Easter Island Head Statue, Easter Island Statues, Natural Granite Appearance Moai Statue

Natural Granite Appearance Easter Island Head Moai Statue

This Easter Island Head Statue has a natural texture that resembles real stone, making it a perfect garden accent. This particular statue is manufactured from a durable resin to replicate a stone statue, but has a rich and textured granite appearance that makes it look realistic as concrete or cement. The hand crafted casting features a rendering of the massive, iconic Moai Statue heads formed by the ancient Rapa Nui people. It may be lightweight, but it’s extremely durable. Even after installation, the statue can be filled with gravel or sand to add weight and stability. Its sturdiness ensures its stability in any environment, even in severe weather conditions. This statue is made of a type of resin that’s well known for its durability and lightweight properties. Instead of a heavy, expensive concrete statue, this Easter Island Head can be effortlessly carried and installed in seconds. The Moai are statues found on Easter Island, in most cases they are monolithic statues, that is, obtained and excavated from a single block of volcanic tuff. Some have on their heads a squat cylinder (pukao) obtained from another type of reddish tuff, interpreted as a headdress or as the hairstyle once widespread among the males of the island.

They are part of larger ceremonial complexes, as they are similarly known from other areas of Polynesian culture. The exact age of the Moai is controversial, but it has now been established that they are no more than 1500 years old at all. Sebastian Englert numbered and cataloged over 638 statues, the Archaeological Survey and Statue Project from 1969 to 1976 determined 887, but they were probably over 1000 originally. High from 2.5 meters / 8.2 foot up to 10 meters / 32.8 foot (there is one, however incomplete, of 21 meters / 68.9 foot), often only the heads of the statues are visible, but below there is almost always an underground body, on the back of the statues are engraved with symbols in rongorongo, in particular the “sickle” called Vaka, which could represent a canoe, probably these symbols engraved on the statues indicate the identity of the artist, or group, owner of the work. Those about 10 meters / 32.8 foot high have a weight that can vary from 70 to 80 tons. The Moai all have a similar appearance, the lips tightened with the chin up, the attitude is hieratic and severe enough to arouse respect. The figures end immediately below the navel, with some statues the “maro“, the loincloth that covers the penis, indicated.

The fingers (nails) of the hands and ears are extremely long. The figures also differ in the individually shaped thong knot (a tattoo according to a different interpretation) on the lower back. However, these subtleties were not maintained in all figures. Today the eye sockets are empty, but they once had an obsidian pupil surrounded by a white coral sclera (thanks to the archaeological excavations at Anakena Beach, 1978 “ahu Nau Nau“), as can be seen in the only moai sighted person remained (and restored). There are 1000 known Moais on the surface of the island. Almost all of these have been obtained from a basaltic tuff from the Rano Raraku crater, where there are almost 400 incomplete statues. This heterogeneous-grained rock is relatively soft, unlike basalt, which results from the solidification of a magma. The hats, on the other hand, were obtained from a reddish tuff from the small crater of Puna Pau, about 10 kilometers / 5.4 miles from Rano Raraku. There is evidence that some of the statues may have been painted in color. Alfred Métraux found traces of red and black paint in a protected location on a statue on Ahu Vinapu.

The copy in the British Museum also shows slight traces of red and white paint. Despite the seemingly uniform appearance, each figure was individualized. Wilhelm Geiseler reports that a village chief was able to name every single Moai, even the unfinished statues on the Rano Raraku. Some moais are also decorated, for example an unfinished statue of Rano Raraku is engraved with a ship. The Moai with the name Hoa Hakananai’a (Rapa Nui for “stolen friend” or “hidden friend“) is unique. The figure was found in a house of the Orongo cult site on the edge of the Rano Kao crater and is now in the British Museum in London. The appearance of the basalt sculpture, which is only 2.40 meters / 7.9 foot high, corresponds to the usual type, but the back is covered with depictions of birdmen, dance paddles (Ao and Rapa) and vulvas. Ethnologist Heide-Margaret Esen-Baur considers it the main sanctuary of the Tangata Manu cult on Easter Island. Thor Heyerdahl believed that the figure served as the prototype of all statues of the classical period. Natural Granite Appearance Moai Statue sizes: 15 inches / 38 cm x 12.5 inches / 31.5 cm x 28 inches / 71 cm.