Dear Friends of EISP,

I am writing you today from Rapa Nui, where we are embarking on the last phase of our excavations in Quarry 02 of the interior slope.  For those of you who have been following us, we are now turning our attention to the front of the statue known as “Papa” (RR-001-156). We have, to date, excavated  both statues to their bases on their dorsal sides, and documented features dealing with the ceremonial uses of the statues (pigments), transport (base features, including a large post hole used for elevating the statues), and a small boulder with an incised petroglyph in a motif similar to those on the backs of the statues. We now know for sure that the “heads” on the slope here are, in fact, full but incomplete statues.

Other work includes geological mapping (by Dr. Richard Dunn) of the interior and surveying of the lake bottom (Dr. Shelley Wachsmann and Jeffrey Morris).

Stay with us, and we will fill you in upon my return!

Cheers,
Jo Anne Van Tilburg

The content of this website is copyrighted by Jo Anne Van Tilburg/Easter Island Statue Project, unless otherwise noted.

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