644 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



DIAGRAM OF AN IMAGE AHU : EASTER ISLAND 



A long wall more than 14 feet high and 300 feet long runs parallel to the sea. It is 

 buttressed on the land side by a great slope of masonry, beneath the surface of which 

 are vault spaces. The ahu is in three divisions : on the central and loftiest portion stood 

 the images with their backs to the sea ; the second division slopes down to the third division 

 or retaining wall some three feet high, composed of wrought slabs of great size and peculiar 

 shape (see illustration on page 636). 



taining a crater lake. The mountain is 

 composed of compressed volcanic ash, 

 which has been found in certain places to 

 be particularly suitable for quarrying; it 

 has been worked on the southern exterior 

 slope and also inside the crater, both on 

 the south and southeastern sides. 



With perhaps a dozen exceptions, all 

 the images on the island have been made 

 from this compressed ash, and they have 

 been dragged from this cone up hill and 

 down dale, to adorn the terraces round 

 the coast-line of the island. Even the 

 images on the ahu, which have fallen into 

 the sea on the further extremity of the 

 western volcano, are said to have been of 

 the same stone. 



Let us in imagination scramble up the 

 grassy side of Rano Raraku, a steep climb 

 of some one or two hundred feet, to 

 where the rock has been hewn away into 

 a series of chambers and ledges. 



Here images lie by the score, in all 

 stages of evolution, just as they were left* 

 when, for some unknown reason, the 

 workmen laid down their tools for the 

 last time and the busy scene was still. 

 Here, as elsewhere, the wonder of the 

 place can only be appreciated as the eye 

 becomes trained to see. In the majority 

 of cases the statues still form part of the 

 rock, and are frequently covered with 

 lichen or are overgrown with grass and 

 ferns. 



A conspicuous image first strikes the 

 beholder ; then, as he gazes, he finds with 

 surprise that the walls on either hand are 

 themselves wrought into figures, and that, 

 resting in a niche above him, is another 

 giant; he looks down and realizes with a 

 start that his foot is resting on a mighty 

 face. 



CRUDE TOOLS USED BY THE IMAGE-MAKERS 



The tools were found with which the 

 work had been done. One type of im- 

 plement can be seen lying about in great 

 abundance. They are of the same ma- 

 terial as the lapilli in the statues and have 

 been made by flaking. 



Some specimens are pointed at both 

 ends ; others have one end more or less 

 rounded. It is unlikely that they were 

 ha f ted, and they were probably held in 

 the hand when in use. They were appar- 

 ently discarded as soon as the point be- 

 came damaged. 



There is another tool much more care- 

 fully made — an adze blade, with the 

 lower end beveled off to form the cutting 

 edge. These are rarely found, the prob- 

 ability being that they were too precious 

 to leave at the works, but were taken 

 home by the workmen. 



The whole process of quarrying an 

 image was not necessarily very lengthy ; 

 the calculation of the number of men who 

 could work at the stone at the same time 



