Monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island together are called Moai. They were carved between the years 1250 and 1500. There are still half of the originals 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-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors. Altogether it is believed that there are 887 statues whose production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was about 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons; 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.
It is believed that these statues were carved by the Polynesian colonizers of the island. In addition to representing deceased ancestors, the moai, once they were erected on ahu, may also have been regarded as the embodiment of powerful living or former chiefs and important lineage status symbols. Completed statues were moved to ahu mostly on the coast, and then erected, sometimes with red stone cylinders (pukao) on their heads. Moai must have been extremely expensive to craft and transport; not only would the actual carving of each statue require effort and resources, but the finished product was then hauled to its final location and erected. The quarries in Rano Raraku appear to have been abandoned abruptly, with their working tools everywhere. In the nineteenth century, this led to a theory that the island was the remnant of a sunken continent and that most completed moai were under the sea. That idea has long been debunked but now it is thoroughly understood because, some statues were rock carvings and never intended to be completed and some were incomplete because, when inclusions were encountered, the carvers would abandon a partial statue and start a new one.
The moai must have been carved either by a distinguished class of professional carvers who were comparable in status to high-ranking members of other Polynesian craft guilds, or, alternatively, by members of each clan. The oral histories show that the Rano Raraku quarry was subdivided into different territories for each clan. When Europeans first came to the island, it was treeless. Therefore how they moved the moai stays as a mystery. However recent exercises revealed that the island should have been forested until 1200 CE. Oral histories recount how various people used divine power to command the statues to walk. The earliest accounts say a king named Tuu Ku Ihu moved them with the help of the god Makemake, while later stories tell of a woman who lived alone on the mountain ordering them about at her will. But today, researches keep going on to find out how they used the technology to overcome this problem and some have been successful.
Stone carving must have been a difficult process. When first carved, the surface of the moai was polished smooth by rubbing with pumice. Unfortunately, the easily worked tuff from which most moai were carved is also easily eroded, and, today, the best place to see the surface detail is on the few moai carved from basalt or in photographs and other archaeological records of moai surfaces protected by burial. The moai that are less eroded have designs carved on their backs and posteriors. At least some of the moai were painted; Hoa Hakananai'a was decorated with maroon and white paint until 1868, when it was removed from the island. It is now housed in the British Museum, London.
There are several characteristic features of the statues found in the Easter Island. Its statues are known for their large, broad noses and strong chins, along with rectangle-shaped ears and deep eye slits. In 1979, Sergio Rapu Haoa and a team of archaeologists discovered that the hemispherical or deep elliptical eye sockets were designed to hold coral eyes with either black obsidian or red scoria pupils. The discovery was made by collecting and reassembling broken fragments of white coral that were found at the various sites.
As for being carved in relatively flat planes, the faces bearing proud but enigmatic expressions. The over-large heads have heavy brows and elongated noses with a distinctive fish-hook-shaped curl of the nostrils. The lips protrude in a thin pout. Like the nose, the ears are elongated and oblong in form. The jaw lines stand out against the truncated neck. The torsos are heavy, and, sometimes, the clavicles are subtly outlined in stone. The arms are carved in bas relief and rest against the body in various positions, hands and long slender fingers resting along the crests of the hips, meeting at the hami (loincloth), with the thumbs sometimes pointing towards the navel. Generally, the anatomical features of the backs are not detailed, but sometimes bear a ring and girdle motif on the buttocks and lower back. Except for one kneeling moai, the statues do not have legs.
Several steps have been taken to conserve these valuables. An American archaeologist, William Mulloy, undertook extensive investigation of the production, transportation and erection of Easter Island's monumental statuary. The Rapa Nui National Park and the moai are included on the 1994 list of UNESCO World Heritage sites and consequently the 1972 UN convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage.
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