PREHISTORIC REMAINS
AHU OR BURIAL-PLACES
Form of the Easter Island Image—Position and Number of the Ahu—Design
and Construction of the Image Ahu—Reconstruction and Transformation—The
Semi-pyramid Ahu—The Overthrow of the Images and Destruction of the Ahu.
In many places it is possible in the light of great monuments to
reconstruct the past. In Easter Island the past is the present, it is
impossible to escape from it; the inhabitants of to-day are less real
than the men who have gone; the shadows of the departed builders still
possess the land. Voluntarily or involuntarily the sojourner must hold
commune with those old workers; for the whole air vibrates with a vast
purpose and energy which has been and is no more. What was it? Why was
it? The great works are now in ruins, of many comparatively little
remains; but the impression infinitely exceeded anything which had been
anticipated, and every day, as the power to see increased, brought with
it a greater sense of wonder and marvel. “If we were to tell people at
home these things,” said our Sailing-master, after being shown the
prostrate images on the great burial-place of Tongariki, “they would not
believe us.”
The present natives take little interest in the remains. The statues are
to them facts of every-day life in much the same way as stones or
banana-trees. “Have you no _moai_” (as they are termed) “in England?”
was asked by one boy, in a tone in which surprise was slightly mingled
with contempt; to ask for the history of the great works is as
successful as to try to get from an old woman selling bootlaces at
Westminster the story of Cromwell or of the frock-coated worthies in
Parliament Square. The information given in reply to questions is
generally wildly mythical, and any real knowledge crops up only
indirectly.
Anyone who is able to go to the British Museum can see a typical
specimen of an Easter Island statue, in the large image which greets the
approaching visitor from under the portico (fig. 31). The general form
is unvarying, and with one exception, which will be alluded to
hereafter, all appear to be the work of skilled hands, which suggests
that the design was well known and evolved under other conditions. It
represents a half-length figure, at the bottom of which the hands nearly
meet in front of the body. The most remarkable features are the ears, of
which the lobe is depicted to represent a fleshy rope (fig. 58), while
in a few cases the disc which was worn in it is also indicated (fig.
59). The fashion of piercing and distending the lobe of the ear is found
among various primitive races.[19] The tallest statues are over 30 feet,
a few are only 6 feet, and even smaller specimens exist. Those which
stood on the burial-places, now to be described, are usually from 12 to
20 feet in height, and were surmounted with a form of hat.[20]
_Position and Number of Ahu._—In Easter Island the problem of the
disposal of the dead was solved by neither earth-burial nor cremation,
but by means of the omnipresent stones which were built up to make a
last resting-place for the departed. Such burial-places are known as
“ahu,” and the name will henceforth be used, for it signifies a definite
thing, or rather type of thing, for which we have no equivalent. They
number in all some two hundred and sixty, and are principally found near
the coast, but some thirty exist inland, sufficient to show that their
erection on the seaboard was a matter of convenience, not of principle.
With the exception of the great eastern and western headlands, where
they are scarce, it is probably safe to say that, in riding round the
island, it is impossible to go anywhere for more than a few hundred
yards without coming across one of these abodes of the dead. They
cluster most thickly on the little coves and their enclosing
promontories, which were the principal centres of population. Some are
two or three hundred yards away from the edge of the cliff, others stand
on the verge; in the lower land they are but little above the sea-level,
while on the precipitous part of the coast the ocean breaks hundreds of
feet below.
PREHISTORIC REMAINS
AHU OR BURIAL-PLACES
[Illustration:
FIG. 31.
STATUE AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
For back of statue see fig. 106.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 32.
AKAHANGA COVE AND NEIGHBOURING AHU.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 33.
AHU TONGARIKI, SEAWARD SIDE.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 34.
AHU TONGARIKI, LANDWARD SIDE.
With fifteen fallen statues.
For distant view, see fig. 73.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 35.
AHU VINAPU.
]
It was these burial-places, on which the images were then standing,
which so strongly impressed the early voyagers and whose age and origin
have remained an unsolved problem.
During the whole of our time on the island we worked on the ahu as way
opened. Those which happened to lie near to either of our camps were
naturally easy of access, but to reach the more distant ones, notably
those on the north shore, involved a long expedition. Such a day began
with perhaps an hour’s ride; at noon there was an interval for luncheon,
when, in hot weather, the neighbourhood was scoured for miles to find
the smallest atom of shade; and the day ended with a journey home of not
less than two hours, during which an anxious eye was kept on the sinking
sun. The usual method, as each ahu was reached, was for S. to dismount,
measure it and describe it, while I sat on my pony and scribbled down
notes; but in some manner or other every part of the coast was by one or
both of us ridden over several times, and a written statement made of
the size, kind, condition, and name of each monument.
