Climate Change: A Dry Lakebed on Easter Island Reveals More Moi (Giant Carved Heads)

Eastern Island is known worldwide for its enormous carved heads known as moai. They were created by the Polynesian civilization that settled Rapa Nui (Easter Island) around A.D. 1000. Now, more have been found as climate change has dried up a lakebed. Here's the story from artnet. 

(Photo: Evidence of charring on two moai statues following a serious fire on Easter Island started on October 3, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Rapa Nui Municipality.) 

Archaeologists on Easter Island Have Discovered a Previously Unknown Moai Statue Buried in a Dried-Out Lake Bed 

More of the iconic head statues could turn up, researchers say.

Jo Lawson-Tancred, ArtNet February 27, 2023

A new moai statue has been found on Rapa Nui, a Chilean territory also known as Easter Island, prompting excitement among researchers that there may yet be others waiting to be discovered.

The sacred monument, which is smaller than most others on the island, was found buried in a dry lake bed. This area is not usually accessible to humans but had dried out most likely due to climate-related weather conditions, allowing archaeologists to attempt an excavation.

“For the Rapa Nui people, it’s [a] very, very important discovery,” Salvador Atan Hito, vice president of the Indigenous organization Ma’u Henua, which oversees the site, told Good Morning America. “Because it’s here in the lake and nobody knows this exists — even the ancestors, our grandparents, don’t know [about] that one.”

Terry Hunt, a professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona who specializes in the Rapa Nui, added, “we think we know all the moai, but then a new one turns up. There have been no moai found in the dry bed or in what was previously a lake, so this is a first.”

The archaeologists are currently on a mission to see what else they can unearth at the site, looking out for evidence of moai as well as the tools that might have been used to make them.

There are approximately 1,000 moai on Easter Island. These monolithic human figures were carved out of volcanic rock some 500 years ago by the Polynesian tribe Rapa Nui. They are believed to embody ancestral spirits and were placed in a ring around the island, facing inwards.

“The moai are important because they really represent the history of the Rapa Nui people. They were the islander’s deified ancestors,” said Hunt. “They’re iconic worldwide and they really represent the fantastic archeological heritage of this island.”