PREHISTORIC REMAINS (_continued_)
STATUES AND CROWNS
Rano Raraku, its Quarries and Standing Statues—the South-east Face of
the Mountain—Isolated Statues—Roads—Stone Crowns of the Images.
Strange as it may appear, it is by no means easy to obtain a complete
view of a statue on the island: most of the images which were formerly
on the ahu lie on their faces, many are broken, and detail has largely
been destroyed by weather. Happily, we are not dependent for our
knowledge of the images on such information as we can gather from the
ruins on the ahu, but are able to trace them to their origin, though
even here excavation is necessary to see the entire figure. Rano Raraku
is, as has already been explained, a volcanic cone containing a crater
lake. It resembles, to use an unromantic simile, one of the china
drinking-vessels dedicated to the use of dogs, whose base is larger than
their brim. Its sides are for the most part smooth and sloping, and
several carriages could drive abreast on the northern rim of the crater,
but towards the south-east it rises in height, and from this aspect it
looks as if the circular mass had been sliced down with a giant knife
forming it into a precipitous cliff. The cliff is lowest where the
imaginary knife has come nearest to the central lake, thus causing the
two ends to stand out as the peaks already mentioned (fig. 45).
The mountain is composed of compressed volcanic ash, which has been
found in certain places to be particularly suitable for quarrying; it
has been worked on the southern exterior slope, and also inside the
crater both on the south and south-eastern sides. With perhaps a dozen
exceptions, the whole of the images in the island have been made from
it, and they have been dragged from this point up hill and down dale to
adorn the terraces round the coast-line of the island; even the images
on the ahu, which have fallen into the sea on the further extremity of
the western volcano, are said to have been of the same stone. It is
conspicuous in being a reddish brown colour, of which the smallest chips
can be easily recognised. It is composite in character, and embedded in
the ash are numerous lapilli of metamorphic rock. Owing to the nature of
this rock the earliest European visitors came to the conclusion that the
material was factitious and that the statues were built of clay and
stones; it was curious to find that the marooned prisoners of war of our
own time fell into the same mistake of thinking that the figures were
“made up.”
The workable belt, generally speaking, forms a horizontal section about
half-way up the side of the mountain. Below it, both on the exterior and
within the crater, are banks of detritus, and on these statues have been
set up; most of them are still in place, but they have been buried in
greater or less degree by the descent of earth from above (fig. 57). Mr.
Ritchie made a survey of the mountain with the adjacent coast, but it
was found impossible to record the results of our work without some sort
of plan or diagram which was large enough to show every individual
image. This was accomplished by first studying each quarry, note-book in
hand, and then, with the aid of field glasses, amalgamating the results
from below; the standing statues being inserted in their relation to the
quarries above. It was a lengthy but enjoyable undertaking. Part of the
diagram of the exterior has been redrawn with the help of photographs
(fig. 60); the plan of the inside of the crater is shown in what is
practically its original form (fig. 47).
_Quarries of Rano Raraku._—Leaving on one side for the moment the
figures on the lower slope, let us in imagination scramble up the grassy
side, a steep climb of some one or two hundred feet to where the rock
has been hewn away into a series of chambers and ledges. Here images lie
by the score in all stages of evolution, just as they were left when,
for some unknown reason, the workmen laid down their tools for the last
time and the busy scene was still. Here, as elsewhere, the wonder of the
place can only be appreciated as the eye becomes trained to see. In the
majority of cases the statues still form part of the rock, and are
frequently covered with lichen or overgrown with grass and ferns; and
even in the illustrations, for which prominent figures have naturally
been chosen, the reader may find that he has to look more than once in
order to recognise the form. A conspicuous one first strikes the
beholder: as he gazes, he finds with surprise that the walls on either
hand are themselves being wrought into figures, and that, resting in a
niche above him, is another giant; he looks down, and realises with a
start that his foot is resting on a mighty face. To the end of our visit
we occasionally found a figure which had escaped observation.
[Illustration:
Fig. 48.
DIAGRAM OF RANO RARAKU.
]
The workings on the exterior of Raraku first attract attention; here
their size, and incidentally that of many of the statues, has largely
been determined by fissures in the hillside, which run vertically and at
distances of perhaps 40 feet. The quarries have been worked differently,
and each has a character of its own. In some of them the principal
figures lie in steps, with their length parallel to the hill’s
horizontal axis; one of this type is reached through a narrow opening in
the rock, and recalls the side-chapel of some old cathedral, save that
nature’s blue sky forms the only roof (no. 74, fig. 60); immediately
opposite the doorway there lies, on a base of rock, in quiet majesty, a
great recumbent figure. So like is it to some ancient effigy that the
awed spectator involuntarily catches his breath, as if suddenly brought
face to face with a tomb of the mighty dead. Once, on a visit to this
spot, a rather quaint little touch of nature supervened: going there
early in the morning, with the sunlight still sparkling on the floor of
dewy grass, a wild-cat, startled by our approach, rushed away from the
rock above, and the natives, clambering up, found nestling beneath a
statue at a high level a little family of blind kittens.
In other instances the images have been carved lying, not horizontally,
but vertically, with sometimes the head, and sometimes the base, toward
the summit of the hill. But no exact system has been followed, the
figures are found in all places, and all positions. When there was a
suitable piece of rock it has been carved into a statue, without any
special regard to surroundings or direction. Interspersed with embryo
and completed images are empty niches from which others have already
been removed; and finished statues must, in some cases, have been passed
out over the top of those still in course of construction. From all the
outside quarries is seen the same wonderful panorama: immediately
beneath are the statues which stand on the lower slopes; farther still
lie the prostrate ones beside the approach; while beyond is the whole
stretch of the southern plain, with its white line of breaking surf
ending in the western mountain of Rano Kao (fig. 54).
[Illustration:
FIG. 49.
STATUE IN QUARRY, PARTIALLY SCULPTURED.
[No. 41. Fig. 60.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 50.
STATUE IN QUARRY.
Attached to rock by “keel” only. Top of head (flat surface) towards
spectator.
[No. 61. Fig. 60.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 51.
