Moai, also spelled moꞌai (pronounced MOH-eye), are large stone statues created by the Rapa Nui people on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in eastern Polynesia between 1250 and 1500. Most of these statues remain at Rano Raraku, the main place where they were carved, but many were moved to stone platforms called ahu around the island's edges. Nearly all moai have large heads that make up three-eighths of the statue's total height, and they do not have legs. The statues represent the faces of honored ancestors. While the large stone moai are most well-known, the Rapa Nui also made smaller wooden statues, including moꞌai kavakava (male), moꞌai paepae or papa (female), and moꞌai taŋata (male).
When Europeans first arrived on the island in 1722, the statues still stood facing inland across the land of their clans. However, by the late 1800s, all the statues had fallen. They were likely knocked over during the late 1700s and early 1800s, possibly because of conflicts between tribes or because of contact with Europeans.
Creating and moving more than 900 statues is considered a major achievement. The tallest statue, called Paro, was almost 10 meters (33 feet) tall and weighed 82 tonnes (81 long tons; 90 short tons). The heaviest statue, which was shorter and wider, was at Ahu Tongariki and weighed 86 tonnes (85 long tons; 95 short tons). One unfinished statue, if completed, would have been about 21 meters (69 feet) tall and weighed between 145 and 165 tonnes (143–162 long tons; 160–182 short tons). New statues continue to be found as of 2023.
Description
The moai are large stone statues, and their simple style shows shapes common in Polynesia. These statues are made from volcanic tuff, which is hardened ash from volcanoes. Carvers first outlined human figures in the rock wall and then chipped away the surrounding stone until only the image remained. The heads of the moai are much larger than the rest of the body, with a ratio of three to five times the head size compared to the trunk. This feature reflects the Polynesian belief that the head is sacred. The statues have thick eyebrows, long noses with a unique fishhook-shaped curl at the nostrils, thin lips that stick out slightly, and long, oval-shaped ears. The jawline is clearly visible against the short neck. The bodies are heavy, and sometimes the collarbones are faintly carved. The arms are carved in a shallow relief and are shown in different positions, with hands and long fingers resting on the hips or meeting at the loincloth. The backs are not detailed, but some statues have patterns on the buttocks and lower back. Most moai do not have visible legs, except for one statue that is kneeling.
Although the moai are full-body statues, they are sometimes called "Easter Island heads" in some books. This is partly because the heads are much larger than the rest of the body and partly because many photos show statues on the slopes of Rano Raraku, where they are partially buried. This has led people to mistakenly believe the statues have no bodies. Some statues at Rano Raraku have been uncovered, and their full bodies have been seen, including markings that were protected from weathering by their burial.
The average height of the moai is about 4 meters (13 feet), with a base width of about 1.6 meters (5.2 feet). Each statue weighs around 12.5 tonnes (13.8 tons). Over 900 moai have been identified, and 947 of them were carved from tuff at Rano Raraku, where 394 statues in various stages of completion remain visible today. Others were carved from basalt, trachyte, or fragile red scoria. After carving, the statues were rubbed with pumice to smooth their surfaces.
The moai are known for their large, wide noses, prominent chins, rectangular ears, and deep eye slits. Their bodies are usually squatting, with arms in different positions and no legs. Most statues are placed on platforms called ahu along the coast, facing inland toward the community. Some ahu, like Ahu Akivi, are inland and face the sea to help travelers find the island. A legend says seven men waited for their king to arrive. A 2019 study suggested ancient people believed carving the moai improved soil fertility and food supplies.
Later moai had pukao, or topknots, on their heads, representing the hair of chieftains. According to local tradition, the spiritual power called mana was stored in the hair. The pukao were carved from red scoria, a lightweight rock from Puna Pau. Red is considered a sacred color in Polynesia, and the pukao added extra importance to the statues.
When first created, the moai were polished with pumice. However, the tuff used for most statues erodes easily, so the best place to see surface details is on statues made from basalt or in old records of protected statues. Less eroded statues often have designs on their backs and buttocks. In 1914, the Routledge expedition linked these designs to traditional tattooing, which had been banned by missionaries. Until modern DNA studies, this was key evidence that the moai were made by the Rapa Nui people, not by a separate group from South America.
At least some moai were painted. One statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art had a reddish color. Another, Hoa Hakananai'a, was painted maroon and white until 1868, when it was taken to the British Museum in London. Some people now want it returned to Rapa Nui.
History
The statues were carved by the original Polynesians who lived on the island, mostly between 1250 and 1500. These statues, called moai, were placed on ahu (stone platforms) and were meant to honor deceased ancestors. They may also have represented powerful living or former chiefs and showed the importance of a family’s status. The size of a moai was a sign of the chief’s power: "The larger the statue placed on an ahu, the more mana the chief who commissioned it had." Easter Islanders competed to build the largest statues, as shown by the different sizes of the moai.
Completed statues were moved to ahu near the coast and sometimes placed on top of pukao, red stone cylinders. Creating and moving the moai was very hard work. Carving each statue required time and effort, and then the statues had to be transported to their final spots and set up.
