An Introduction to the History of Easter Island!

Thursday 4 January

The flight to Easter Island was uneventful – Colin managed to sleep but I couldn’t do more than doze. We were given a snack of a ham and cheese roll (strange, foccatia type bread) and a glass of water soon after take off, and a breakfast of omelette and ham with a very dry sort of Danish pastry roll and marmalade before we landed. The plane had left promptly at 00.30 and arrived in Easter Island at 11.30 local time – this meant that on the way we had lost five hours and were now only five hours behind England.

Getting through Passport Control took an age (luckily we were near the front of the queue), as they checked, entered information on a computer, checked again, wrote, stamped and checked again, before we were allowed through. Having claimed our cases (which we had seen going round and round on the carousel while we were waiting for our passports to be cleared) we were greeted with garlands of jasmine and hibiscus and whisked off by an elderly man in his minibus to our hotel – again not too far from the airport. The runway at the this airport is over 3.5 kms long, stretching from one side of the island to the other – and was built by the Americans as a safety precaution in case they had to bring the shuttle down in the eastern Pacific Ocean – so far that has not happened. It also means that the planes land and take off straight out to sea, and are rarely heard on land.

Our hotel is basic (do I mean minimalistic?), very clean and spacious and from our room we can see the sea – to the side of the chalets in front of us, which are part of the hotel. The television in our room at best gets two channels, both in Spanish, one a series of soap programmes and sometimes a cartoon on the other – so we won’t be spending any time viewing while we are here. There are two B&Q green garden chairs on the “verandah” – a small tiled area outside the large patio doors – where it is very pleasant to sit in the afternoon and evening sun. Once we were settled in – doesn’t take long – we decided to go and explore the town. We didn’t realize it at the time, but there is only one town on the island, where everybody lives, as a result of the Island’s history.

The island is the result of three main volcanic eruptions and seventy smaller eruptions between 3 million and 300,000 years ago. The first eruption was at Poike, which formed a high conical outcrop at the far eastern end of the present-day island, 370 metres high with a dry crater 150 metres in diameter and up to 15 metres deep. The second eruption was at Ranu Kau, about 2.5 million years ago which produced a crater 300 metres high with a huge crater of 1.6 kms (!) diameter, whose lagoon is fed by underground fresh water springs. It is about 11 metres deep. This formed an outcrop to the western end of the island today. The third and largest eruption came about 300,000 years ago, creating the Rano Aroi crater, whose rim is 511metres high (the highest point of the island), with an internal diameter of 200 metres wide. This eruption joined the three volcanoes together to form one island. The later smaller eruptions helped create the current landscape and there hasn’t been any activity here for over 100,000 years.

The island was first settled by King Hotu Matu’a and his six sons in about 400AD following ‘disturbances’ on Hever Island – this may have been inter-tribal troubles or more likely volcanic activity, as the island has now disappeared, probably as a result of an eruption. He came in two ships, one led by himself and the other by his sister or wife, depending on which legend you hear. He divided the island into seven areas, and each formed a “mata” or tribe, led by himself or one of his sons and made up from the people they “invited” to come with them. But of course, other peopleFirst Period.

From the beginning of the Second Period (800 – 1684), the people started to carve the moai from grey stone (trachyte) in a quarry at Rano Raraku, where the stone was slightly softer than the rest of the island. The quarry was on the slopes of a volcano, Rano Kau, and almost every moai was carved out of the rock here and moved to the lower slopes to await transportation. The moai were carved in likenesses of only Kings or Priests of the various tribes – the most important people on the island – and made after their death. Therefore every figure is different – in size, shape and features. No stone was wasted, as the moai were carved next to each other – vertically head to toe or horizontally from one layer to the next. The carvings could take years, depending on the size of the tribe and how many good stone carvers each tribe had.

