So, here it is: my very own Easter Island Moai - made out of a gigantic Dutch potato and photographed twice against the background of a real Easter Island scenery on my laptop screen. You all have just a couple of days to beat me (until October 15, 2007 to be precise.) You still have a chance to claim this fantastic price: eternal fame in blogosphere! Vicki will be the Judge and Jury - so you better make sure that you come up with something really impressive and artistic! Click on the labels below to find out all about this. Come on, blog friends - don't let me down! Make a Moai statue and upload a pic on your blog. Leave a comment here to let us know about your contribution to this global fun project.
I will be in Frankfurt for the next couple of days to attend the Book Fair. I hope to be back on Saturday and of course I do expect to see some new entries for this exciting competition. What are you waiting for? And maybe Mike can try to get in touch with some islanders?
The famous Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl led the first archaeological expedition to Easter Island in 1955- 56. In 1962 he gave a series of lectures to the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography in Stockholm. Read more here
Known locally as Rapa Nui. An island of Chile in the southern Pacific Ocean about 3,701 km (2,300 mi) west of the mainland. Discovered by Dutch explorers on Easter Day, 1722, the island is famous for its hieroglyphic tablets and colossal heads carved from volcanic rock. The ancient remains, of unknown origin, have inspired many legends and theories.
Watch this video if you want to experience the approach by airplane to runway 10 in Easter Island. Click on the labels below this blog entry to read more about virtual island hopping, Easter Island and the Create Your Own Moai Competition!
This picture was taken at the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. This place is the quarry where most of the sculptures (Moais) were carved. Source
Moai (pronounced MOH-EYE), the large stone statues for which Easter Island is world famous, were carved during a relatively short and intense burst of creative and productive megalithic activity. Archeologists now estimate that ceremonial site construction and statue carving took place largely between about AD 1100 and 1600 and may have consumed up to 25% of island-wide resources.
According to recent archaeological research 887 monolithic stone statues, called moai, have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. This number is not final, however. The on-going statue survey continues to turn up new fragments, and mapping in Rano Raraku quarry has documented more unfinished statues than previously known. In addition, some statues incorporated into ceremonial site construction surely remain to be uncovered.
Although often identified as "heads", the statues actually are heads and complete torsos. Some upright moai, however, have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. Most moai were carved out of a distinctive, compressed, easily-worked volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site called Rano Raraku. The quarry there seems to have been abandoned abruptly, with half-carved statues left in the rock. However, on closer examination the pattern of use and abandonment is more complex.
The most widely-accepted theory is that the statues were carved by the ancestors of the modern Polynesian inhabitants (Rapanui) at a time when the island was largely planted with trees and resources were plentiful, supporting a population of at least 10,000-15,000 native Rapanui. The majority of the statues were still standing when Jacob Roggeveen arrived in 1722. Captain James Cook also saw many standing statues when he landed on the island in 1774.
It's unclear why the islanders erected the moai and what their function was. A mystery to cherish all the way. Source
This is an interesting educational site where you read more about Easter Island and have a look at some pics.
Read more about Easter Island Click on the virtual island hopping label below this blog entry to find out more about this expedition to Easter Island. You can also join our Make Your Own Moai Statue Competition - see last blog entry.
Do we have a winner? It certainly looks like it, but only time and Vicki will tell. This is Carol's stuffed moai (= easter island statue) - the first entry in our Create Your Own Easter Island Moai Competition, part of our world wide virtual island hopping project... Who's next? Click on the labels below this posting if you want to read more about this! You can email your very own moai pic to me: abspoel at gmail dot com - until October 15, 2007!
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