... before getting there, there's this little incomplete ahu right in front of you and a moai lying next to you. A more rigorous inspection and you will see wonderful facial details, even though the moai does not have the carved eyes. This moai has never been on your platform. The moai was transported here from the Rano Raraku volcano and hoped its platform would be over when the period of carving moais came to an end.
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The Ahu Akahanga can be considered, for its history and for the number of statues, one of the most important of Easter Island.
The Ahu Akahanga stands on the left in front of the sea, a few meters from the agitated waves that beat against the rocks. This large platform of 18 meters in length has not been restored, which allows to get an idea of the state in which all the ahu were in the epoch of decadence of the island.
In most destroyed platforms, the statues lie face down with their hidden faces and their turned backs. However, in Ahu Akahanga, the 13 moai, which are between 5 and 7 meters in size, were knocked down both face-up and face-down. This allows to observe better its features and its carving. It is impressive to see these stone giants in such a vulnerable position, when once they stood proudly on their pedestal.
In front of the platform, there are several of the pukao or headdresses of volcanic red scoria that topped the statues. On the right, very close to the shore, there is a fallen moai forward that does not have carved eyes, but has preserved its features very well in spite of erosion.
In the back of the ahu, there is a crematorium and a rustic ramp to disembark canoes. Here it is possible to have a close view of the faces of the statues that fell on their backs. It also highlights a small moai of about 2 meters that lies on its back inside a circle of stones. Its rustic carving and its advanced state of erosion suggest that it is one of the first statues that were carved in Rano Raraku.
The tomb of the first king of the island:
According to oral tradition, the first king of the island, the legendary ariki Hotu Matu’a was buried in this place. His sons moved him from the top of the Rano Kau volcano, where he had his final resting place, to Akahanga.
A legend says that after burying him under a mound of stones, Tu’u Maheke, the eldest son, cut off Hotu Matu’a’s head and buried it between some stones. Someone discovered it some time later, and after that the Ariki Tu’u Ko Ihu stole the skull of its last owner and hid it in his house in Ahu Te Peu. Finally it was recovered by the legitimate descendants of the king to benefit from the mana or spiritual power that emanated from such a precious object.
The excavations carried out have not yet found any vestige of the ancient king. It has been ruled out that the ariki is buried under the ahu, since its construction date is several centuries after the death of the king. It is possible that the hypothetical burial chamber is under a nearby mound of stones.
OR:
Hotu Matuꞌa was the legendary first settler and ariki mau ("supreme chief" or "king") of Easter Island and ancestor of the Rapa Nui people. Hotu Matuꞌa and his two canoe (or one double hulled canoe) colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva (probably the Marquesas). They landed at Anakena beach and his people spread out across the island, sub-divided it between clans claiming descent from his sons, and lived for more than a thousand years in their isolated island home at the southeastern tip of the Polynesian Triangle.
History:
Polynesians first came to Rapa Nui (also called Easter Island) sometime between 300 CE and 800 CE. These are the common elements of oral history that have been extracted from island legends. Linguistic, DNA and pollen analysis all point to a Polynesian first settlement of the island at that time, but it is unlikely that other details can be verified. During this era the Polynesians were colonising islands across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Hotu Matuꞌa led his people from Hiva; linguistic analysis comparing Rapanui to other Polynesian languages suggests this was the Marquesas Islands.
Legend:
Hau-Maka had a dream in which his spirit traveled to a far country, to help look for new land for King Hotu Matuꞌa. He traveled to the Mata ki te rangi ("Eyes that look to the sky"). The island has also been called Te pito o te henua, which means "the Center of the Earth." Both islands are commonly said to be Easter Island.
When Hau-Maka woke, he told the King. The King then ordered seven men to travel to the island from Hiva, their mythical home, to investigate. They found the land and returned to Hiva. The king himself then traveled to the new island. The king traveled with his queen, Vakai (Vakai-a-hiva).
Theories and controversy:
Tuꞌu ko Iho:
The resemblance of the name to an early Mangarevan founder god, Atu Motua ("Father Lord"), has made some historians suspect that Hotu Matuꞌa was added to Easter Island mythology only in the 1860s, along with adopting the Mangarevan language. The real founder would have been Tuꞌu ko Iho, who became just a supporting character in the Hotu Matuꞌa–centric legends.
Dates of the first settlements:
There is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement. Published literature suggests the island was settled around 300-400 CE, or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii. Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700-800 CE. This date range is based on glottochronological calculations and on three radiocarbon dates from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities, while a recent study, with radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material, proves the island was settled by 1200 CE. This seems to be supported by the latest information on island's deforestation that could have started around the same time. Any earlier human activity seems to be insignificant or low impact.
