214 Maoi on Platform (Rapa Nui/Easter Island)

ID

• Maoi on Platform

Content

• Massive figures with relief carvings on back

• head is slightly tilted back, as if scanning a distant horizon

• Prominent eyebrow ridge shadowing the empty sockets of his eyes

• The nose is long and straight, ending in large oval nostrils

• Thin lips are set into a downward curve, giving the face a stern, uncompromising expression

• Some figure's backs are covered with ceremonial designs believed to have been added at a later date, some carved in low relief, others incised (Some show images relating to the island's birdman cult); (Carved on the upper back and shoulders are two birdmen, facing each other) [These have human hands and feet, and the head of a frigate bird.]; (In the center of the head is the carving of a small fledgling bird with an open beak). (carvings of 'ao (ceremonial dance paddles), with faces carved into them) (running from top to bottom of the right ear are four shapes like inverted 'V's representing the female vulva.)

Function

• (hypothesized) commemorate important ancestors

Formal Style

• Abstracted

Iconography

N/a

Context

• stood with giant stone companions, their backs to the sea, keeping watch over the island

• the islanders' name for the statue is thought to mean "stolen or hidden friend."

Materials

• Basalt

• Some are carved from the island's softer volcanic tuff

• (now missing) paint, coral eye sockets, and stone eyes

Attribution

• People of Rupa Nui

• Circa 1000 CE

Cross Cultural Connection

N/a

Meaning

N/a

Audience Response

N/a

Change over time

• The size and complexity of the moai increased over time

• The adoption of Christianity caused for the remaining standing moai were toppled.

History of Object

• The island's fragile ecosystem had been pushed beyond what was sustainable.

•birds remained changes occurred the Rapanui religion alter—to the birdman religion.

• introduction of rats

'ao

ceremonial dance paddles