“This discovery is very, very important to the people of Rapa Nui, because it was here in the lake and nobody knew anything, not even our ancestors, grandparents, knew anything about this one,” said Salvador Atan Hito.
Easter is a small, remote and windy island, and because of this, it is difficult to live there. With an area of 163.6 square kilometers, Easter Island is located in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of 3,512 kilometers from the South American coast and 1,900 kilometers from the Pitcairn Islands. Easter Island has nearly a thousand moai made of volcanic tuff. The smallest of these stone statues are about 1.13 meters and the tallest ones are more than 21 meters high. The average weight of these stone statues is between 3 and 5 tons. But some giant moai weigh up to 80 tons.
Terry Hunt, an archeology professor from the University of Arizona, said in this regard: “Moai are important because they represent the history of the Rapa Nui people. These statues were the embodiment of the ancestral gods of the Jezize residents and were made for this reason. These sculptures are also famous all over the world and are truly an extraordinary ancient heritage for this island.”
Although the new moai is smaller than the others, it is the first time that one of these stone sculptures has been found on the lake bed. This discovery is one of the countless discoveries that have been made in recent years due to climate change. As the lake dried up, this statue emerged from the water after centuries. Now archaeologists think that with the continuation of droughts, we should probably wait for other moai to be revealed.
Hunt explains: “The long reeds that grow in the river bed [موآیها] have been hidden away, but exploration with something that can detect what lies beneath may show us that there are more moai among the lake sediments. “When there’s one moai in the lake, there are probably more moai in there.”
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