A road made of stones led from the quarry to each village carving a moai, to enable the finished figures to be moved. There are several theories how this was done, from logs wedged together like catapults, which supported these huge stones as they were carried along, either face up or face down, weighing in the region of 4 tons, to the figures being rolled along the roads on a series of logs. The furthest village where a moai has been found is 18 kms from the quarry. As time passed the moais became more elaborately carved, showing long ears, arms, belly buttons, but only a few showed buttocks or legs (one unearthed by Thor Heyerdahl on his expedition here in the 1950’s shows a moai in a kneeling position, but it is the only one found like this to date). A few later examples had carvings on their bellies, of fish, birds or boats.

The moai represented the power of the tribal chief or king, and from the second half of the Second Period, “hats” or top knots (pukao) were produced to enhance the figures. These were built of red scoria (looks far more holey than the other rock – a bit like an Aero chocolate bar) from the Puna Pua Quarry, more than 15 kms from Ranu Raraku Quarry where the figures were made. It would appear that the body and the hat were taken separately to the village and assembled at the platform. These “hats were huge round cylinders, about one metre in diameter, with a smaller cylinder on top, which look like a dark red “hat” when placed on top of a grey stone figure – or perhaps his hair in a “top knot” style. These “hats” themselves probably weighed about a ton each, so would have proved hard to transport and even harder to put into place. Another feature of the later moai, was the “eyes”. These were also positioned after the moai had been erected at the village and were made in the shape of fish from white coral, with a red scoria iris (same rock as the “hats”).

The tallest moai lying down is 21.65 metres tall found at the Ranu Raraku Quarry and still attached to the bed rock. The tallest standing moai is just over 9 metres tall found at Aku Tongariki, one of fifteen moais on that Ahu on the south coast.

The villages were all situated around the coast, and the moai were placed on the burial platforms (Ahu) built of black basalt rock, along the sea edge of the village. The statues all faced inland to protect the village, except for one site at Ahu Akivi, where there are seven ancient moai thought to represent the seven kings left behind on Hever Island. These all look out to sea towards where Hever Island was supposed to be, and Polynesia.

The Ahus (burial platforms) were built in three shapes – the most important being the stage-like platform on which the moai were placed. The other shapes were pyramids and boats (probably originating much later as “European” shaped boats came to the island). In the early days people were cremated and their ashes were interred in the appropriate Ahu, but later on at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries, the bodies had to be dried and only the bones were interred, as the tribes had used all the trees on the island.

At the start of the Third Period, the tribes began to war with each other in order to become more powerful, and to mark their success the victorious tribe would knock down the defeated tribes moais. Others retaliated to become more powerful themselves and by the end of the Third Period in 1884, all the moais had been overturned and left near the Ahus where we still see them today. There has been a large amount of weathering, of course, but otherwise the figures appear untouched. There has not been a lot of effort to restore these figures – the fifteen standing at Ahu Hanga were restored in a major project financed by the Japanese in the 1960’s, after the Island had lent a moai to an exhibition in Japan at the end of the 1950’s. Thor Heyerdahl led two expeditions here, one in 1947 when he unearthed the moai that is kneeling (it still stands directly above where he found it in the mountainside, further round from the quarry, and another in the 1980’s where he assisted in finding more moai, including one that they think may have been carved with two heads – the heads are missing now, but the shape of the neck and the breaking scar appears to support the theory. The body stands upright here where he found it.

Since the first settlers in 400AD the islanders had found sufficient food on the island in the form of birds, reptiles, fish, plants, fruits and berries. But all the while they were carving the moai the people were not attending to the land, so that many of the inter-tribal feuds towards the latter end of the 17th century and into the 18th century, were in the quest for food, and it is reported that cannibalism was taking place at that time, as there just was not enough food to go round.

