Articles highlighted in Letters from the Director, Jo Anne Van Tilburg:
Easter Island Statue Project Conservation Initiative Preliminary Report
Phase 1 Field Season, March-April, 2010
Introduction
This project is the first controlled, scientific archaeological excavations ever undertaken in the interior of Rano Raraku Quarry. It is also the first stone conservation and preservation pilot program in Rano Raraku.
All but one of the 22 standing statues (moai) in Rano Raraku Quarry interior have been previously exposed through unscientific and undocumented digging. The Target Statues for this project (RR-001-156 and RR-001-157) have been dug or otherwise disturbed by the Mana Expedition (1914), the Franco-Belgian Expedition (1935), and the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition (1954-55).
The Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) has a 20 year history of archaeological survey on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the objective of which is the creation of a full and complete, island-wide monolithic and portable statue inventory and the compilation of an historical image record for each statue. Prior to the selection of Quarry Two for the excavations described here, the EISP team completed a five year mapping foray in the interior of Rano Raraku, the volcanic quarry from which 95 percent of the extant monolithic sculpture were produced (Van Tilburg 1994; Van Tilburg, Arévalo Pakarati and Alice Hom 2008).
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AIA Conservation Project Reconnaissance
Field Work
In June, 2009, Christian Fischer, Research Associate of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA and Mónica Bahamondez P., Centro Nacional de Conservación y Restauración joined Jo Anne Van Tilburg and Cristián Arévalo Pakarati (of EISP) in the field on Rapa Nui. Our immediate goal was a fact-finding and reconnaissance field study that would acquaint our colleagues on the AIA Project with the island sites and objects that are target concerns of our upcoming conservation work.
Christian Fischer, Mónica Bahamondez P. and Jo Anne Van Tilburg in the Rano Raraku quarry with statues 'Mama' and 'Papa.'
In the interior of Rano Raraku quarry, EISP has mapped and documented every statue in each of their various carving phases, as well as the independent histories of the individual quarries. Two statues, famously dubbed “Papa” and “Mama” by Katherine Pease Routledge, co-leader of the Mana Expedition to Easter Island, 1919, were the immediate focus of our attention. We studied specific issues of stone faulting and breakage, and planned a strategy for environmental monitoring, which will be carried out during 2009-2010. [Read More...]
Hoa Hakananai’a Laser Scan Project
September 2007
Background, Rationale and Goals
Laser scannning Hoa Hakananai’a at the British Museum. Photo by J. Van Tilburg.
To date, Van Tilburg and the Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) have inventoried 887 monolithic statues (moai) and compiled a metric database buttressed by 24,000 original and archived images. Some 35% of the known statues are located on or in direct relation to ceremonial sites called image ahu (Martinsson – Wallin 1994: Appendix 1 gives 164 image ahu; Van Tilburg 1986; Van Tilburg and Vargas C. 1998).
Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater on the island’s eastern plain, was the source of the sideromelane (basaltic) tuff from which 95% of the statues were carved. This source is irrefutable as there are 397 in situ statues, of which 141 in various stages of completion have recently been mapped by EISP in the interior quarries (Van Tilburg 2005; www.eisp.org). Much rarer statue lithologies are basalt (hawaiite lavas) from three named regions; trachyte and ‘red basaltic scoria’ or ‘red scoriaceous lava’ (also used as pukao or ‘topknots’ that were placed on the heads of about 75-100 statues).
There are only 20 statues (portable and non-portable) now in the EISP database which were carved of basalt. Of these, 7 are in museum collections. The British Museum holds two basalt statues, both of which are of central and very great significance to furthering our understanding of Rapa Nui history. One of them (1869.10-5.1) is re-carved on its dorsal side with bas-relief and incised petroglyphs of great iconographic significance. This re-carving is unique in its style, detail, and expertise and quality of execution. Four other statues, including 1869.10-6.1 (Moai Hava), have incised petroglyphs of lesser distinction but within clearly defined, limited typological categories. Another 30 statues still in situ on the island have applied decorations of similar styles.
Join Us in a Monumental Task
Support Sustainable Archaeology on Easter Island
Dear Friends,
In 1982, I established the Easter Island Statue Project. Through a methodical archaeological survey my Rapanui colleagues and I have accomplished the digital mapping of Rano Raraku statue quarry, documented over one thousand statues throughout the entire island and created the world’s largest archaeological archive describing the statues.
Working with scientific colleagues at The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA and with conservators from Chile’s Centro Nacional de Conservación y Restauración, the first phase of our three phase project has been initiated. We are currently excavating and conserving two statues in Rano Raraku interior quarry of major archaeological significance. Knowledge gained there will allow preservation of other statues throughout the island.
In 2008, our work was rewarded with a major grant from the Site Preservation Task Force of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA; www.archaeological.org).
This wonderful AIA grant has jumpstarted our conservation initiative. EISP has no endowment. Our only source of income is grants and U.S. tax deductible contributions. We also enjoy profit sharing through sales of contemporary indigenous art in our Mana Gallery on Easter Island.
Please help us match the AIA grant. Join us in A Monumental Task, Join us as a Friend of EISP!
—Jo Anne Van Tilburg
The AIA selects Easter Island as its second Site Preservation project
January 5, 2009
Efforts will protect and preserve Easter Island’s Rapa Nui Moai statues
Boston – The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), North America’s oldest and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology, has selected the monolithic sculptures (moai) of Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile, and national park as its second site preservation project. With a grant to the Easter Island Statue Project from the organization’s AIA Site Preservation Task Force, the Project will develop stone preservation techniques to arrest the rapid deterioration of these statues as a result of the fragile nature of their volcanic stone, climate change, and tourism. The Easter Island Statue Project is directed by UCLA archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg and co-directed by Cristían Arévalo Pakarati.