Unfortunately there is in existence no large-scale plan of the coast, a
need we had to supply as best we could; map of Easter Island there is
none, only the crude chart; the efforts of our own surveyor were
limited, by the time at his disposal, to making detailed plans of a few
of the principal spots. The want is to be regretted geographically, but
it does not materially affect the archæological result. We were always
accompanied by native guides in order to learn local names and
traditions, and it was soon found necessary to make a point of these
being old men; owing to the concentration of the remains of the
population in one district, all names elsewhere, except those of the
most important places, are speedily being forgotten. The memories of
even the older men were sometimes shaky, and to get reasonably complete
and accurate information the whole of a district had, in more than one
case, to be gone over again with a second ancient who turned out to have
lived in the neighbourhood in his youth and hence to be a better
authority.
_Original Design and Construction of Image Ahu._—The burial-places are
not all of one type, nor all constructed to carry statues; some also are
known to have been built comparatively recently, and will therefore be
described under a later section. The image ahu are, however, all
prehistoric. They number just under a hundred, or over one-third of the
whole.[21] The figures connected with them, of which traces still
remain, were counted as 231, but as many are in fragments, this number
is uncertain.
Atypical image ahu (fig. 36) is composed of a long wall running parallel
with the sea, which, in a large specimen, is as much as 15 feet in
height and 300 feet in length; it is buttressed on the land side with a
great slope of masonry. The wall is in three divisions. The main or
central portion projects in the form of a terrace on which the images
stood, with their backs to the sea; it is therefore broad enough to
carry their oval bed-plates; these measure up to about 10 feet in length
by 8 feet or 9 feet in width, and are flush with the top of the wall. On
the great ahu of Tongariki there have been fifteen statues, but
sometimes an ahu has carried one figure only.
The wall which forms the landward side of the terrace is continued on
either hand in a straight line, thus adding a wing at each end of the
central portion which stands somewhat farther back from the sea (fig.
41). Images were sometimes placed on the wings, but it was not usual.
From this continuous wall the masonry slopes steeply till it reaches a
containing wall, some 3 feet high, formed of finely wrought slabs of
great size and of peculiar shape; the workmanship put into this wall is
usually the most highly finished of any part of the ahu. Extending
inland from the foot of this low wall is a large, raised, and smoothly
paved expanse. The upper surface of this, too, has an appreciable fall,
or slope, inland, though it is almost horizontal, when compared with the
glacis.
By the method of construction of this area, vault accommodation is
obtained between its surface pavement and the sheet of volcanic rock
below, on which the whole rests. In the largest specimen the whole slope
of masonry, measured that is from either the sea-wall of the wing or
from the landward wall of the terrace to its farthest extent, is about
250 feet. Beyond this the ground is sometimes levelled for another 50 or
60 yards, forming a smooth sward which much enhanced the appearance of
the ahu. In two cases the ahu is approached by a strip of narrow
pavement formed of water-worn boulders laid flat, and bordered with the
same kind of stone set on end; one of these pavements is 220 feet in
length by 12 feet in width, the other is somewhat smaller (fig. 93).
[Illustration:
FIG. 36.—DIAGRAM OF IMAGE AHU.
]
The general principle on which the sea or main walls are constructed is
usually the same, though the various ahu differ greatly in appearance:
first comes a row of foundation blocks on which have been set upright
the largest stones that could be found; the upper part of the wall is
composed of smaller stones, and it is finished with a coping. The
variety in effect is due to the difference in material used. In some
cases, as at Tongariki (fig. 33), the most convenient stone available
has consisted of basalt which has cooled in fairly regular cubes, and
the rows are there comparatively uniform in size; in other instances, as
at Ahu Tepeu on the west coast (fig. 37), the handiest material has been
sheets of lava, which have hardened as strata, and when these have been
used the first tier of the wall is composed of huge slabs up to 9 feet
in height. Irregularities in the shape and size of the big stones are
rectified by fitting in small pieces and surmounting the shorter slabs
with additional stones until the whole is brought to a uniform level; on
the top of this now even tier horizontal blocks are laid, till the whole
is the desired height (fig. 42). The amount of finish put into the work
varies greatly: in many ahu the walls are all constructed of rough
material; in others, while the slabs are untouched, the stones which
bring them to the level and the cubes on the top are well wrought; in a
very few instances, of which Vinapu (fig. 35) is the best example, the
whole is composed of beautifully finished work. Occasionally, as at
Oroi, natural outcrops of rock have been adapted to carry statues (fig.