In 1684, at the end of the Second Period, it was estimated that the population of the island was between 20 and 50,000, but by the end of the Third Period in 1884 there were only 111 people left. The descendants of these people still live here today and are known today as Rapa Nui – “people of the island”. The island was first visited by a European on 6 April 1722, Easter Day, when Jacob Roggeveen, discovered it on his travels from Polynesia and consequently named the island Easter Island. In the 1760’s it was purchased by a Frenchman, who brought sheep to the island (the first four legged animals the islanders had ever seen) which years later bred to become thousands, although there only a very few here now. The Frenchman sold armies of the natives to Polynesia, Chile and Peru to work as slaves on plantations and in homes, which accounted for the tremendous decline in population. In 1884 the island was ceded back to Chile who allowed the local people only a small area of land on which to live and grow their crops. They still live on this small area today. The population now is around 4,200, of which about 2,300 are Rapa Nui – the rest coming mainly from Chile, other Polynesian Islands, Australia and New Zealand. The Rapa Nui come over as being very aggrieved with Chile, as they take the revenues earned by the island, including tourism, and return very little (they have a similar attitude to that of the Maoris regarding New Zealand). The lady Prime Minister of Chile ceded the land back to the people of Easter Island in the very late 1990’s, but they do not have any means of installing the infrastructure and amenities required to move out of the town. Hopefully one day they will be able to resolve this problem, but then I expect commercialism will take over.

The town consists of one main street, with shops in the form of wooden “sheds”, including a couple of “supermarkets”, an undercover market selling fresh fruit and vegetables one end and local crafts the other, an information centre, several restaurants, cafes and bars including about four small internet cafes. At the end of the high street, at the cross roads, turn left to get to the sea, and you come across the fire station with its yellow fire engines, the post office with red tin post boxes, and a large sports centre, complete with football field (no lines) and floodlights. There are more restaurants along the esplanade (that makes is sound much grander than the lane it is) by the sea, which leads to the back entrance of our hotel, The round trip from hotel front to hotel back would take me about half an hour to walk. Only the main high street and some of the road around the island is made up – the rest is bumpy red earth, with lots of boulders and ruts, that easily flood when it rains. There are no buses here – as everyone lives in the town – but plenty of cars, quad bikes and mopeds, while many of the locals ride horses that roam all over the island.

We wandered along the high street, and finally settled on a “pub/bar/café/restaurant” according to the sign above the door, to quench our thirst. We sat outside on the balcony overlooking the road, and were brought menus by the “owner” – a transvestite complete with dress and make up – we have been surprised at the large numbers of ‘gay’ men on all the islands, but this is our first acquaintance with a transvestite. We ordered beer and I ordered a hot dog – not having eaten my breakfast on the plane I was beginning to feel I should eat something. When it came, it was like an individual ‘Hovis’ loaf cut in two, hollowed out, filled with a sausage in both halves and topped with chopped fresh tomatoes and squiggles of mustard. It tasted delicious. Of course, when I ordered it, Colin didn’t want anything to eat at all, but he soon helped me finish it when it arrived – other people’s food is always tastes better.

From here we wandered back to the hotel. The sun was shining brightly, but we have been told that yesterday they had torrential downpours for most of the day – the locals say you can easily experience all types of weather in one day on this island. When we got back to the hotel, Juz rang to test our mobile connection (which worked, although the GPRS card still won’t connect) and give us her latest updates. Colin then glued his camera bag strap back together and I prepared to blog for a couple of hours to catch up. The telephone in the room rang to say our tour leader was at the hotel waiting for us and when we went along and met her, she said we had to go on her tour that afternoon, as it would not be going again over the weekend – this is the tour that is shown for Sunday on our itinerary. Colin still had gluey fingers and I had no shoes, so we raced back to the room, got ourselves together and set off to find a minibus full of people waiting to go on the afternoon tour – it was 15.15 by this time.

