by A previously unknown moai statue, one of Easter Island’s giant carved monoliths, has been found buried beneath a dried-up lake bed, Good Morning America reports (opens in a new tab).
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is located approximately 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) off the west coast of Chile and is home to approximately 8,000 people. 1,000 moai statues. Unlike the other statues, which were found across the island, including on the slopes around Lake Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater that provided much of the volcanic stone used to make the moai statues, this moai was found in unexpected: the bottom of Lake Rano Raraku. The crater held fresh water until climate change and other factors, such as human use, declined in recent years; in 2018, the lake’s water was almost gone, according to a 2021 study published in the journal PLOS One (opens in a new tab).
“We think we all know moai, but then a new one turns up, a new discovery,” Terry Hunt (opens in a new tab)a professor of archeology at the University of Arizona who specializes in the environmental history of the Pacific Islands, said Good Morning America.
Related: How did the Easter Island statues get their giant hats?
Moai, which is torsos are buried, famous for their carved heads and “Pukao,” a hat-like cover made of soft red stone. The monoliths are huge, too, with the largest statue, named Moai Paro, standing at 32 feet (10 meters) high and weighing 90 tons (82 metric tons), the The Easter Island Statue Project was reported (opens in a new tab). The newly discovered statue, however, is smaller than most of the statues on the island, according to the Good Morning America broadcast.
The sculptures were built by indigenous Rapa Nui islanders over a period of about 500 years, between the 13th and 18th centuries AD, a 2019 study in the journal PLOS One (opens in a new tab) reported.
“They represent the deified ancestors of today’s islanders,” said Hunt. “They are part of the Polynesian tradition of honoring your ancestors.”
Researchers plan to radiocarbon date organic material associated with the statue so they can identify when the carving was made, Salvador Atan Hito, vice president of the Ma’u Henua Indigenous Community, said in the broadcast.
The new result is good news, as several moai have been damaged in recent years. In October, a suspected arson attack destroyed several of the statues “completely charred” and in 2020 a resident damaged one of the sacred statues with a pickup truck, causing “incalculable damage.” Meanwhile, the There are two moai statues at the British Museum (opens in a new tab)which Rapa Nui leaders asked to be returned.
You can learn more about the newly discovered moai at watching the Good Morning America report (opens in a new tab).