The quarries in Rano Raraku were suddenly abandoned, leaving behind many tools and unfinished statues. In the 1800s, some people thought the island was part of a sunken continent and that most moai were underwater. This idea is no longer believed. Today, it is not clear which groups of Rapa Nui people carved the statues. Oral traditions say the moai were made by either a special class of skilled carvers or by members of each clan. Oral histories also mention that the Rano Raraku quarry was divided into areas for each clan.
When Europeans first visited the island, it had few trees. This made it hard to understand how the statues were moved. Studies of pollen and charcoal in sediment samples from the island’s lakes show that forests were cut down between 800 and 1200 CE as people settled there, and again before 1700.
New archaeological research has changed how people think about the moai. Scientists now use physical evidence, experiments, and landscape studies instead of old stories or guesses. These methods allow researchers to test all theories fairly. Studies combining environmental science and experiments show how the ancient people lived and worked.
It is still unknown exactly how the moai were moved, but many theories exist. Early researchers thought people used ropes, wooden sleds, or rollers to move the statues along flat paths. Another idea is that the statues were rolled on logs, requiring 50–150 people. Some theories suggested hundreds of workers were needed, but recent studies show a different method. Scientists believe the statues were pulled upright using ropes tied to both sides, making them "walk" by tilting them from side to side.
Older ideas about moving the statues with sleds or rollers were not supported because there were not enough trees left on the island. Evidence of deforestation suggests the islanders may not have had enough wood for such tools. Modern scholars now think the statues were moved by rocking them upright with ropes.
Oral stories say the statues were moved by divine power. One story claims a king named Tuu Ku Ihu used the god Makemake to move them, while another says a woman ordered the statues to move. Today, scientists believe the main method was rocking the statues upright. Moving a statue on a sledge, as Europeans did in the 1860s, would have needed 1,500 people for the largest moai. In 1998, Jo Anne Van Tilburg tested a method using a sledge on rollers and found 60 people could move a nine-tonne moai.
In 1986, an experiment with a five-tonne and a nine-tonne moai used ropes around the head and base, with eight and 16 workers, respectively. The statues were rocked side to side, but the experiment ended early due to damage. Thor Heyerdahl estimated this method could move a 20-tonne statue 320 feet (100 meters) per day. Other scholars doubted this because of the damage caused by rocking.
Experiments show the islanders used creative methods to move the statues. No single method was used; instead, they adapted based on distance, resources, and the number of people. These methods proved the islanders solved the problem with practical skills, not magic or brute force.
In 2003, Charles Love tested moving a 10-tonne statue using sled runners on log rollers. He found 25 people could move the statue 150 feet (46 meters) in two minutes. He also suggested upright posts might have helped push the statues up slopes. These experiments highlight the islanders’ ingenuity in moving heavy statues over rough terrain.
Preservation and restoration
From 1955 to 1978, an American archaeologist named William Mulloy studied the creation, movement, and placement of the large stone statues on Easter Island. His work on Rapa Nui included examining the Akivi-Vaiteka Complex and restoring Ahu Akivi in 1960; studying and repairing Ahu Ko Te Riku, Ahu Vai Uri, and the Tahai Ceremonial Complex in 1970; investigating and fixing two ahu at Hanga Kio'e in 1972; studying and restoring the ceremonial village at Orongo in 1974; and conducting many other archaeological surveys across the island.
The Rapa Nui National Park and the moai statues were added to the 1972 UN agreement about protecting the world’s cultural and natural heritage. Because of this, they were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
Over the years, many groups have mapped the statues, including Father Sebastian Englert and Chilean researchers. The EISP (Easter Island Statue Project) did research and recorded information about many moai on Rapa Nui and artifacts in museums outside the island. The project’s goal is to learn about the statues’ original purpose, location, and meaning. Results are shared with Rapa Nui families and local groups responsible for protecting the moai. Other studies were done by Britton Shepardson, Terry L. Hunt, and Carl P. Lipo.
In 2008, a Finnish tourist broke off a piece of a moai’s ear. The tourist was fined $17,000 and banned from the island for three years.
In 2020, an empty truck crashed into a moai, breaking the statue and causing very serious damage.
In 2022, an unknown number of moai in Rano Raraku were damaged by a wildfire that covered 150 to 250 acres. The mayor of Rapa Nui, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, said the fire was started on purpose. Other officials believe some of the damaged statues cannot be fixed.
Unicode character
In 2010, the moai statue was added as an emoji (🗿) in Unicode version 6.0 under the code point U+1F5FF. The official name of the emoji is "moyai," which refers to a statue near Shibuya Station in Tokyo. This statue was a gift from the people of Nii-jima, an island 163 kilometers from Tokyo but managed by the city. The statue was inspired by the moai statues of Easter Island. Its name combines "moai" with the Japanese word "moyai" (催合い), which means "helping each other."
Unicode included this emoji by adopting images originally created by Japanese mobile companies in the 1990s. At first, different companies used slightly different designs, some showing a moai and others showing the moyai statue. Google and Microsoft initially used designs similar to the moyai statue, but later changed their designs to look more like moai.
Although the emoji was created to represent the moyai statue, it is now often used online as a meme to show a serious or sarcastic expression.