The guide – a young Rapa Nui lady whose name we cannot remember – informed us we would be visiting the western side of the island this afternoon. Our first stop was at the Puna Pau Quarry where the “hats” were made. There were lots of cylinders of red rock lying around on the ground in various states from more or less perfect to the primary stages of production. The finished “hats” had been carved but never transported to meet their moai. We climbed the hill at the side of the quarry and could look out to the ocean. On the lower ground beside a large bay, we could see the houses of the town and the agricultural area to one side of the settlement, where all the crops are grown on the island. At this stage it was hard to believe that this is the only inhabited area of the whole island.

Our next stop was a little further up the road at Ahu Akivi, where we saw the seven moai looking out to sea. The Rapa Nui people are very insistent that they are descended from Polynesian tribes and not from Peru or Chile on the South American mainland, and use the legend about these seven moai to support their theory. There are many instances to disclaim their descent from Polynesia and link them particularly with early Inca settlements in Peru, but they strongly refute these, and there is no clear evidence on way or another.

Our final stop was at Te Pahu, where we explored a large underground cave system, in which the early settlers sheltered at night or in bad weather (they spent most of the day time working outside when the weather was suitable) and later it was used to conserve water, for example during the wars. The system goes on for over 100 metres, in a series of “rooms” that would have accommodated several hundred people. When standing above, it is hard to believe there are these hollows underneath your feet, with not a lot supporting you.

From here it was a short ride along the coast road back to our hotel. By this time – about 18.30 - we were beginning to feel exhausted – and missing the restful afternoon we had planned. But we also needed to eat. So showered and changed we strolled to the main street of the town to find one of the restaurants we had passed earlier that was open. We need not have worried – most of the shops here close around 13.30 each day and open again around 17.00 for shops and 18.00 for restaurants till about 22.00. There were not many other people around and when we finally decided on one of the larger establishments in town, we were the only customers. We started off by sitting out on the verandah, but after selecting our food, we moved inside as the wind was growing chilly – perhaps I was just tired. We had a beer whilst choosing from the menu – all in Spanish and we hadn’t brought our phrase book with us – and I chose prawns piri piri which I recognized from Nando’s Chicken bars as being with garlic and chilli, while Colin selected a chicken salad for starters. Fresh bread and a tomatoey/light creamy dip (too finely chopped for a salsa) were brought along with olive oil and balsamic vinegar – my sort of food – to munch on while we were waiting. By this time we had finished our beers so I ordered a bottle of red wine – the cheapest were crossed off the list and they were also out of Merlots, so I chose one of the more expensive bottles of Cabinet Sauvignon – 20.000$. I hadn’t quite got the hang of the money at this stage, and thought 1US$ = 2,000Chilean Pesos. Wrong!!! 1 US$ = 500 Chilean Pesos – so the bottle of wine cost approx 40 GBP!

My prawns arrived in a sizzling cast iron dish – Colin’s salad arrived in a large white bowl – mixing bowl size – filled with salad ingredients and chicken. By the time he munched his way through he was beginning to wonder if he could manage his main course of mahi mahi (the fish he had eaten in Tahiti) with chips and vegetables. Of course he did, while I ate a large portion of Thai chicken curry (not chilli hot like real Thai curries, but creamy and very tasty) with rice. While I finished the bottle of wine, Colin ordered a coffee. We heard the raucous sound of the coffee grinding machine, and when it arrived there was a cup of hot water, with a ramekin of what looked like instant coffee powder, but was actually what had been freshly ground, together with sachets of sugar and sweetners. Colin wasn’t sure how much coffee to put in the cup, so started with a few teaspoonsful, and gradually added more, until he found the right strength. He said it was superb and when he had finished there were no grouts in the bottom of the cup. Not drinking coffee any more I declined a cup of this wonderful brew.

During the last half hour of the meal I was having difficulty staying awake, so as soon as we had paid the bill, we walked back to the hotel and flopped into bed – I couldn’t even keep my eyes open to read my usual obligatory half a page. I think I was asleep before Colin even made it into bed – which is so unusual for me – but I was feeling totally worn out.