(3 PAGES) 2001 DECEMBER MATAA SPEAR POINTS
EASTER ISLAND HISTORY
PLUS
THE MATAA SPEAR POINTS
ISLAND GEOGRAPHY
Pathway to the statue quarries on Rano Raraku.
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PATHWAY LEADING TO THE STATUE

QUARRIES ON RANO RARAKU
GRAY ROCKS ON THE SLOPES IN THE

DISTANCE ARE BURIED STATUES
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is the most isolated island in the world. It was named by Jacob Roggeveen a Dutch explorer who discovered it on Easter day in 1722. This 64 square mile speck of land is located in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. The closest neighbors are Pitcairn Island 1,400 miles away to the northwest and South America 2,340 miles to the east.


THE ISLAND'S VOLCANIC HISTORY IS OBVIOUS EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   Easter Island was born out of the ocean by volcanic eruptions and in fact there are over 70 eruptive centers on the island today but none have been active for well over a thousand years. The island has a triangle shape that is formed by three large volcanoes located at the corners. The highest volcanic cone on the island is Maunga Terevaka in the northeast corner which rises to 1,674 feet.

 


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CRATER LAKE IN THE VOLCANO CALLED RANO KAU
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   Rano Kau is one of the three largest volcanoes on the Island. On it's rim is the location of the ceremonial village of Orongo where the center of Easter Island's final phase Birdman Cult was once located. This crater lake is one of three large fresh water lakes on Easter Island. There are no flowing streams on the island and water has always been collected from either lakes, pockets of water in the lava flows or from wells. These lakes are covered with thick layers of totora reeds.

FIRST PHASE--ISLAND DISCOVERY & DEVELOPMENT
A.D. 400 TO 1000

Grassy valleys and hills of Easter Island.
PRESENT DAY EASTER ISLAND IS VIRTUALLY DEVOID OF LARGE TREES
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   One large peopling event can be accounted for in the archaeological record. Sometime around 1600  to 1400 years ago a few dozen people arrived in ocean going canoes with all the necessities to support their life in a new land. Some of the most important supplies they brought with them were chickens, bananas and sweet potatoes. They also brought pigs, dogs and breadfruit but these disappear shortly after their arrival. Pollen studies done by John Flenley, Massey Univ., and Sarah King, Univ. of Hull, show that at the time these people arrive the land was covered with a lush rain forest dominated with giant palms which they used to build boats, houses and later for moving large stones.

 

SMALL OFFSHORE ISLAND LOOKING TOWARDS THE MAIN ISLAND
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   All other Polynesian islands, except for Easter Island, had a main diet of fish. In fact, archaeological excavations in ancient garbage heaps show that 90% of the bones from those islands were from fish. But on Easter Island, between A.D. 900 to 1300, less than 25% belong to fish but 33% belong to porpoise (common dolphin). Easter Island never had the warm shallow coral reefs to support a supply of fish. Their only option was to go to sea in large seaworthy canoes to harpoon porpoise that can weigh up to 165 pounds.
   Easter Island is the only Polynesian island where archaeological excavations show that rat bones outnumber fish bones. These people were also eating a number of different species of birds that would have been seasoned with rat meat.

 


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ELLIPTICAL HOUSE FOUNDATION
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   These odd foundations were laid down with elongated squared blocks of basalt. They were fitted precisely together in an elliptical design. Holes were pecked into the foundation blocks to hold long poles that were bent and lashed together along with horizontal pieces. When finished, the structure looked somewhat like an overturned canoe. Along the entrance side they laid down a pavement of beach rocks.

SECOND PHASE--STATUE BUILDING
A.D. 1000 TO 1500

Statues restored to their original platforms.
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STATUES ("MOAI") RESTORED ON THEIR PLATFORMS ("AHU")
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   Possibly as early as 400 years after the first people arrived and during phase two of the islands cultural development, from A.D. 1000 to 1500, they began to build larger and larger ceremonial platforms and statues. Most of the island's religious and social history was based on ancestor worship. They expended a great amount of labor towards this endeavor. The new trend was disastrous.  As more and more palm trees were cut for logs to move statues & building stones and hauhau trees to make rope the land began to erode. This in turn caused the top soil to wash away and crops began to fail.

 


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LARGE STATUE IN THE QUARRY AT RANO RARAKU
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   As the frenzy of statue building continued to expand there seems to have been a contest to construct the most impressive monument. Statues became larger  and some extraordinarily large ones are still in the quarry. They range in size up to 70 feet long, well over twice as large as any that had ever been moved to platforms! To set them in place along the coast they would have had to transport them for several miles. As a comparison, the great statues of Ramses II at Abu Simbel are a little smaller, only 65 feet high!

  
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STATUES WERE MADE OF VOLCANIC TUFF BY STONE PICKS OR HAMMERSTONES CALLED "TOKI" THAT WERE MADE OF HARDER BASALT
EASTER ISLAND
PICTURE CREDIT GEORGE FRISON

   The large statues and stone blocks for platform building were shaped and cut from the quarries with hand axes called hammerstones, picks or "toki". These represent the majority of stone cutting tools found on the island and have been found most concentrated in the quarry debris at Rana Raraku (the statue quarry). The basalt pick or hammerstone in the picture above is a good example of what Thor Heyerdahl calls a variety 2 basalt implement. These basalt hand axes are unique to Easter Island and are not reported from other Polynesian Islands.

CONTINUE ON TO PAGE TWO

"REFERENCES"

1961, Vol. I, "Archaeology of Easter Island", by Thor Heyerdahl, E. N. Ferdon, JR., W. Mulloy, A. Skjolsvold & C. S. Smith, pp. 151-153, 398-400, 482
1979, "Island At the Center of the World", by Father Sebastian Englert, pp. 30, 58, 84, 125-126, 154.
1988, "Easter Island Mystery of the Stone Giants", by Catherine & Michel Orliac, pp. 53.
1995, "Easter Island's End", August issue of Discover Magazine, by Jared Diamond.
1996, "The Oxford Companion To Archaeology", by Brian M. Fagan, pp. 190.
George Frison, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, personal communications and the use of his slide collection taken in the 1980's of archaeological sites around the island.

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