South America or Polynesia:
The Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl pointed out many cultural similarities between Easter Island and South American Indian cultures which he suggested might have resulted from some settlers arriving also from the continent. According to local legends, a group of long-eared unknown men referred to as hanau eepe had arrived on the island sometime after Polynesians, introducing the stone carving technology and attempting to enslave the local Polynesians. Some early accounts of the legend place hanau epe as the original residents and Polynesians as later immigrants coming from Oparo. After mutual suspicions erupted in a violent clash, the hanau eepe were overthrown and exterminated, leaving only one survivor. The first description of island's demographics by Jacob Roggeveen in 1722 still claimed that the population consisted of two distinctive ethnic groups, one being clearly Polynesian and the other "white" with so lengthened earlobes that they could tie them behind their necks. Roggeveen also noted how some of the islanders were "generally large in stature". Islanders' tallness was also witnessed by the Spanish who visited the island in 1770, measuring heights of 196 and 199 cm (6.4 and 6.5 ft).
The fact that sweet potatoes, a staple of the Polynesian diet, and several other domestic plants - up to 12 in Easter Island - are of South American origin indicates that there may have been some contact between the two cultures. Either Polynesians have traveled to South America and back, or South American balsa rafts have drifted to Polynesia, possibly unable to make a return trip because of their less developed navigational skills and more fragile boats, or both. Polynesian connections in South America have been noticed among the Mapuche Indians in central and southern Chile. The Polynesian name for the small islet of Salas y Gómez (Manu Motu Motiro Hiva, "Bird's islet on the way to a far away land") east of Easter Island has also been seen as a hint that South America was known before European contacts. Further complicating the situation is that the word Hiva ("far away land") was also the name of the islanders' legendary home country. Inexplicable insistence on an eastern origin for the first inhabitants was unanimous among the islanders in all early accounts.
Mainstream archeology is skeptical about any non-Polynesian influence on the island's prehistory, although the discussion has become political. DNA sequence analysis of Easter Island's current inhabitants (a tool not available in Heyerdahl's time) offers strong evidence of Polynesian origins. However, since few islanders survived the 19th century slave raids, epidemics and deportations (perhaps only 0.25% of the peak population), this evidence depends on how representative the survivors were of the general Rapanui population.
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The tomb of the first king:
There are many stories that surround Easter Island, but one of the most important is that of the first king. According to what the natives themselves say, the first king of the island and the first person to arrive there was Hotu Matu’a, a colonizer from the Marquesas Islands.
There are many stories around Hotu Matu’a, but the one that relates to Akahanga is set in the last days of this legendary character.
Oral tradition tells that his last days were spent at the top of the Rano Kau volcano, and after his death, his children took his body and moved it to the Akahanga area. There he was buried under a great stone tower and remained resting for years.
From the previous story, it is also told that a tribe wrapped in the ambition to reach the top of the social ladder, unearthed Hotu Matu’a and stole his buried skull, although years later it was recovered by the original descendants of the king.
Despite the fact that this story is still told among the natives of Rapa Nui, archaeological investigations have not yielded any data that proves such a legend. The rest of Hotu Matu'a have not been found, nor a tomb or tomb that shows that someone was buried there, but despite the fact that the investigations have been unsuccessful, this area is still a place full of magic and mysticism that worth knowing.
Other Akahanga Legends:
Do you remember that above we talked about the tomb of Hotu Matu’a? Well, the latest research has uncovered something very interesting: the king's sister was buried right at the other end of Rapa Nui.
What is interesting about this? That just in both areas there is a solstice. In the grave of the sister in winter and in the tomb of the king in summer. Researchers do not believe this was random and based on what is currently being debated, it is thought that both graves were intended to generate a kind of mystical barrier made up of mana that will traverse the entire island in order to protect it.
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A brother and a sister linked by the sun:
According to some researchers, the choice of this place as a burial site for Hotu Matu’a may be due to the fact that the supposed power emanating from the ariki, could be evenly distributed to both sides of the island, generating good harvests and fishing for all the people.
Curiously, Ava Rei Pua, the sister of Hotu Matu’a and wife of the aforementioned Ariki Tu’u Ko Ihu, was buried at the opposite end of the island, in Ahu Te Peu, her place of residence.
Recent research has established an astronomical and geometric relationship between these two sites. The two sites where both siblings of royal origin were buried are located at the ends of an axis between the dawn of the summer solstice and the dusk of the winter solstice, relating symbolically their resting place to the annual solar cycle.
It has been proven that when watching the sunset of the winter solstice from Akahanga, located on the southeast coast of the island, the last ray of sun is set in the direction of Te Peu, where tradition points to the tomb of Ava Rei Pua. In the same way, from Te Peu to the northwest of the island, it is possible to see the sun rising in the direction of Akahanga, burial place of King Hotu Matu’a, at the dawn of the summer solstice.
Perhaps, this fact is only a simple geographical coincidence. Although if it is seen from a more mystical and sentimental point of view, it may show how the ancient Rapanui people used their knowledge of geometry and astronomy to unite symbolically the last abode of two such transcendental brothers in the history of the island.