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moai

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Wiktionary

  1. moainoun

    One of the large stone statues on Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

Wikipedia

  1. Moai

    Moai or moʻai ( (listen) MOH-eye; Spanish: moái; Rapa Nui: moʻai, lit. 'statue') are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads, which comprise three-eighths the size of the whole statue - which has no legs. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island in 1722, but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century. The moai were toppled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, possibly as a result of European contact or internecine tribal wars.The production and transportation of the more than 900 statues is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tonnes (80.7 tons). The heaviest moai erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tonnes (84.6 tons). One unfinished sculpture, if completed, would be approximately 21 m (69 ft) tall, with a weight of about 145–165 tons.

Wikidata

  1. Moai

    Moai, or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The moai are chiefly the living faces of deified ancestors. The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most were cast down during later conflicts between clans. The production and transportation of the 887 statues are considered remarkable creative and physical feats. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres tall with a weight of about 270 tons. After civilization collapsed on Rapa Nui, the islanders themselves tore down the standing moai after their civilization broke down.

Suggested Resources

  1. MOAI

    What does MOAI stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the MOAI acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Anagrams for MOAI »

  1. IMAO

  2. MAOI

  3. Miao

How to pronounce MOAI?

How to say MOAI in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of MOAI in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of MOAI in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of MOAI in a Sentence

  1. Carl Lipo:

    The issue of water availability (or the lack of it) has often been mentioned by researchers who work on Rapa Nui/Easter Island, when we started to examine the details of the hydrology, we began to notice that freshwater access and statue location were tightly linked together. It wasnt obvious when walking around--with the water emerging at the coast during low tide, one doesnt necessarily see obvious indications of water. File photo - Statues at Anakena Beach, Easter Island, Chile. (Photo by Eric LAFFORGUE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) Places without ahu/moai showed no freshwater, he added. The pattern was striking and surprising in how consistent it was. Researchers had already identified groundwater discharge in coastal areas as a key factor in the statues placement on Easter Islands coast. In the latest stage of the research, experts examined how the availability of freshwater in certain areas was linked to the methods and means of building the statues. EASTER ISLANDS ANCIENT CIVILIZATION WAS NOT DESTROYED BY WARFARE, EXPERTS SAY Around 900 statues, or moai, are dotted around Easter Island. Circa 1955: Two ancient statues of uncertain origin on Easter Island, in the South Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Richard Harrington/Three Lions/Getty Images).

  2. Jo Anne Van Tilburg:

    The near exclusive use of one quarry to produce these seventeen tools supports a view of craft specialization based on information exchange, but we can't know at this stage if the interaction was collaborative, it may also have been coercive in some way. Human behavior is complex. This study encourages further mapping and stone sourcing, and our excavations continue to shed new light on moai carving.

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