Rano Raraku Statue Quarry

Rano Raraku

Chile · Valparaíso, Easter Island

Mine / workshopUnknownUNESCO · 1995
Approximate period1,300 CE — 1,800 CEPeriod of moai production and agricultural use, with approximate dates See on the map ↓

In brief

Rano Raraku is the main production site for Rapa Nui moai statues, and archaeological excavations have been carried out here. Excavations and soil analyses have shown that farming also took place on the quarry's inner slopes. The site lies within the UNESCO-listed Rapa Nui National Park.

What was found?

  • 1Excavated moai statues

    Excavations in the interior of the quarry have exposed buried portions of statues for examination. This has allowed the layers around the statues and earlier ground levels to be investigated.

  • 2Petroglyphs of RR-0001-156

    This moai bears dense, interconnected rock-carved motifs. Its decorations show that the images carved into statue surfaces should be investigated alongside their forms.

  • 3Crop plant remains

    Macro- and microbotanical data support the cultivation of sweet potato, banana, taro, and paper mulberry. The research established agricultural use on the quarry's inner slopes.

What does it point to?

At Rano Raraku, statue production and agricultural use were parts of the same landscape. According to researchers, the weathering of quarrying debris and local human activities may have contributed to the formation of fertile soils here.

What did it teach us?

  1. Showed that the moai production center was also an area under cultivation.
  2. Documented through botanical data that agricultural use extended from the 14th century AD to the early 19th century.
  3. Revealed that statue production, soil formation, and agriculture should be studied together.

Images

Rano-Raraku-from-South
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

In 2023, a previously unrecorded moai approximately 1.6 meters long was found in the dried lakebed within the Rano Raraku crater.

Record

Culture
Rapa Nui
Team / historical
Easter Island Statue Project; Jo Anne Van Tilburg and Cristián Arévalo Pakarati
Coordinates
-27.1239°, -109.2861°

Sources

  1. eisp.org
  2. arcas.org.au
  3. apnews.com
  4. whc.unesco.org
  5. en.wikipedia.org

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12.000

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