Easter Island has the richest assortment of petroglyphs in Polynesia. [39] Nearly every suitable surface has been carved, including the stone walls of some houses and a few of the famous moꞌai statues and their fallen topknots .

Papa Vaka is an archaeological complex located on the northern road of the island, between Ahu Te Pito Kura and Pu o Hiro. It is characterized by the large number of petroglyphs (incisions in rock) that extend by large slabs of basaltic origin that emerge from the level of the ground.

Petroglyphs representing Bird Men on Easter Island are the same as some in Hawaii, indicating that this concept was probably brought by the original settlers; only the competition itself was unique to Easter Island.

On Easter Island, petroglyphs are located in almost every part of the island where there are suitable surfaces. Favored locations are smooth areas of lava flow, referred to as 'papa', or on smooth basalt boulders.

Over 4000 petroglyphs have been documented on Easter Island, with a variety of motifs. There are also several thousand cupules, or small carved hollows usually 3 to 5 cms in diameter, which usually act as decorative elements around the petroglyph panels.

The petroglyphs of Orongo Petroglyphs of bird-man in Mata Ngarau. The rocks around the village are covered with more than 1,700 petroglyphs, making Orongo the place with the highest concentration of rock art on the island.

Oct 22, 2014 · During the 19 th Century, ancient artifacts containing a set of etched symbols were discovered on the world-renowned Easter Island, a small remote island located a few thousand miles west of South America, and famous for the hundreds of giant monolithic anthropomorphic statues called moai.

Apr 2, 2023 · Because of Easter Island’s remote location at the edge of the Polynesian Triangle, historians have been unable to put together a clear picture of the island’s original inhabitants. This enigmatic culture includes a script called Rongorongo, which linguists have been trying to decipher since the 1800s.

Mar 15, 2016 · The Chilean Easter Island is famous for its magnificent and mysterious moai statues. These giants were created by the early Rapa Nui people, and it is. ... A group of 400-year-old petroglyphs emerges from beneath the beach sand of Hawaii. Many historians, archaeologists, art historians, and linguists, separately or in combined efforts, have ...

Jan 21, 2014 · A close-up of petroglyphs on the back of one of the statues. Image credit: EISP.ORG. The excavation team also found about 800 grams of natural red pigment — nearly two pounds — in the burial hole, along with a human burial.