Moai statue with its Pukao

They are cylindrical in shape with a dent on the underside to fit on the head of the moai and a boss or knot on top. They fitted onto the moai in such a way that the pukao protruded forwards. Their size varies in proportion to the moai they were on but they can be up to 8 foot tall and 8 feet in diameter.

They were all carved from a very light red volcanic stone scoria, which was quarried from a single source at Puna Pau. The pukao was balanced as a separate piece on top of the head of a moai. It is not known how they were raised and placed but theories include them being raised with the statue or placed after the statue was erected. Pukao may have represented dressed hair or headdresses of red feathers worn by chiefs throughout Polynesia. To date, about 100 pukao have been documented archaeologically, but only at ahu with fallen statues or at the source quarry.

Sources

• Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed 2005 Viking Press ISBN 0-670-03337-5, 2006 Penguin ISBN 0-14-027951-2
• Grant McCall (1995). "Rapanui (Easter Island)." Pacific Islands Year Book 17th Edition. Fiji Times. Retrieved August 8, 2005.
• Jo Anne Van Tilburg Easter Island Archaeology, Ecology and Culture 1994 British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-2504-0, 1995 Smithsonian Press ISBN 1-56098-510-0
• Easter Island statue project
• Katherine Routledge. 1919. The Mystery of Easter Island. The story of an expedition. London.

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