Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island: Rana Roraka
RANA RORAKA.
The day was devoted to the examination of the inside of the crater of Rana Roraka. The walls of the crater are very abrupt except on the west side, where the lava-flow escaped to the sea, and here the cattle and horses find easy access to the pool of water that has collected in the bottom. High up on the southern side are the workshops of the image-builders, extending in irregular terraces quite to the top. Here we found images in all stages of incompletion (Fig. 10), from the rude
FIG. 10. UNFINISHED IMAGE. CRATER OF RANA RORAKA.
outline drawing to the finished statue ready to be cut loose from its original rock and launched down the steep incline. The modus operandi
intended. They stand well down towards the bottom of the slope, and are more or less buried in the earth by the washings from above, as shown in Figs. 13 and 14.
The work of lowering the huge images from the upper terraces to the bottom of the crater and thence over the wall and down into the plain below, was of great magnitude, and we are lost in wonder that so much could be accomplished by rude savages ignorant of everything in the way of mechanical appliances. The average weight of these statues would be something between 10 and 12 tons, but some are very large and would weigh over 40 tons. It, is possible that a slide was made, upon which the images were launched to the level ground below; a number of broken and damaged figures lie in a position to suggest that idea, but from the bottom of the crater they were transported up and over the wall and thence over hill and dale to various points all over the island. Excavations were made at different points inside the
December 27.--We made an early start and visited the image-builders' workshops on the west side of Rana Roraka, which are much more extensive than those on the inside of the crater. These workshops commence well up on the side of the mountain and extend quite to the summit by irregular terraces. In places these terraces extend one above another with unfinished images upon each, and the configuration of the land is such as to preclude all idea of launching the statues by means of a slide. We were unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion as to how the immense statues on the upper tier of works' could be moved to the plain below, passing over the underlying cavities where similar works had been quarried. We know the natives had ropes made of hemp, two kinds of which are indigenous to the island, but it is difficult to conjecture how these heavy weights were handled without mechanical appliances. One hundred and fifty-five images were counted upon this slope in various stages, including those standing at the base of the mountain finished and complete, ready for removal
FIG. 16.
THE MUTILATED IMAGE "HIARA," OUTSIDE OF CRATER OF RANA RORAKA.
Another excellent specimen (Fig. 16) of these remarkable figures stands near the last mentioned and shows tool-marks around the neck as though an effort had been made to cut the head off. The natives call this "hiara" and have a tradition to the effect that it belonged to a powerful clan who were finally defeated in war, and that their enemies had made an attempt to destroy the statue by cutting off the head. The story may be based only upon the mutilation, but the chances are that it is founded upon fact.
Nothing of importance was found by digging about the images or in the workshops except broken stone implements which had been used by the builders. In one of the quarries we found the only trace of sculptured figures in the vicinity.
These emblems were carved upon a smooth rock over a half-finished image.