Moai

archaeology

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is best known for its monumental stone statues called moai and a history that has long been framed as an ecological and societal collapse. The myster...

archaeology

The question of how the Easter Island statues—known as moai—were made begins with stone. Nearly all moai were carved from tuff, a compressed volcanic ash quarried at Rano Ra...

archaeology

The enduring image of Easter Island is colossal stone figures called moai, lined along coastal cliffs and set on ceremonial platforms called ahu. To the public, they stand as an...

Archaeology & Cultural Heritage

Easter Island statues, called moai, are stone figures carved by the early Rapa Nui people between roughly 1200 and 1600 CE. They represent departed ancestors whose presence is t...