapa
Nui patrimony.