STATUE IN QUARRY.
Ready to be launched; movement prevented by stone wedges. Base towards
spectator.
[No. 57. Fig. 60.]
]
The quarries within the crater are on the same lines as those without,
save that those on the south-eastern side form a more continuous whole.
Here the most striking position is on the top of the seaward cliff, in
the centre of which is a large finished image (no. 16, fig. 47); on one
side the ground falls away more or less steeply to the crater lake, on
the other a stone thrown down would reach the foot of the precipice; the
view extends from sea to sea. Over all the most absolute stillness
reigns.
The statues in the quarries number altogether over 150. Amongst this
mass of material there is no difficulty in tracing the course of the
work. The surface of the rock, which will form the figure, has generally
been laid bare before work upon it began, but occasionally the image was
wrought lying partially under a canopy (fig. 49). In a few cases the
stone has been roughed out into preliminary blocks (no. 58, fig. 60),
but this procedure is not universal, and seems to have been followed
only where there was some doubt as to the quality of the material. When
this was not the case the face and anterior aspect of the statue were
first carved, and the block gradually became isolated as the material
was removed in forming the head, base, and sides. A gutter or alley-way
was thus made round the image (fig. 55), in which the niches where each
man has stood or squatted to his work can be clearly seen; it is,
therefore, possible to count how many were at work at each side of a
figure.
When the front and sides were completed down to every detail of the
hands, the undercutting commenced. The rock beneath was chipped away by
degrees till the statue rested only on a narrow strip of stone running
along the spine; those which have been left at this stage resemble
precisely a boat on its keel, the back being curved in the same way as a
ship’s bottom (fig. 50). In the next stage shown the figure is
completely detached from the rock, and chocked up by stones, looking as
if an inadvertent touch would send it sliding down the hill into the
plain below (fig. 51). In one instance the moving has evidently begun,
the image having been shifted out of the straight. In another very
interesting case the work has been abandoned when the statue was in the
middle of its descent; it has been carved in a horizontal position in
the highest part of the quarry, where its empty niche is visible, it has
then been slewed round and was being launched, base forward, across some
other empty niches at a lower level. The bottom now rests on the floor
of the quarry, and the figure, which has broken in half, is supported in
a standing fashion against the outer edge of the vacated shelves. The
first impression was that it had met with an accident in transit, and
been abandoned; but it is at least equally possible that for the purpose
of bringing it down, a bank or causeway of earth had been built up to
level the inequalities of the descent, and that it was resting on this
when the work came to an end; the soil would then in time be washed
away, and the figure fracture through loss of support.
In the quarry which is shown in fig. 54, the finished head can be seen
lying across the opening, the body is missing, presumably broken off and
buried; the bottom of the keel on which the figure at one time rested
can be clearly traced in a projecting line of rock down the middle of
its old bed, also the different sections where the various men employed
have chipped away the stone in undermining the statue. In the quarry
wall the niches occupied by the sculptors are also visible, at more than
one level, the higher ones being discarded when the upper portion of the
work was finished and a lower station needed. The hand of the standing
boy in fig. 51 rests on a small platform similarly abandoned.
[Illustration:
FIG. 52. STONE TOOLS (_Toki_).
]
[Illustration:
FIG 53. _H. Balfour del._
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 54.
HEAD OF A STATUE AT MOUTH OF QUARRY FROM WHICH IT HAS BEEN HEWN.
[No. 72. Fig. 60.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 55.
UPPER PORTION OF LARGEST IMAGE IN QUARRY, WITH ALLEY-WAY FOR WORKMEN.
[No.64. Fig. 50.]
]
The tools were found with which the work has been done. One type of
these can be seen lying about in great abundance (fig. 52). They are of
the same material as the lapilli in the statues, and made by flaking.
Some specimens are pointed at both ends, others have one end more or
less rounded. It is unlikely that they were hafted, and they were
probably held in the hand when in use. They were apparently discarded as
soon as the point became damaged. There is another tool much more
carefully made, an adze blade, with the lower end bevelled off to form
the cutting edge. In the specimen shown, the top is much abraded
apparently from hammering with a maul or mallet (fig. 53). These are
rarely found, the probability being that they were too precious to leave
and were taken home by the workmen. The whole process was not
necessarily very lengthy; a calculation of the number of men who could
work at the stone at the same time, and the amount each could
accomplish, gave the rather surprising result that a statue might be
roughed out within the space of fifteen days. The most notable part of
the work was the skill which kept the figure so perfect in design and
balance that it was subsequently able to maintain its equilibrium in a
standing position; to this it is difficult to pay too high a tribute.
It remains to account for the vast number of images to be found in the
quarry. A certain number have, no doubt, been abandoned prior to the
general cessation of the work; in some cases a flaw has been found in
the rock and the original plan has had to be given up—in this case, part
of the stone is sometimes used for either a smaller image or one cut at
a different angle. In other instances the sculptors have been unlucky
enough to come across at important points one or more of the hard
nodules with which their tools could not deal, and as the work could not
go down to posterity with a large wart on its nose or excrescence on its
chin, it has had to be stopped. But when all these instances have been
subtracted, the amount of figures remaining in the quarries is still
startlingly large when compared with the number which have been taken
out of it, and must have necessitated, if they were all in hand at once,
a number of workers out of all proportion to any population which the
island has ever been likely to have maintained. The theory naturally
suggests itself that some were merely rock carvings and not intended to
be removed. It is one which needs to be adopted with caution, for more
than once, where every appearance has pointed to its being correct, a
similar neighbour has been found which was actually being removed; on
the whole, however, there can be little doubt that it is at any rate a
partial solution of the problem. Some of the images are little more than
embossed carvings on the face of the rock without surrounding
alley-ways. In one instance, inside the crater, a piece of rock which
has been left standing on the very summit of the cliff has been utilised
in such a way that the figure lies on its side, while its back is formed
by the outward precipice (fig. 56); this is contrary to all usual
methods, and it seems improbable that it was intended to make it into a
standing statue. Perhaps the strongest evidence is afforded by the size
of some of the statues: the largest (fig. 55; no. 64, fig. 60) is 66
feet in length, whereas 36 feet is the extreme ever found outside the
quarry; tradition, it is true, points out the ahu on the south coast for
which this monster was designed, but it is difficult to believe it was
ever intended to move such a mass. If this theory is correct, it would
be interesting to know whether the stage of carving came first, and that
of removal followed, as the workmen became more expert; or whether it
was the result of decadence when labour may have become scarce. It is,
of course, possible that the two methods proceeded concurrently, rock
carvings being within the means of those who could not procure the
labour necessary to move the statue.
