Te Moai Rapa Nui: Easter Island's Monolithic Statues
Forthcoming
Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 54ISBN: 978-1-950446-81-0
Publication Date: Nov 2026
Price: Hb $125, eBook $100
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Jo Anne Van Tilburg
This volume is the first illustrated archaeological atlas of Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Discovered by Polynesian explorers ca. 900 CE, Rapanui society encountered the Western world for the first time in 1722, an event followed by 48 years of isolation until the next foreign ship appeared on the horizon. That liminal period, and other formidable events in Rapanui culture history, are examined through an integrated, art-and-science approach and a contextually holistic research strategy. Seminal ecological research in multiple scientific fields is united with island-wide archaeological survey data generated by international contributors to this atlas.
At the heart of this volume is a decades-long study of the attributes, characteristics, and situations of 1,040 monolithic sculptural objects (moai). Each is described through research carried out by Jo Anne Van Tilburg and her team. Excavations in Rano Raraku statue quarry reveal ancient engineering methods. Thousands of survey points plotted on 108 original, illustrated maps link the moai to habitation and agricultural features, while museum objects and artifacts, along with historical maps and photographs, offer social context. The transcribed fieldnotes of ethnographer Katherine Routledge, and the accurate and expressive moai drawings by Rapanui artist Cristián Arévalo Pakarati, provide cultural depth.