Hi, Little Fox readers! We've been learning about the environment, so Mr. Fay told us about a landmark that goes perfectly with this topic—Easter Island. Also known as Rapa Nui, this island in the South Pacific is the most remote inhabited island in the world. And it's famous for something else: hundreds of huge, mysterious statues called moai.
At first I couldn't imagine how a tiny island with a bunch of statues is connected to taking care of the environment. But I found out that these statues have a lot to do with the environment. I'll get to that in a minute. First let me tell you about the island itself—it has a really interesting history!
Easter Island was first settled by Polynesians sometime around 400 AD. The island's landscape is very sparse now, but when those settlers, now called the Rapanui, first arrived in their canoes, the whole island was covered in palm trees.
Nobody is sure why these people came to the island. I'm amazed that they even found it because it's small—only 163 square kilometers. And it's in the middle of nowhere, almost 2,000 kilometers from Pitcairn Island, the nearest land.
Over time the Rapanui changed the island's landscape by cutting down trees and clearing the land to plant crops. And between 1000 and 1680 AD, they transformed the landscape in another dramatic way—by sculpting hundreds of moai and placing them all over the island. The Rapanui carved the moai out of yellowish-gray volcanic rock. The heads look a little creepy but cool too, with long noses and ears, and protruding foreheads above deep-set eyes. Archaeologists believe these statues depict important Rapanui ancestors and chiefs. Some of the moai also have round topknots on top of their heads. The topknots look like big red hats because they're made from red volcanic rock.
Most of the moai were carved out of the bedrock of the volcano Rano Raraku. First, sculptors shaped the statues' faces and heads. When that was done, the statues were cut free from the surrounding rock. Next, they were lowered down the slope of the volcano and propped up vertically in shallow holes so the backs could be carved.
Today there are 397 moai remaining at Rano Raraku. Some are still attached to the bedrock, including one that's over 20 meters long! Others are standing up in those shallow holes. But because of silt running down the slope of the volcano over so many years, they're partially buried.
Completed moai had to be moved to various villages around the island. This must have been extremely difficult since the average moai was over 4 meters tall and weighed over 12 metric tons. Moving one probably required between 50 and 150 people!
Nobody knows for sure exactly how the moai were moved. Many people believe they were placed on wooden sleds that were towed with ropes, while others believe that the statues were tilted slightly and then "walked" across the island. My favorite theory is one that Mr. Fay told us, from an island legend: The moai got up and walked by themselves!
Once moved, moai were placed on rectangular stone platforms. Most of these platforms were placed near the coast, overlooking villages. Each one had between one and fifteen moai standing in a row, with their backs to the sea. These moai were given eyes made from shells and polished stones.
The Rapanui had no contact with other people until Easter Sunday, 1722, when a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen arrived on the island and started calling it Easter Island. Roggeveen wrote that the islanders worshipped the moai. He also wrote that, unlike most Polynesian islands, Easter Island had almost no trees, just small shrubs and grass.
Sometime after Roggeveen's arrival, a civil war broke out on the island, probably because of overpopulation and limited resources. The Rapanui stopped making moai and even started knocking each others' down!
Today Easter Island is part of Rapa Nui National Park. Visitors can get there from Santiago, Chile. Almost everyone on the island lives in Hanga Roa, the island's only town, which has some hotels, restaurants, and shops.
Mr. Fay said that there are about nine hundred moai still scattered all over the island, so it's a good idea to hire a guide who can show you around. One very popular site for tourists is the quarry at Rano Raraku, where you can see the unfinished moai.
I bet you're still wondering what Easter Island has to do with the environment. Well, many experts believe the Rapanui continued cutting down trees to use as firewood and building materials for many years. They also used them as tools for moving the giant moai. Eventually every single tree on the entire island was gone!
Without trees the soil suffered from severe erosion and became depleted of its nutrients. Farming the land became difficult. I asked Mr. Fay why the Rapanui didn't leave. He said they probably couldn't. To leave, they would have needed canoes. And what do you need to make canoes? Yep, you got it—trees!
The story of Easter Island shows us just how important it is to take care of the environment and use natural resources wisely. I was really glad to learn that new trees are now being planted on Easter Island. Maybe someday palm trees will cover the island again, just as they did when the Rapanui first arrived.
After our landmarks lesson, we got to make our own moai out of clay. I made mine standing on a platform. It looked a little sad all by itself, so I added something else: a tall, leafy palm tree!
See you next week!