Legendary lore throws no light on these matters, nor on the reasons
which led to the desertion of this labyrinth of work; it has invented a
story which entirely satisfies the native mind and is repeated on every
occasion. There was a certain old woman who lived at the southern corner
of the mountain and filled the position of cook to the image-makers. She
was the most important person of the establishment, and moved the images
by supernatural power (_mana_), ordering them about at her will. One
day, when she was away, the workers obtained a fine lobster, which had
been caught on the west coast, and ate it up, leaving none for her;
unfortunately they forgot to conceal the remains, and when the cook
returned and found how she had been treated, she arose in her wrath,
told all the images to fall down, and thus brought the work to a
standstill.
[Illustration:
FIG. 56.
STATUE CARVED ON EDGE OF PRECIPICE.
INTERIOR OF CRATER.
[No. 27. Fig. 47.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 57.
STANDING STATUES ON EXTERIOR OF RANO RARAKU SHOWING PARTIAL BURIAL.
]
_Standing Statues of Rano Raraku._—Descending from the quarries, we turn
to the figures below. A few at the foot of the mountain have obviously
been thrown down; one of these (no. 6, fig. 60) was wrecked in the same
conflict as the one on Ahu Paro, and one is shown where an attempt has
been made to cut off the head. Another series of images have originally
stood round the base on level ground (nos. 1, 2, 3, fig. 60), extending
from the exterior of the entrance to the crater to the southern corner;
these are all prostrate. On the slopes there are a few horizontal
statues, but the great majority, both inside the crater and without, are
still erect. Outside, some forty figures stand in an irregular belt,
reaching from the corner nearest the sea to about half-way to the gap
leading into the crater. The bottom of the mountain is here diversified
by little hillocks and depressions; these hillocks would have made
commanding situations, but rather curiously the statues, while erected
quite close to them, and even on their sides, are never on the top.
Inside the crater, where some twenty statues are still erect, the
arrangement is rather more regular; but, on the whole, they are put up
in no apparent order. All stood with their backs to the mountain.
They vary very considerably in size; the tallest which could be measured
from its base was 32 feet 3 inches, while others are not much above 11
feet. Every statue is buried in greater or less degree, but while some
are exposed as far as the elbow, in others only a portion of the top of
the head can be seen above the surface (fig. 57), others no doubt are
covered entirely. The number visible must vary from time to time, as by
the movement of the earth some are buried and others disclosed. An old
man, whose testimony was generally reliable, stated, when speaking of
the figures on the outside of the mountain, that while those nearer the
sea were in the same condition as he always remembered them, those
farther from it were now more deeply buried than in his youth.
Various old people were brought out from the village at Hanga Roa to pay
visits to the camp, but the information forthcoming was never of great
extent; one elderly gentleman in particular took much more interest in
roaming round the mountain, recalling various scenes of his youth, than
in anything connected with the statues. A few names are still remembered
in connection with the individual figures, and are said to be those of
the makers of the images, and some proof is afforded of the reality of
the tradition by the fact that the clans of the persons named are
consistently given. Another class of names is, however, obviously
derived merely from local circumstances; one in the quarry, under a drip
from above, is known by the equivalent for “Dropping Water,” while a
series inside the crater are called after the birds which frequent the
cliff-side, “Kia-kia, Flying,” “Kia-kia, Sitting,” and so forth. A
solitary legend relates to an unique figure, resembling rather a block
than an image, which lies on the surface on the outside of the mountain
(no. 24, fig. 60). It is the single exception to the rule mentioned
above, that no evolution can be traced in the statues on the island. The
usual conception is there, and the hands are shown, but the head seems
to melt into the body and the ear and arm to have become confused. It is
said to have been the first image made and is known as Tai-haré-atua,
which tradition says was the name of the maker. He found himself unable
to fashion it properly, and went over to the other side of the island to
consult with a man who lived near Hanga Roa, named Rauwai-ika. He stayed
the night there, but the expert remained silent, and he was retiring
disappointed in the morning, when he was followed by his host, who
called him back. “Make your image,” said he, “like me,”—that is, in form
of a man.
On our first visit to the mountain, overcome by the wonder of the scene,
we turned to our Fernandez boy and asked him what he thought of the
statues. Like the classical curate, when the bishop inquired as to the
character of his egg, he struggled manfully between the desire to please
and a sense of truth; like the curate, he took refuge in compromise.
“Some of them,” he said doubtfully, he thought “were very nice.” If the
figures at first strike even the cultured observer as crude and archaic,
it must be remembered that not only are they the work of stone tools,
but to be rightly seen should not be scrutinised near at hand.
“Hoa-haka-nanaia,” for instance, is wholly and dismally out of place
under a smoky portico, but on the slopes of a mountain, gazing in
impenetrable calm over sea and land, the simplicity of outline is soon
found to be marvellously impressive. The longer the acquaintance the
more this feeling strengthens; there is always the sense of quiet
dignity, of suggestion and of mystery.
[Illustration:
FIG. 58.
STATUES ON RANO RARAKU, SHOWING DISTENSION OF EAR.
LOBE REPRESENTED AS A ROPE
[Nos. 27 and 29. Fig. 60.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 59.
LOBE CONTAINING A DISC.
[No. 23. Fig. 60.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 60A.
KEY TO DIAGRAMMATIC SKETCH.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 60.
EXTERIOR OF RANO RARAKU. EASTERN PORTION OF SOUTHERN ASPECT.
Diagrammatic sketch showing position of statues.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 61.
DIGGING OUT A STATUE.
For same image after excavation see fig. 69.
