RAPA NUI - SOUTH COAST

Tongariki is one of the most important ceremonial, social and ritual centres of the island. Here we find the extensive moai-quarry at the nearby extinct volcano of Rano Raraku having its slopes littered with stuatues. Near the coast is a most impressive ahu with the biggest collection of moai of the island. Some of the ahu-stones are engraved, but the best engravings are found on flat outcrops to the NW of the ahu. On of these outcrops has a large ritual basin, called taheta (first photo) that is bordered with many small cupules. Below the bowl is one of two large face-engravings. The second photo shows one of the few birdmen engravings at Tongariki (this is one of a set of four). There are many cupules on this rock and especially the smaller cupules will be later than the birdman engravings. The third photo is a small boulder that is found in the restorated rampart of the Tongariki ahu. It is one of the very few stones on Rapa Nui with only cupules.

At the same fenced-off site where we find the birdmen engravings at Tongariki, there are also fine engravings of animals. The first photo shows a large turtle engraving that is superimposed by numerous small cupules that are especially clearly visible at the left part. The second photo shows a large tuna on the same outcrop that is also partially superimposed by those small cupules.

Perched on an extremely narrow ridge between the crater of the extinct volcano of Rano Kao in the SW corner of the island and the Pacific Ocean is a large collection of engravings near an ancient ritual settlement. The engravings mainly comprise vulva-designs, cupules, faces and, above all, birdmen engravings. These vulva engravings and birdman engravings are possibly related to the anual contest to collect an egg from a nearby islet, a contest that involved a steep and dangerous 300m descend and a rough swim to the island and then back again. The person who delivered the unbroken egg first became the chief of the clan for one year. The first photo shows birdmen in an unusual inverted position. The second photo shows a birdman with a typical curved beak, and the last photo shows an outcrop with birdmen engravings, and, at the top, there is a face that possibly represents a make-make figure, one of the Polynesian gods.

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