The Moai Statues

Before exploring the causes of collapse on Easter Island, it is important to introduce the famous Moai statues, as some scholars believe that they are part of the cause for Easter’s demise. Traditional Easter Island society was structured by territories (or clans), whereby each territory had its own chiefs, priests and commoners. Each of these territories had its own major ceremonial platforms known as ahu, which supported the famous moai statues. Some suggest that each of these territories/clans competed peacefully by attempting to outdo each other by building these statues and platforms (Diamond 2005). It is thought that the cultural and religious significance of these statues descended from Polynesian culture, particularly East Polynesia.

There is an estimated 887 moai stone statues on Easter, with the average statue measuring 13 feet tall and weighing 10 tons, however the biggest statue is 33 feet tall and 82 tons. Around 300 ahu stone platforms exist, weighing from 300 to 900 tons (Diamond 2005). One of the major mysteries on Easter Island is how these massive statues and platforms were transported from the single quarry where they were created to where they finally ended up in each territory, as far as 6 miles away. Two main theories have been put forward to explain how the statues were transported:


     1. The statues were dragged using pure human power and ropes
     2. The statues were laid down and rolled on tree trunks deforested from the native palm forest (Rainbird 2002)

Although the latter is widely considered the dominant theory (Rainbird 2002), which explains how the statues were transported, ropes needed to drag the statues also require deforestation of the native palm, since rope is fashioned out of the bark from the trees. The construction and transportation of the moai and ahu further reinforces the understanding that Easter’s society was complex and highly organised as they were able to bring together the resources from around the island, and transport the statues up to 6 miles away. Their construction also suggests the presence of a large population, where moai construction peaked from 1100 to 1400 AD (Wolcott and Conrad 2011), thus indicating peak population numbers around this time.

Forest-clearing for the moai and ahu construction, agriculture and logging for firewood and canoes all contributed to deforestation on Easter Island (Rainbird 2002), and thus leads onto the next post which discusses the role of deforestation on Easter Island.