]
While the scene on Raraku always arouses a species of awe, it is
particularly inspiring at sunset, when, as the light fades, the images
gradually become outlined as stupendous black figures against the
gorgeous colouring of the west. The most striking sight witnessed on the
island was a fire on the hillside; in order to see our work more clearly
we set alight the long dry grass, always a virtuous act on Easter Island
that the livestock may have the benefit of fresh shoots; in a moment the
whole was a blaze, the mountain, wreathed in masses of driving smoke,
grew to portentous size, the quarries loomed down from above as dark
giant masses, and in the whirl of flame below the great statues stood
out calmly, with a quiet smile, like stoical souls in Hades.
The questions which arise are obvious: do these buried statues differ in
any way from those in the workings above, from those on the ahu or from
one another? were they put up on any foundation? and, above all, what is
the history of the mountain and the _raison d’être_ of the figures? In
the hope of throwing some light on these problems we started to dig them
out. It had originally been thought that the excavation of one or two
would give all the information which it was possible to obtain, but each
case was found to have unique and instructive features, and we finally
unearthed in this way, wholly or in part, some twenty or thirty statues.
It was usually easy to trace the stages by which the figures had been
gradually covered. On the top was a layer of surface soil, from 3 to 8
inches in depth; then came debris, which had descended from the quarry
above in the form of rubble, it contained large numbers of chisels, some
forty of which have been found in digging out one statue; below this was
the substance in which a hole had been dug to erect the image, it
sometimes consisted of clay and occasionally in part of rock. Not
unfrequently the successive descents of earth could be traced by the
thin lines of charcoal which marked the old surfaces, obviously the
result of grass or brushwood fires. The few statues which are in a
horizontal position are always on the surface (no. 31, fig. 60), and at
first give the impression that they have been abandoned in the course of
being brought down from the quarries; as they are frequently found close
to standing images, of which only the head is visible, it follows that,
if this is the correct solution, the work must still have been
proceeding when the earlier statues were already largely submerged. The
juxtaposition, however, occurs so often that it seems, on the whole,
more probable that the rush of earth which covered some, upset the
foundations of others, and either threw them down where they stood or
carried them with it on top of the flood. These various landslips allow
of no approximate deductions as to the date, in the manner which is
possible with successively deposited layers of earth.
To get absolutely below the base of an image was not altogether easy.
The first we attempted to dig out was one of the farther ones within the
crater (no. 19, fig. 47); it was found that, while the back of the hole
into which it had been dropped was excavated in the soft volcanic ash,
the front and remaining sides were of hard rock. This rock was cut to
the curvature of the figure at a distance of some 3 inches from it, and
as the chisel marks were horizontal, from right to left, the workmen
must have stood in the cup while preparing it: in clearing out the
alluvium between the wall of the cup and the figure, six stone
implements were found. The hands, which were about 1 foot below the
level of the rim, were perfectly formed. The next statue chosen for
excavation was also inside the crater (no. 107, fig. 47); it was most
easily attacked from the side, and this time it was possible to get low
enough to see that it stood on no foundation, and that the base instead
of expanding, as with those which stood on the ahu, contracted in such a
manner as to give a peg-shaped appearance; this confirmed the impression
made by the previous excavation, that the image was intended to remain
in its hole and was not, as some have stated, merely awaiting removal to
an ahu (fig. 62).
The story was shown not only in the sections of the excavation, but in
the degrees of weathering on the figure itself: the lowest part of the
image to above the elbow exhibited, by the sharpness of its outlines and
frequently of the chisel cuts also, that it had never been exposed, the
other portions being worn in relative degrees. Traces of the smoothness
of the original surface can still be seen above-ground in the more
protected portions of some of the statues, such as in the orbit and
under the chin (see frontispiece); but a much clearer impression is of
course gained of the finish and detail of the image when the unweathered
surface is exposed. The polish is often very beautiful, and pieces of
pumice, called “punga,” are found, with which the figures are said to
have been rubbed down. The fingers taper, and the excessive length of
the thumb-joint and nail are remarkable (fig. 72). The nipples are in
some cases so pronounced that the natives often characterised them as
feminine, but in no case which we came across did the statues represent
other than the nude male figure[23]; the navel is indicated by a raised
disc. On the statue with the contracting base, which is one of the best,
the surface modelling of the elbow-joint is clearly shown. The orbital
cavity in the figures on Raraku is rather differently modelled from
those on the ahu; in the statues on the mountain the position of the
eyeball is always indicated by a straight line below the brow, the orbit
has no lower border (fig. 72). On the terraces the socket is constantly
hollowed out as in the figure at the British Museum (fig. 31).
EXCAVATED IMAGES.
[Illustration:
FIG. 62.
Showing effect of weathering and peg-shaped base.
[No. 107. Fig. 47.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 63.
Showing scamped work in lower part of figure, no right hand carved,
and surface only coarsely chiselled.
[No. 36. Fig. 47.]
]
DESIGNS ON BACKS OF IMAGES.
[Illustration:
FIG. 64.
BACK OF AN EXCAVATED STATUE.
Showing (_a_) typical raised rings and girdle; (_b_) exceptional
incised carvings.
[No. 109. Fig. 47.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 65.
_P. Edmunds._
STATUE ON AN AHU AT ANAKENA.
Rings on centre and lower portion of back.
]
The eye is the only point in which the two sets vary, with the important
exception that some on the mountain have a type of back which never
appears on the ahu. This question of back proved to be of special
interest: in some images it remained exactly as when the figure left the
quarry, the whole was convex, giving it a thick and archaic appearance,
particularly as regards the neck; in other instances, the posterior was
beautifully modelled after the same fashion as those on the terraces,
the stone had been carefully chipped away till the ears stood out from
the back of the head, the neck assumed definite form, and the spine,
instead of standing out as a sharp ridge, was represented by an incised
line. This second type, when excavated, proved, to our surprise, to
possess a well-carved design in the form of a girdle shown by three
raised bands, this was surmounted by one or sometimes by two rings, and
immediately beneath it was another design somewhat in the shape of an M
(figs. 64 and 106). The whole was new, not only to us, but to the
natives, who greatly admired it. Later, when we knew what to look for,
traces of the girdle could be seen also on the figures on the ahu where
the arm had protected it from the weather. It was afterwards realised
with amusement that the discovery of this design might have been made
before leaving England by merely passing the barrier and walking behind
the statues in the Bloomsbury portico. One case was found, a statue at
Anakena, where a ring was visible, not only on the back but also on each
of the buttocks, and in view of subsequent information these lower rings
became of special importance. The girdle in this case consisted of one
line only; the detail of the carving had doubtless been preserved by
being buried in the sand (fig. 65). The two forms of back, unmodelled
and modelled, stand side by side on the mountain (figs. 66, 67).
