Moai - Washington, DC
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Metro2
N 38° 53.505 W 077° 01.563
18S E 324285 N 4306715
Moai, the ancestral figureheads from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) are also considered to be the repositories of sacred spirits.
Waymark Code: WMQB8X
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 01/27/2016
Views: 5
This Moai is on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. which does not charge for admission. A Museum placard indicates that it was collected by Paymaster Thomson in 1886.
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Moai Listeni/'mo?.a?/, or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500 CE.[1][2] Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna).[3] The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most were cast down during later conflicts between clans.[citation needed]
The production and transportation of the 887 statues are considered remarkable creative and physical feats. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons;[6] the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.[citation needed] The islanders themselves tore down the standing moai after their civilization broke down.[citation needed...
Symbolism
Many archaeologists suggest that "[the] statues were thus symbols of authority and power, both religious and political. But they were not only symbols. To the people who erected and used them, they were actual repositories of sacred spirit. Carved stone and wooden objects in ancient Polynesian religions, when properly fashioned and ritually prepared, were believed to be charged by a magical spiritual essence called mana." Archaeologists believe that the statues were a representation of the ancient Polynesians` ancestors. The moai statues face away from the ocean and towards the villages as if to watch over the people. The exception is the seven Ahu Akivi which face out to sea to help travelers find the island. There is a legend that says there were seven men who waited for their king to arrive."