Lets us hope not. Let us work to ensure that the religious and political factions of today do not lead us to a similar fate! TQ 2010 memory book image 11 of 11
A number of the Moai just outside of the Rano Raraku quarry are partially buried to their shoulders. These Moai are distinctive in that their eye sockets were not hollowed out to receive the coral eyes, nor do they have the Pukao topknot stones. These Moai were not cast down during the Huri Moai (statue toppling) of the island's civil wars. TQ 2010 memory book image 8 of 11
Starting in December 1862, slave traders from Peru conducted a series of violent abductions capturing or killing around 1500 of the 3000 remaining inhabitants of Rapa Nui over the course of several months. International protests led by Bishop Florentin-Etienne Jaussen of Tahiti forced the slave traders to give up their slaves in the autumn of 1863. Unfortunately most of the captured Rapa Nui had died of Dysentery, Tuberculosis, and Smallpox. Only about a dozen Rapa Nui returned from Peru. The dozen who returned brought with them a smallpox plague. Some claim the island’s population was so devastated by smallpox that the dead were buried in mass graves. To commerate the suffering of the Rapa Nui during the 1860s, several Moai on the slopes of Rano Raraku were marked with pock-like holes. TQ 2010 memory book image 9 of 11