The next step was to discover where and when the modelling was done.
Certainly not in the original place in the quarry, where it would be
impossible from the position in which the image was evolved; generally
speaking there was no trace of such work, and it was not until many
months later that new light was thrown on the matter. Then it was
remarked that in one of the standing statues on the outside of the hill,
which was buried up to the neck (fig. 59), while the right ear was most
carefully modelled, showing a disc, the left ear was as yet quite plain,
and that the back of the head also was not symmetrical. Excavations made
clear that the whole back was in course of transformation from the
boat-shaped to the modelled type, each workman apparently chipping away
where it seemed to him good (fig. 68). Two or three similar cases were
then found on which work was proceeding; but on the other hand, some of
the simpler backs were excavated to the foot, and others a considerable
distance, and there was no indication that any alteration was intended.
There are three possible explanations for these erect and partially
moulded statues: Firstly, it may have been the regular method for the
back to be completed after the statue was set up, in which case some
kind of staging must have been used; one of our guides had made a
remark, noted, but not taken very seriously at the moment, that “the
statues were set up to be finished”; some knowledge or tradition of such
work, therefore, appeared to linger. Secondly, the convex back may be
the older form, and those on which work was being done were being
modelled to bring them up-to-date. Alteration did at times take place; a
certain small image presented a very curious appearance both from the
proportion of the body, which was singularly narrow from back to front,
and because it was difficult to see how it remained in place as it was
apparently exposed to the base; it turned out that the figure had been
carved out of the head of an older statue, of which the body was buried
below (no. 14, fig. 60). Thirdly, these particular figures may have been
erected and left in an unfinished condition; if so, their deficiencies
were high up and would be obvious.
BACKS OF STANDING STATUES, RANO RARAKU.
[Illustration:
FIG. 66.
Unmodelled.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 67.
Modelled.
]
EXCAVATED STATUES.
[Illustration:
FIG. 68.
Showing back in process of being modelled. ]No. 23. Fig. 50.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 69.
Showing image wedged by boulders.
]
Scamping did not often occur, and when it did so it was in the concealed
portions. In one case the left hand was correctly modelled, but the
right was not even indicated beyond the wrist (fig. 63). The statue
shown in the frontispiece, which rejoices in the name of Piro-piro,
meaning “bad odour,”[24] stands at the foot of the slope, and appears to
remain as it was set up without further burial. It is a well-made
figure, probably one of the most recent, and the upper part of the back
is carefully moulded, but on digging it out it was found that the bottom
had not been finished, but left in the form of a rough excrescence of
stone; there was no ring, but a girdle had been carved on the protruding
portion, so that this was not intended to be removed. In another
instance a large head had fallen on a slope at such an angle that it was
impossible to locate the position of the body; curiosity led to
investigation, when it was found that the thing was a fraud, the
magnificent head being attached to a little dwarf trunk, which must have
been buried originally nearly to the neck to keep the top upright. These
instances of “jerry-building” confirm our impression that at any rate a
large number of the statues were intended to remain _in situ_.
Indications were found of two different methods of erection, and the
mode may have been determined by the nature of the ground. By the first
procedure the statue seems to have been placed on its face in the
desired spot, and a hole to have been dug beneath the base. The other
method was to undermine the base, with the statue lying face uppermost;
in several instances a number of large stones were found behind the back
of the figure, evidently having been used to wedge it while it was
dragged to the vertical. The upright position had sometimes been only
partially attained; one statue was still in a slanting attitude,
corresponding exactly to the slope of a hard clay wall behind it; the
interval between the two, varying from three yards to eighteen inches,
had been packed with sub-angular boulders which weighed about one
hundredweight, or as much as a man could lift (fig. 69).
A few of the figures bear incised markings rudely, and apparently
promiscuously, carved. This was first noted in the case of one of two
statues which stand together nearest to the entrance of the crater; here
it has been found possible to work the rock at a low level, and in the
empty quarry, from which they no doubt have been taken, two images have
been set up, one slightly in front of the other; six still unfinished
figures lie in close proximity (figs. 70 and 71). The standing figure,
nearest to the lake, bore a rough design on the face, and when it was
dug out the back was found to be covered with similar incised marks. The
natives were much excited, and convinced that we should receive a large
sum of money in England when the photograph of these was produced, for
nothing ever dispelled the illusion that the expedition was a financial
speculation. It was these carvings more especially that we ourselves
hastily endeavoured to cover up when, on the arrival of Admiral von
Spee’s Squadron, we daily expected a visit from the officers on board.
The markings have certainly not been made by the same practised hand as
the raised girdle and rings, and appear to be comparatively recent (fig.
64). Other statues were excavated, where similar marks were noticed,
but, except in this case, digging led practically always to
disappointment. It was the part above the surface only which had been
used as a block on which to scrawl design, from the same impulse
presumably as impels the school-boy of to-day to make marks with chalk
on a hoarding. On one ahu the top of the head of a statue has been
decorated with rough faces, the carving evidently having been done after
the statue had fallen.
In digging out the image with the tattooed back, we came across the one
and only burial which was found in connection with these figures; it was
close to it and at the level of the rings. The long bones, the patella,
and base of the skull were identified; they lay in wet soil, crushed and
intermixed with large stones, so the attitude could not be determined
beyond the fact that the head was to the right of the image and the long
bones to the left. These bones had become of the consistency of moist
clay, and could only be identified by making transverse sections of them
with a knife, after first cleaning portions longitudinally by careful
scraping.
