William S. AyresDepartment of Anthropology |
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is best known for its impressive stone statues and carved stone architectural ruins. Mastery of stone carving techniques on Easter Island far surpassed suchactivity elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. The magnitude of construction efforts and the skill and precision of shaping and movingindividual stones is certainly one of the most striking features of theisland's remarkable prehistoric culture. The island's stone statues are well known,but the context in which these images were used is less commonlyunderstood. Popular misconceptions exist about the statues: thatthey are merely heads sticking out of the ground and that they representisolated pieces of art with no site context. It is relatively easyto show that the images are busts typically extending to the waist ratherthan being just heads. It is more difficult to explain the significanceof the statues within the settings where they were used and within thebroader cultural and societal context in the early Easter Island landscape. However, such an explanation is critical to appreciating the images' originalmeanings. An analysis of statues in specific archaeological contextis required. Statues are found in all parts of the island and inall kinds of locations; the major site contexts are represented by thequarries where the statues were carved, the various images in transport,and the stone platforms, ahu, that held images used in ritual functions. The ahu are considered equivalent to East Polynesian marae. The critical interpretative context for understandingthe meaning of the prehistoric Easter Island images is that of the ahu,the stone platform and connected courtyard designed for religious ritual. Because of the overwhelming physical presence of the statues, the ahu platformson which the images stood often go unnoticed because the ahu courts, especially,are architecturally unelaborated and may be unmarked by identifiable boundaries. Ahu platforms are also often low and are covered withunshaped stones, especially in their present ruined states. Yet,it is precisely these platforms and associated architectural features thatprovide us with the means to interpret the statues and the broader significanceof stone architecture on Easter Island. Meaning comes from contextand the meaning of the images in prehistoric Easter Island culture canbe reconstructed only from archaeological context. The contexts ofgreatest significance for understanding the likely diverse meanings arethe locations where the statues were actually used. These contextswere at the ahu which have multiple architectural and other features providinga wealth of detail about ritual activities that are fundamentally tiedto the stone statues. Research by William Mulloy, Gonzalo FigueroaG.-H. and myself at the Tahai complex on the island's west coast in 1968-70represents the third major ahu excavation project undertaken on Rapa Nui(Mulloy 1968, Ayres 1971, 1981,1988, n.d.). Our co-workers included GermanHotu C., Juan Haoa H., Andres Haoa H., Felipe Teao A., Jacobo RirorokoT., Jorge Nahoe P., Martin Rapu, Rafael Rapu H., Jose Fati P., Juan ChavezM., Jorge Hotu C., Regino Tuki H., Simon Haoa P, and Mario ArevaloP. This project attempted to resolve some basicissues about architectural evolution. At Tahai three large structureswere restored and the underlying ahu unit at Ahu Tahai was determined tobe the earliest one actually dated thus far. Thus, this site offersmuch for understanding patterns of architectural evolution. Of equalsignificance are various structural contexts at the ahu complex which helpus identify rituals practiced there that relate to the meaning of the stoneimages. The Tahai research centered on a complex ofthree ahu, Ko te Ahu o te Vaka Ariki (Site EI8-1), commonly referred to as Ahu Ko te Riku), Ko te Ahu o te Nga'ara Ariki (Site EI8-2, here identifiedas Ahu Tahai), and Ahu Vai Uri (Site EI8-3); all of these have been restored. The Tahai complex covers nearly 20,000 squaremeters and approximately 23,000 cubic meters of rocks and earth,weighing at least 2,000 metric tons, were used as fill in constructingthe three ahu. The cluster of house foundations and other site remainslocated landward of the three ahu are indicative of the significant positionthe complex occupied in this section of the coast. |