History and Mystery: Easter Island

Rapa Nui: Best known for the giant stone monoliths that
dot the coastline, this mysterious isle at the end of the
earth has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation.
With its turbulent past, Rapa Nui is now looking to a
bright future in tourism and a Kaeser compressor is helping
to preserve its greatest attractions.
Whether the first settlers on Rapa Nui
(Easter Island) arrived in 500, 900 or
1200 A.D. is open to debate, but one
thing is for certain: they had travelled a
very long way. The nearest human
habitation lies 2200 kilometres to the
west on the island of Pitcairn, which today
is home to the descendents of mutineers
from the ill-fated British navy
ship the Bounty. What‘s more, Chile –
Rapa Nui‘s mother country – is situated
3000 kilometres to the east. Rapa Nui
is therefore one of the most isolated inhabited
islands in the world, yet still
captures the imagination of people on
every continent. This is due in great
part to its past, much of which remains
a mystery. Approximately 900 large
stone statues, or Moai, have been an
integral part of the Easter Island landscape
for many centuries. The Norwegian
anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl led
the first archaeological expedition to
Easter Island in 1955 and shed light on
how these Moai were created from volcanic
rock in the Rano Raraku volcanic
crater and how they were subsequently
transported to their large stone platforms,
or Ahu. The island was once
covered by a forest of palms and it is
now believed that native Easter Islanders
deforested the island in the process
of erecting and mass-producing their
statues, as this task would have required
a large number of tree trunks for
the rolling and lifting procedures that
would have been involved. This dramatic
depletion of the island‘s natural
resources lead to a serious food shortage,
as did the various feuds which
consequently broke out amongst different
factions of the Rapa Nui – the term
refers to the people as well as the land
and language. Needless to say, the island‘s
population went into rapid decline:
At its peak, the population may
have been as high as 15,000, but when
Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen
“discovered” the island on 5 April 1722
(Easter Sunday – hence the island‘s
name) only a couple of thousand inhabitants
remained. After the Dutch,
came the Spanish, albeit 48 years later
in 1770. After the flying visit by British
explorer James Cook in 1774, visits to
the island became more frequent and
increasingly unpleasant for the inhabitants:
The Rapa Nui soon became acquainted
with the harsh ways of the
“civilised world” when the crews of two
Photo: Norberto Seebach/CPT Chile
Berlin-based Maar Denkmalpflege GmbH has been dedicated to the preservation
and restoration both of national and international cultural monuments for many years.
The company‘s references, amongst others, include Aachen Cathedral, the Reichstag
and Olympic Stadium in Berlin, as well as the Walhalla Temple near Regensburg. On
the 13th October 2003, UNESCO rewarded the company‘s outstanding contribution
towards the Preservation of World Heritage by making Maar Denkmalpflege GmbH a
UNESCO recognised partner.
History and Mystery: Easter Island
Photo: George Mundo/CPT Chile
12
Report 2/07 – www.kaeser.com

Photo: Maar
US-American ships forced many inhabitants
into work and ran amok on the
island. Things became even worse after
1855, as over a third of the population
of 4500 people was taken to Peru
and enslaved. International protests
erupted and the slaves were finally
freed. Finally, a few islanders managed
to return from the horrors of Peru, but
brought back typhus, which soon infected
the remaining population. A further
1000 inhabitants died as a result.
By the time the first Christian missionaries
came to the island in 1854, the
old culture had disappeared, as had all
semblance of society – 23 years later,
there were just 111 people living on
Easter Island. The island was annexed
by Chile in 1888 after its inhabitants
signed a treaty with the Chilean government.
Until the 1960s, the surviving
Rapa Nui descendants were forced to
live in a settlement, as the island was
rented to a Scottish sheep company. In
1965, Alfonso Rapu led an insurrection
that forced the Chilean government to
return rights to the land and its precious
archaeological treasures to the Rapa
Nui. Alfonso Rapu also became the
first Rapa Nui to be elected mayor of
the island. Since being given Chilean
citizenship in 1966, the islanders have
re-embraced their ancient culture, or
what could be reconstructed of it. Easter
Island‘s population now stands at
approximately 4000 with the native
Rapa Nui accounting for just over half
of this figure. The airfield at Mataveri
was completed in 1967 and was lengthened
by NASA in the 1970‘s to serve
as an alternate emergency-landing site
for the space shuttle. Consequently, as
large passenger flights are able to land
at Rapa Nui, tourists come from far and
wide to visit and explore this remote
part of the world, which became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
The majority of Rapa Nui now make
their living from tourism.
Preserving the sights
As virtually all Easter Island visitors
come to experience the magic and
wonder of the Moai and Ahu, these
treasured monuments have to be carefully
preserved and cared for. Therefore
in 2003, UNESCO commissioned
Denkmalpflege GmbH, a specialist restoration
company from Berlin, Germany,
to find a way to restore and maintain
the sculptures. In close collaboration
with the German Archaeological Institute,
the most recent phase of “Project
Moai” took place in February 2007 and
involved documenting of the selected
Moai and Ahu. Using the latest technology,
these monuments were measured
in 3 dimensions and the results were
entered into a database. This information
is being used to determine the
most appropriate method for implementing
the necessary conservation
and restoration work. Due for completion
in 2009, all work is carried out in
close cooperation with Easter Island
and the Republic of Chile. Financing
for this ambitious project, which was
conceived by CEO Stefan Maar, is being
provided by several well-known
companies through a cultural sponsorship
program. This concept has received
wide coverage and much praise
in the international press. As one of the
supporters of the project, Kaeser Kompressoren
has made a Mobilair 26 portable
compressor available that can be
used in a wide range of stone-working
applications and so help in the preservation
of these unique works of art.
Author: Klaus Dieter Bätz – Contact: klaus-dieter.baetz@kaeser.com
Photo: Alex Huber/CPT Chile Photo: Wikipedia
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