ANA - MOAI QUARRY

The moai quarry (Ana) was located on the outer and inner slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano. The statues were carved directly into the rock. When the first carving was finished, they were wrapped with vegetable rope and slid to the foot of the crater. Then the statues were refined by standing them upright, adding the eyes and drawing the line of the neck and shoulders. Topographical surveys have suggested that the quarry was divided into different locations, each belonging to a family. The round hats of some of the statues were carved in another quarry located in the volcanic cone of Puna Pau. They owed their color to the red slag of the rock. But what probably intrigued the researchers the most was the transport of these statues from their quarry to their final location. Legend has it that once completed, the moai, animated by the mana, the spirit of the chief, went to its ahu by itself. However, it was suggested that the statue, placed horizontally, was slid on logs, but this hypothesis was abandoned because the forests had probably already disappeared from the island. The Czech P. Pavel and Heyerdahl thought that the statue was moved with the help of ropes by making it rotate progressively and slowly to its ahu. It appears that the cutting of moai stopped abruptly towards the end of the 18th century, due to wars between different clans on the island.