122).
[Illustration:
FIG. 37.
AHU TEPEU.
Part of seaward wall showing large slabs—some of the stones forming
upper courses are wrought foundation-stones of canoe-shaped houses,
pp. 215–16.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 38.
METHOD OF EXPOSING THE DEAD FROM ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTIONS.
]
The study of the ahu is simplified by the fact that they were being used
in living memory for the purpose for which they were doubtless
originally built. They have been termed “burial-places,” but burial in
its usual sense was not the only, nor in most cases their principal,
object. On death the corpse was wrapped in a tapa blanket and enclosed
in its mattress of reeds; fish-hooks, chisels, and other objects were
sometimes included. It was then bound into a bundle and carried on
staves to the ahu, where it was exposed on an oblong framework. This
consisted of four corner uprights set up in the ground, the upper
extremities of which were Y-shaped, two transverse bars rested in the
bifurcated ends, one at the head, the other at the foot, and on these
transverse bars were placed the extremities of the bundle which wrapped
the corpse. The description and sketch are based on a model framework,
and a wrapped-up figure, one of the wooden images of the island,
prepared by the natives to amplify their verbal description.[22] At
times, instead of the four supports, two stones were used with a hole in
each, into which a Y-shaped stick was placed (fig. 38). While the corpse
remained on the ahu the district was marked off by the péra, or taboo,
for the dead; no fishing was allowed near, and fires and cooking were
forbidden within certain marks—the smoke, at any rate, must be hidden or
smothered with grass. Watch was kept by four relatives, and anyone
breaking the regulations was liable to be brained. The mourning might
last one, two, or even three years, by which time the whole thing had,
of course, fallen to pieces. The bones were either left on the ahu, or
collected and put into vaults of oblong shape, which were kept for the
family, or they might be buried elsewhere. The end of the mourning was
celebrated by a great feast, after which ceremony, as one recorder
cheerfully concluded, “Pappa was finished.”
Looked at from the landward side, we may, therefore, conceive an ahu as
a vast theatre stage, of which the floor runs gradually upwards from the
footlights. The back of the stage, which is thus the highest part, is
occupied by a great terrace, on which are set up in line the giant
images, each one well separated from his neighbour, and all facing the
spectator. Irrespective of where he stands he will ever see them
towering above him, clear cut out against a turquoise sky. In front of
them are the remains of the departed. Unseen, on the farther side of the
terrace, is the sea. The stone giants, and the faithful dead over whom
they watch, are never without music, as countless waves launch their
strength against the pebbled shore, showering on the figures a cloud of
mist and spray.
_Reconstruction and Transformation._—Those which have been described are
ideal image ahu, but not one now remains in its original condition. It
is by no means unusual to find, even in the oldest parts now existing,
that is in walls erected to carry statues, pieces of still older images
built into the stonework; in one case a whole statue has been used as a
slab for the sea-wall, showing that alteration has taken place even when
the cult was alive (fig. 42). Again, a considerable number of ahu, some
thirteen in all, after being destroyed and terminating their career as
image-terraces, have been rebuilt after the fashion of others
constructed originally on a different plan (fig. 39). This is a type for
which no name was found: it is in form that of a semi-pyramid, and there
are between fifty and sixty on the island, in addition to those which
have been in the first place image ahu (fig. 42). A few are
comparatively well made, but most are very rough. They resemble a
pyramid cut in two, so that the section forms a triangle; this triangle
is the sea-wall; the flanking buttress on the land side is made of
stones, and is widest at the apex or highest point, gradually
diminishing to the angles or extremities. The greatest height, in the
centre, varies from about 5 feet to 12 feet, and a large specimen may
extend in length from 100 feet to 160 feet. They contain vaults. In a
few instances they are ornamented by broken pieces of image-stone, and
occasionally by a row of small cairns along the top, which recall the
position of the statues on the image-platform; for these no very certain
reason was forthcoming, they were varyingly reported to be signs of
“péra” or as marking the respective right of families on the ahu. As
image-terraces may be found reconstructed as pyramid ahu, the latter
form of building must have been carried on longer than the former, and
probably till recent times, but there is nothing to show whether or not
the earliest specimens of pyramid ahu are contemporary with the great
works, or even earlier.