[Illustration:
FIG. 70.
TWO IMAGES ERECTED IN QUARRY. FRONT VIEW.
Prior to excavation.
[Nos. 108–109. Fig. 47.]
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 71.
TWO IMAGES ERECTED IN QUARRY. BACK VIEW.
After excavation.
[Nos. 109–108. Fig. 47. See also Fig. 64.]
]
In several other instances human bones were discovered near the statues,
but, like the carvings, they appeared to be of later date than the
images. One skull was found beneath a figure which was lying face
downwards on the surface; another fragment must have been placed behind
the base after the statue had fallen forward. The natives stated that in
the epidemics which ravaged the island the statues afforded a natural
mark for depositing remains. In the same way a head near an ahu, which
was at first thought to be that of a standing statue, turned out to be
broken from the trunk and put up pathetically to mark the grave of a
little child. There is a roughly constructed ahu on the outside of Rano
Raraku at the corner nearest to the sea, of which more will be said
hereafter, and a quarried block of rock on the very top of the westerly
peak was also said to be used for the exposure of the dead (no. 75, fig.
47). Close to this block there are some very curious circular pits cut
in the rock; one examined was 5 feet 6 inches in depth and 3 feet 6
inches in diameter (no. 74, fig. 47). It is possible they were used as
vaults, but, if so, the shape is quite different from those of the ahu.
The conclusion arrived at was that the statues themselves were not
directly connected with burials. There seems also no reason to believe
that they are put up in any order or method; they appear to have been
erected on any spot handy to the quarries where there was sufficient
earth, or even, as has been seen, in the quarry itself when
circumstances permitted.
_The South-Eastern Side of Rano Raraku_ is a problem in itself. The
great wall formed by the cliff is like the ramparts of some giant castle
rent by vertical fissures. The greatest height, the top of the peak, is
about five hundred feet, of which the cliff forms perhaps half, the
lower part being a steep but comparatively smooth bank of detritus. Over
the grassy surface of this bank are scattered numerous fragments of
rock, weighing from a few pounds to many tons, which have fallen down
from above. The kitchen tent in our camp at the foot had a narrow escape
from being demolished by one of these stones, which nearly carried it
away in the impetus of its descent. It has never been suggested that
this face of the mountain was being worked, nevertheless, it was
subsequently difficult to understand how we lived so long below it,
gazing at it daily, before we appreciated the fact that here also,
although in much lesser degree, were both finished and embryo images. At
last one stone was definitely seen to be in the form of a head, and
excavation showed it to be an erected and buried statue. A few other
figures were found standing and prostrate, and some unfinished images;
these last, however, were in no case being hewn out of solid rock, but
wrought into shape out of detached stones. On the whole, it is not
probable that this portion was ever a quarry, in the same way as the
western side and the interior of the crater. It is, of course,
impossible to say what may be hidden beneath the detritus, but the lower
part of the cliff is too soft a rock to be satisfactorily hewn, and the
workmen appear simply to have seized on fragments which have fallen from
above. “Here,” they seem to have said, “is a good stone; let us turn it
into a statue.”
One day, when making a more thorough examination of the slope, our
attention was excited by a small level plateau, about half-way up, from
which protruded two similar pieces of stone next to one another. They
were obviously giant noses of which the nostrils faced the cliff.
Digging was bound to follow, but it proved a long business, as the
figures it revealed were particularly massive and corpulent. Their
position was horizontal, side by side, and the effect, more particularly
when looking down at them from the cliff above, was of two great bodies
lying in their graves (fig. 73). The thing was a mystery; they were
certainly not in a quarry, but if they had once been erect, why had they
faced the mountain, instead of conforming to the rule of having their
back to it? Orientation could not account for it, as other statues on
the same slope were differently placed. Then again, if they had once
stood and then fallen, and in proof of this one head was broken off from
the trunk, how did it come about that they were lying horizontally on a
sloping hillside? The upper part of the bodies had suffered somewhat
from weather, and a small round basin, such as natives use for domestic
purposes, had been hollowed out in one abdomen, but the hands were quite
sharp and unweathered. We used to scramble up at off moments, and stand
gazing down at them trying to read their history.
It became at last obvious they had once been set up with the lower part
inserted in the ground to the usual level, and later been intentionally
thrown down. For this purpose a level trench must have been cut through
the sloping side of the hill at a depth corresponding to the base of the
standing images, and into this the figures had fallen. While they lay in
the trench with the upper part of the bodies exposed, one had been found
a nice smooth stone for household use. A charcoal soil level showed
clearly where the surface had been at this epoch, which must have been
comparatively recent, as an iron nail was found in it. Finally, a
descent of earth had covered all but the noses, leaving them in the
condition in which we found them.
[Illustration:
FIG. 72.
EXCAVATED STATUE.
South-east side, Rano Raraku. Showing form of hands.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 73.
PROSTRATE STATUES, SOUTH-EAST SIDE, RANO RARAKU, AFTER EXCAVATION.
]
This, though a satisfactory explanation as far as it went, did not
account for the fact that the figures were facing the mountain, and here
for once tradition came to our help. These images had, it was said,
marked a boundary; the line of demarcation led between them, from the
fissure in the cliff above right down to the middle statue in the great
Tongariki terrace. To cross it was death; but as to what the boundary
connoted no information was forthcoming; there seemed no great tribal
division—the same clans ranged over the whole of the district. When,
however, the line is followed through the crevice into the crater (fig.
47), it is found to form on both sides the boundary where the
image-making ceased (no. 1 is a detached figure being brought down, not
in a quarry), and was probably the line of taboo which preserved the
rights of the image-makers. I was later given the cheering information
that a certain “devil” frequented the site of my house, which was just
on the image side of the boundary, who particularly resented the
presence of strangers, and was given to strangling them in the night.
The spirits, who inhabit the crater, are still so unpleasant, that my
Kanaka maid objected to taking clothes there to wash, even in daylight,
till assured that our party would be working within call.
