Day 4 Easter Island
Day 4 was an uneventful day. We did swing by one of our first day stops, Ahu Tahai, because of better light on the Ahu. We stopped by a local empanadas place to pick up lunch for the flight back to the mainland. You never know about plane food.
We toured the local museum, Sebatians’s Englert Museum. It was very interesting. It brought it all together as well as a few missing pieces such as a female Moai.
The Anthropological Easter Island Museum (the only museum on the island), is named after the priest Sebastian Englert, a German priest who came to the island in 1935 and spent the last 34 years of his life studying and disseminating the language, traditions and archaeological heritage of Rapa Nui. It was this priest who conducted the first archaeological inventory of the island and the first restoration of the ceremonial village of Orongo.
Clearly a female moai, with features such as breasts or prominently carved vulva, is one of twelve female moai that have been discovered on Easter Island.
Ahu: While the term “ahu” encompassed the entire monumental complex, it specifically referred to its main element: the altar or ceremonial platform where several moai or statues representing the ancestors of each family group were placed.
Moai: The statues were carved by the Polynesian colonizers of the island, mostly between 1250 and 1500. In addition to representing deceased ancestors, the moai, once they were erected on ahu, may also have been regarded as the embodiment of powerful living or former chiefs and important lineage status symbols.
Pukao: The hat-like structures or topknots formerly placed on top of some moai statues on Easter Island. They were all carved from a very light-red volcanic scoria, which was quarried from a single source at Puna Pau.
Central Platform: The ahu serves as the ceremonial heart of Rapa Nui – Easter Island. Notably, its platforms vary in type, with the most remarkable being the ahu moai, constructed to showcase the giant statues representing the ancestors.
Crematorium: Excavations in some crematoria show signs of special treatment of a body prior to cremation. The color of the bones and their fragmentation in some crematoria (and sometimes in the same site) are proof that there was a large variation among the cremated remains. Ashes of bodies cremated shortly after death, without any previous treatment, have been found in several places.
Plaza/Pavement: The ahu and plaza were built with a special and interesting relation; the ahu does not line up to give the plaza a rectangular shape, but is built with a 20° angle. This means that the plaza is not aligned with the winter solstice, but Ahu Huri A Urenga is.
Wings: In several ahu moai, the ends of the platform were extended with lower structures or small ramps forming lateral wings.
We stopped at a souvinier shop and picked up a few gifts. Since there is only one flight a day, the lines were long and the small terminal crowded.