_Overthrow of the Images and Destruction of the Ahu._—The only piece of
a statue which still remains on its bed-plate is the fragment already
alluded to at Tongariki (fig. 34). In the best-preserved specimens the
figures lie on their faces like a row of huge nine-pins; some are
intact, but many are broken, the cleavage having generally occurred when
the falling image has come in contact with the containing wall at the
lower level. The curious way in which the heads have not infrequently
turned a somersault while falling and now lie face uppermost is shown in
the eighth figure from the western end on Tongariki ahu (fig. 34).
[Illustration:
FIG. 39.
A SEMI-PYRAMID AHU.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 40.
DIAGRAM OF SEMI-PYRAMID AHU.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 41.
AHU MAHATUA, SEAWARD SIDE
Image ahu, with east wing clearly defined. Landward side and centre
converted to semi-pyramid form.
]
No one now living remembers a statue standing on an ahu; and legend,
though not of a very impressive character, has already arisen to account
for the fall of some of them. An old man arrived, it is said, in the
neighbourhood of Tongariki, and as he was unable to speak, he made known
by means of signs that he wished for chicken-heads to eat; these were
not forthcoming. He slept, however, in one of the houses there, and
during the night his hosts were aroused by a great noise, which he gave
it to be understood was made by his feet tapping against the stone
foundations of the house. In the morning it was found that the statues
on the great ahu had all fallen: it was the revenge of the old man. Such
lore is, however, mixed up with more tangible statements to the effect
that the figures were overthrown in tribal warfare by means of a rope,
or by taking away the small stones from underneath the bed-plates, and
thus causing them to fall forward. That the latter method had been used
had been concluded independently by studying the remains themselves. It
will be seen later, that other statues which have been set up in earth
were deliberately dug out, and it seems unnecessary to look, as some
have done, to an earthquake to account for their collapse.
Moreover, the conclusion that the images owed their fall to deliberate
vandalism during internecine warfare is confirmed by knowledge, which
still survives, connected with the destruction of the last one. This
image stood alone on an ahu on the north coast, called Paro, and is the
tallest known to have been put up on a terrace, being 32 feet in height.
The events occurred just before living memory, and, like most stories in
Easter Island, it is connected with cannibalism. A woman of the western
clans was eaten by men of the eastern; her son managed to trap thirty of
the enemy in a cave and consumed them in revenge; and during the ensuing
struggle this image was thrown down (fig. 78). The oldest man living
when we were on the island said that he was an infant at the time; and
another, a few years younger, stated that his father as a boy helped his
grandfather in the fight. It is not, after all, only in Easter Island
that pleasure has been taken during war-time in destroying the
architectural treasures of the enemy.
While, therefore, the date of the erection of the earliest image ahu is
lost in the mists of antiquity, nor are we yet in a position to say when
the building stopped, we can give approximately the time of the
overthrow of the images. We know, from the accounts of the early
voyagers, that the statues, or the greater number of them, were still in
place in the eighteenth century; by the early part of the middle of the
nineteenth century not one was standing.
The destruction of the ahu has continued in more modern days. A manager,
whose sheep had found the fresh-water springs below high water, thinking
they were injuring themselves by drinking from the sea, erected a wall
round a large part of the coast to keep them from it. For this wall the
ahu came in of course most conveniently; it was run through a great
number and their material used for its construction. One wing of
Tongariki has been pulled down to form an enclosure for the livestock.
In addition to the damage wrought by man, the ocean is ever encroaching:
in some cases part of an ahu has already fallen into the sea, and more
is preparing to follow; statues may be found lying on their backs in
process of descending into the waves (fig. 43). One row of images, on
the extreme western edge of the crater of Rano Kao, which were visible,
although inaccessible, at the time of the visit of the U.S.A. ship
_Mohican_ in 1886, are now lying on the shore a thousand feet below. As
the result of these various causes the burial-places of Easter Island
are, as has been seen, all in ruins, and many are scarcely recognisable;
only their huge stones and prostrate figures show what they must once
have been.
[Illustration:
FIG. 42.
AHU MAITAKI-TE-MOA, SEAWARD SIDE.
An image ahu partially destroyed and changed to semi-pyramid type. A
statue from Raraku lies in foreground; another statue of different
stone forms part of the main wall.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 43
AHU RUNGA-VAE, ON SOUTH COAST, UNDERMINED BY THE SEA.
Statue has fallen backwards.
]
PREHISTORIC REMAINS
STATUES AND CROWNS
[Illustration:
FIG. 44.
[_Opposite fig. 45_
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 45.
RANO RARAKU FROM THE SEA.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 46.
RANO RARAKU FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.
Images prostrate in foreground and erect on slope; quarries above.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 47.
RANO RARAKU, INTERIOR OF CRATER.
Diagrammatic sketch showing position of statues on slope and in
quarry.
]