Easter Island is a remote island in the south pacific ocean, over four thousand kilometers from Peru, the native name is Rapa Nui and was once home to a Polynesian population, whose history remains ambiguous.
It’s best known for its giant carved human figures called moai. Among the nine hundred moai we can find polygonal block work that exhibits all the biological signatures of massive cell structure and therefore also displays some similarities with structures in Peru.
Easter Island
Pre-Inca, Peru
(Fig.1). The block structure found around the island is almost identical to what we see at the pre-Inca sites. You will notice the small block surrounded by much larger blocks.
(Fig.2).We can also see remains of plasmodesmata protruding from the blocks at both sites.
(Fig.3). We can see some similar practices between the moai carves and the pre-Inca. As you can see from the images above the carving of heads and figures into the block structure of the massive cell walls was shared between the cultures.
Pre-Inca, Peru
Easter Island
We are told three volcanoes formed Easter Island half a million years ago. (Fig.4). In the images, below you can see Rano Raraku. It is located close to the coast in the southeast part of the island and is named the quarry. The pooled water in the top of these structures are known as crater lakes; there are three crater lakes but no streams on the island.
The ancient name of this place was Maunga Eo, meaning Fragrant Hill, it is assumed to be because of a mythical ancient plant that used to permeate the whole area with its fragrant scent. Could they ever have considered that the people here were carving into the aromatic plant? Considering they hold the idea that this structure is composed of ancient volcanic ash it's not surprising.
Woody fragrances are used today in many perfumes; warm sandalwood, drier and sharper cedar and vetiver are standard. When you consider the massive amounts of carving around the base of the biological structure it's no wonder the smell that permeated the whole area is part of their oral tradition.
You can see in the images how they were carving the moai out of the base of what appears t have been a structure very similar to the base of a tree. The markings left by the carvers are quite similar to the markings we see around the Unfinished Obelisk
In 2012 digging was initiated on the island to uncover two of the moai, The Easter Island Statue Project was set up to excavate the two figures. Some of the things the team discovered are that these statues are not deliberately buried up to the necks by the moai carvers as has been previously assumed, but were buried by other natural means.The people erecting the figures did it on site and placed them on top of large 'stone' slabs. One of the most significant discoveries for me is the "rope guides" cut into the 'bedrock' around post holes. They have come to the conclusion that the channels are cut to guide the rope, they would never consider that the channels were cut by friction from the taught rope acting like a saw as the moai carvers pulled the giant statues into place, hence; rope cut channels or guides.
The excavation uncovered nearly two pounds of red pigments, along with human bones.
Petroglyphs cover the backs of both moai, Underlying these carvings is a complex symbol found on less than 100 statues. Previous researchers refer to the design as the "ring and girdle", and it's likened to a "sun and rainbow.
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Figure 1.
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Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Pre-Inca
Easter Island