_Isolated Statues._—The finished statues, as distinct from those in the
quarries, have so far been spoken of under two heads, those which once
adorned the ahu and those still standing on the slope of Raraku; there
is, however, another class to consider, which, for want of a better
name, will be termed the Isolated Statues. It has already been stated
that, as Raraku is approached, a number of figures lie by the side of
the modern track, others are round the base of the mountain, and yet
other isolated specimens are scattered about the island. All these
images are prostrate and lie on the surface of the ground, some on their
backs and some on their faces. These were the ones which, according to
legend, were being moved from the quarries to the ahu by the old lady
when she stopped the work in her wrath; or, according to another
account, quoted by a visitor before our day, “They walked, and some fell
by the way.”
There must, we felt, have been roads along which they were taken, but
for long we kept a look-out for such without success. At last a lazy
Sunday afternoon ride, with no particular object, took one of us to the
top of a small hill, some two miles to the west of Raraku. The level
rays of the sinking sun showed up the inequalities of the ground, and,
looking towards the sea, along the level plain of the south coast, the
old track was clearly seen; it was slightly raised over lower ground and
depressed somewhat through higher, and along it every few hundred yards
lay a statue. Detailed study confirmed this first impression. At times
over hard stony ground the trail was lost, but its main drift was
indisputable; it was about nine feet or ten feet in width, the
embankments were in places two feet above the surrounding ground, and
the cuttings three feet deep. The road can be traced from the
south-western corner of the mountain, with one or two gaps, nearly to
the foot of Rano Kao, but the succession of statues continues only about
half the distance. It generally runs some few hundred yards further
inland than the present road, but a branch, with a statue, leads down to
the ahu of Tea-tenga on the coast, and, another portion, either a branch
or a detour of the main road, also with a statue, goes to the cove of
Akahanga with its two large image ahu (fig. 32). There are on this road
twenty-seven statues in all, covering a distance of some four miles, but
fourteen of them, including two groups of three, are in the first mile.
Their heights are from fifteen feet to over thirty feet, but generally
over twenty feet.
As a clue had now been obtained, it was comparatively simple to trace
two other roads from Raraku. One leads from the crater, and connects it
with the western district of the island. It commences at the gap in the
mountain wall, in the centre of which an image lies on its face with
weird effect, as if descending head foremost into the plain; and runs
for a while roughly parallel to the first road but about a mile further
inland. It is not quite so regular as the south road, and is marked for
a somewhat less distance by a sequence of images, some fourteen in
number, which in the same way grow further apart as the distance from
the mountain increases. When the succession of statues ceases, the road
divides; one track turns to the north-west, and reaches the seaboard
through a small pass in the western line of cones; the other continues
as far as a more southerly pass in the same succession of heights. In
each pass there is a statue.
[Illustration:
FIG. 74.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 75.
AN IMAGE ON ITS BACK.
Unbroken; if erect, would face westwards.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 76.
AN IMAGE ON ITS FACE.
Showing by cleavage and only partial fall that it has been erect and
faced westwards.
]
The third road, which runs from Raraku in a northerly direction, is much
shorter than those to the south and west. It has only four statues
covering a distance of perhaps a mile, and it then disappears; if,
however, the figures round the base of the mountain belonged to it, and
they lie in the same direction, it started from the southern corner of
the mountain, led in front of the standing statues and across the trail
from the crater, before taking its northward route up the eastern plain.
The furthest of the images is the largest which has been moved; it lies
on its back, badly broken, but the total of the fragments gives a height
of thirty-six feet four inches. In addition to these three avenues,
there are indications that some of the statues on the south-eastern side
of Raraku may have been on a fourth road along that side beneath the
cliff.
So far the matter was sufficiently clear, but another problem was still
unsolved: if the images were really being moved to their respective ahu
all round the coast, how was it that, with very few exceptions, they
were all found in the neighbourhood of Raraku? If also they were being
moved, what was the method pursued, for some lay on their backs and some
on their faces? With the hope of elucidating this great question of the
means of transport, we dug under and near one or two of the single
figures without achieving our end—nothing was found; but the close study
which the work necessitated called attention to the fact that on one of
them the lines of weathering could not have been made with the figure in
its present horizontal attitude. The rain had evidently collected on the
head and run down the back; it must therefore have stood for a
considerable time in a vertical position. It was again a noticeable fact
that, though some single figures are lying unbroken (fig. 75), others,
like the large one on the north road, proved to be so shattered that no
amount of normal disintegration or shifting of soil could account for
their condition—they had obviously fallen. So wedded, however, were we
at this time to the theory that they were in course of transport, that
it was seriously considered whether they could have been moved in an
upright position. The point was settled by finding one day by the side
of the track, some two miles from the mountain, a partially buried head.
This was excavated, and a statue found that had been originally set up
in a hole and, later, undermined, causing it to fall forward. This was
the only instance of an isolated figure where the burial had been to any
depth, but in various other cases it was then seen that soil had been
removed from the base, and one or two more of the figures had not quite
fallen (fig. 76).
[Illustration:
FIG. 77.—DIAGRAM SHOWING CEREMONIAL AVENUE OF AHU HANGA PAUKURA.
]
When the whole number of the statues on the roads were in imagination
re-erected, it was found that they had all originally stood with their
backs to the hill. Rano Raraku was, therefore, approached by at least
three magnificent avenues, on each of which the pilgrim was greeted at
intervals by a stone giant guarding the way to the sacred mountain (map
of roads). One of the ahu on the south coast, Hanga Paukura, has been
approached by a similar avenue of five statues facing the visitor. These
five images when first seen were a great puzzle, as some of them are so
embedded in the earth that their backs are even with the levelled sward
in front of the ahu; later there seemed little doubt that, like the two
giants on the south-east side of Raraku, trenches had been dug into
which they had fallen. Subsequently, a sixth statue was discovered, the
other side of a modern wall, weathered and worn away, but of Raraku
stone and still upright. This is the only instance of an erect figure to
be found elsewhere than on the mountain (fig. 77).
[Illustration:
FIG. 78.
AHU PARO,
With image which was the last to be overthrown.
Foreground.—Hillock, traditionally utilised for placing the crown in
position.
