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...]
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 $94,000 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.