Easter Island's Moai monolithic stone figures provide insights in new study

Having withstood the ravages of time, the Moai, Monolithic human stone figures on Easter Island, Polynesia, have long attracted researchers to study the customs and collapse of the Polynesian society. According to reports, a new study offers the symbolic significance of what the Moai could have meant to the people who built the stone figures in the first place.

Rano Raraku's agricultural significance

Majority of the statues were built in a quarry called Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater acting as the main source of stone used to construct the monolithic statues. Researchers have stated that there is something more than rocks found in Rano Raraku based on the soil samples they analysed in the area. Geoarchaeologist Sarah Sherwood said that after the analysis of the soil samples, things such as calcium and phosphorous was also found.

Sherwood further added that the composition of the soil gave evidence of factors that play a key role in terms of plant growth and are important for yields on a high level. However, the team of researchers believe that the Rano Raraku quarry region was an industrial site used to build and store the stone figures before transporting them to different areas across Polynesia.

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Used as a place to grow food

The researchers said that there are about 400 Moai's present in the quarry and a few of them are buried in the soil with a firm support from rock structures. They also suggested that their placement is not temporary and adding it could be the reason for the richness in the soil. The team further added that they witnessed a small part of bedrock that was created by the process of quarrying in the quarry region, adding that there was a proper system of water, nutrients and natural fertilizer present there.

Evidence of crops such as banana, sweet potato and paper mulberry was also found. Researchers are of the opinion that such findings are a piece of evidence that Rano Raraku was also used as a place to grow food other than quarrying that may have produced high yields but low costs of labour. It is long been said that the Moai's were used for ceremonial purposes that were linked to fertility-rituals and in relation to this, the researchers said that their study provided scientific evidence on the above-mentioned link with a theorised addition that the monoliths were erected to look over the gardens.

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(With inputs from agencies)