214. Moai on platform (ahu). Rapa Nui (Easter Island) c 1100-1600 CE Volcanic tuff figures on basalt base

• Content
  • About 900 statues in all, mostly male
  • almost all facing inland
  • Erected on large platforms of stone mixed with ashes from cremations
  • the platforms are just as sacred as the statues on them
• Function
  • images represent personalities deified after death OR….
  • commemorated as the first settler-kings
• Form
  • Prominent foreheads
  • large broad noses
  • thin pouting lips
  • ears that stretch to the top of their heads
  • short thin arms falling straight down
  • hands crossed on lower abdomen below navel
  • chest & navels portrayed precisely
  • Topknots added to some statues
  • White coral placed in eyes to “open” them