Distance.—Eastern Headland, with three cones, from which Spanish
sovereignty was proclaimed in 1770.
]
In addition to the images which have stood in these processional roads,
there are, excluding one or two figures near the mountain whose _raison
d’être_ is somewhat doubtful, fourteen isolated statues in various parts
of the island, for whose position no certain reason could be found. Some
of these may have belonged to inland ahu which have disappeared, or they
may be solitary memorials to mark some particular spots, but the greater
number appear to have stood near tracks of some sort. Some of these last
may have been boundary stones, and in this class may perhaps fall the
smaller statue now at the British Museum, which is a very inferior
specimen. According to local information it stood almost half-way on the
track leading from Vinapu to Mataveri along the bottom of Rano Kao; the
hole from which it was dug was pointed out, and our informant declared
that he remembered it standing, and that the people used to dance round
it. The larger figure at the British Museum was in a unique position,
which will be spoken of later.
No statues were, therefore, found of which it could be said that they
were in process of being removed, and the mode of transport remains a
mystery. An image could be moved down from the quarry by means of banks
of earth, and though requiring labour and skill, the process is not
inconceivable. Similarly, the figures may have been, and probably were,
erected on the terraces in the same way, being hauled up on an
embankment of earth made higher than the pedestals and then dropped on
them. Near Paro, the ahu where the last statue was overthrown, there is
a hillock, and tradition says that a causeway was made from it to the
head of the tall figure which stood upon the ahu, and along this the hat
was rolled (fig. 78)—a piece of lore which seems hardly likely to have
been invented by a race having no connection with the statues. But the
problem remains, how was the transport carried out along the level? The
weight of some amounted to as much as 40 or 50 tons. It would simplify
matters very much if there were any reason to suppose that the images
were moved, as was the case with the hats, before being wrought, merely
as cylinders of stone, in which case it would be possible to pass a rope
under and over it, thus parbuckling the stone or rolling it along, but
the evidence is all to the contrary. There is no trace whatever of an
unfinished image on or near an ahu, while, as we have seen, they are
found at all stages in the quarry. Presumably rollers were employed, but
there appears never to have been much wood, or material for cordage, in
the island, and it is not easy to see how sufficient men could bring
strength to bear on the block. Even if the ceremonial roads were used
when possible, these fragile figures have been taken to many distant
ahu, up hill and down dale, over rough and stony ground, where there is
no trace of any road at all.
The natives are sometimes prepared to state that the statues were thrown
down by human means, they never have any doubt that they were moved by
supernatural power. We were once inspecting an ahu built on a natural
eminence, one side was sheer cliff, the other was a slope of 29 feet, as
steep as a house roof, near the top a statue was lying. The most
intelligent of our guides turned to me significantly. “Do you mean to
tell me,” he said, “that that was not done by _mana_?” The darkness is
not rendered less tantalising by the reflection that could centuries
roll away and the old scenes be again enacted before us, the workers
would doubtless exclaim in bewildered surprise at our ignorance, “But
how could you do it any other way?”
Besides the ceremonial roads and their continuations, there are traces
of an altogether different track which is said to run round the whole
seaboard of the island. It is considered to be supernatural work, and is
known as Ara Mahiva, “ara” meaning road and “Mahiva” being the name of
the spirit or deity who made it. On the southern side it has been
obliterated in making the present track—it was there termed the “path
for carrying fish”; but on the northern and western coasts, where for
much of the way it runs on the top of high cliffs, such a use is out of
the question. It can be frequently seen there like a long persistent
furrow, and where its course has been interrupted by erosion, no fresh
track had been made further inland; it terminates suddenly on the broken
edge, and resumes its course on the other side. It is best seen in
certain lights running up both the western and southern edges of Rano
Kao. Its extent and regularity appeared to preclude the idea of
landslip. There is no reason to suppose that it is due to the imported
livestock, and it has no connection with ahu, or the old native centres
of population, yet to have been so worn by naked feet it must constantly
have been used. This silent witness to a forgotten past is one of the
most mysterious and impressive things on the island.
[Illustration:
FIG. 79.
THE CRATER FROM WHICH THE HATS OF THE IMAGES WERE HEWN, ON THE SIDE OF
THE HILL PUNAPAU.
Rano Kao in the distance.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 80.
AN UNFINISHED HAT NEAR THE QUARRY.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 81.
A FINISHED HAT AT AHU HANGA O-ORNU; OTHERS IN THE DISTANCE.
]
STONE CROWNS OF THE IMAGES
Mention must finally be made of the crowns or hats which adorned the
figures on the ahu. Their full designation is said to be “Hau (hats)
hiterau moai,” but they are always alluded to merely as “hiterau” or
“hitirau.”
These coverings for the head were cylindrical in form, the bottom being
slightly hollowed out into an oval depression in order to fit on to the
head of the image; the depression was not in the centre, but left a
larger margin in front, so that the brim projected over the eyes of the
figure, a fashion common in native head-dresses. They are said by the
present inhabitants to have been kept in place by being wedged with
white stones. The top was worked into a boss or knot. The material is a
red volcanic tuff found in a small crater on the side of a larger
volcano, generally known as Punapau, not far from Cook’s Bay (fig. 79).
In the crater itself are the old quarries. A few half-buried hats may be
seen there, and the path up to it, and for some hundreds of yards from
the foot of the mountain, is strewn with them. They are at this stage
simply large cylinders, from 4 feet to 8 feet high, from 6 feet to 9
feet across (fig. 80), and they were obviously conveyed to the ahu in
this form and there carved into shape (fig. 81). An unwrought cylinder
is still lying at a hundred yards from the ahu of Anakena. The finished
hats are not more than 3 feet 10 inches to 6 feet in height, with
addition of 6 inches to 2 feet for the knob; the measurement across the
crown is from about 5 feet 6 inches to 8 feet. The stone is more easily
broken and cut than that of the statues, and while many crowns survive,
many more have been smashed in falling or used as building materials.
It is a noteworthy fact that the images on Raraku never had hats, nor
have any of the isolated statues; they were confined to those on the
ahu.