Easter Island Birdman Cult example essay topic

So far, people had wondered about the mystery of Easter Island. Why are there strange markings? Why are there carved statues of faces? , What happened to the people that had inhabited this island?

This essay will explain the mystery of Easter Island. The Easter Islanders had used rock to carve the statues that you see on the island today. They use soft volcanic tuff for statue carving. This tuff was an extrusive kind of igneous rock. This means that the lava from the volcano had cooled quickly. These statues were called moai.

The moai carvers were ingenious in making the most out of sections of rock. The production of the statues was most likely through labor with many rituals and ceremonies performed throughout the process. When a statue was completed, it was broken off its keel and slid carefully down the slope. The final decorations were carved into the torso and back. The moai had to be transported across the island to the platforms after they had been completed.

But, how will they transport these statues. Some suggested that they were rolled along the ancient roads on logs lubricated with oils from palm trees. Others suggest that they were carried in an upright position and were kept stable by crews manning ropes. Once they had made it to the site, the moai was placed on big platforms called ahu. Massive blocks and tons of fill were used to build the ahu. The precision in the stone fittings, similar to that of the Incas, that gave Thor Heyerdahl the idea that these people came from South America.

As the destroying of forests had increased, so had the building of the moai. Trees had continued to fall down. With the loss of forests, the land began to erode. The little amount of topsoil had washed away into the sea and crops had started to fail. The obsession of the moai building caused cannibalism. A dark and spooky cave, Ana Kai Tanga ta, is translated to "cave where men are eaten".

Inside are pictographs of ghost-like birds flying up. The culture of the Rapa Nui had collapsed. The Easter Island Birdman Cult started at the rim of Rano Kau. The eroded soil barely produced enough food for the population to survive. They could have only made boats out of totoro reed. Even fishing was difficult for them.

Below is a picture of the rim of Rano Kau. The Birdman Cult eventually took over the main religion on the island and was still in practice up until 1866-67. High on the rim of Rano Kau was the village of Orongo. It was built to worship the god of fertility, Makemake. Each year, the individual who could scale down the vertical slopes, swim out to one of 3 small islets in shark-infested waters, and bring back the egg of the nesting sooty tern unbroken determined the leader of the island. That individual was considered the Birdman of the year and was bestowed with special honors and privileges.

One of the most fascinating sights at Orongo is the hundreds of petroglyphs carved with birdman and Makemake images. Carved into solid basalt, an extrusive igneous rock, they have resisted ages of harsh weather. As Birdman images transformed the rocks, so were the islanders transformed. The culture was beginning to rebuild itself. However, in 1862, slave traders landed on the island and took away all healthy individuals. In one year, a level of injury, death and disease was inflicted on the population.

This is my essay that explained the mystery of Easter Island. These carvings of rocks possibly represented gods, people, or rituals. The people that inhabited Easter Island died out of disease, death, injury, soil depletion, and other natural causes.