THE EASTER ISLAND STATUES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In the Spectator of December 25th Miss Rout puts for ward a theory that the gigantic statues in Easter Island may
have been modelled from plastic lava, not hewn from hardened
rock. I visited Easter Island in. May, 1924, and saw a large number of these images and the quarries where they were
hewn out. These quarries are on the slopes of the very much weather-worn volcanic cone of Rana Roraka—both on the inside and the outside. The rock is not lava but volcanic tufa (consolidated cinders and ash) and was therefore probably never in a molten state. There are many images partly hewn out in various stages of completion, and in the soil round about there are numbers of the stone hammers and chisels which were evidently used in sculpturing them. I have several of these. There is, therefore, no question, in my opinion, as to how they were made. The chief problem is how they were moved to the sites in other parts of the island where they were erected. _ With regard to the obsidian implements found in the island, they as well as all others that I have seen bear distinct marks of having been chipped and flaked in a similar manner to that in which the flint implements of Europe were fashioned. Obsidian flakes quite easily and shows a characteristic con- choidal fracture quite distinct from a moulded surface.
Miss Rout is in error in stating that the rock carvings are in the quarries on Rana Roraka ; they are on the lip of another volcano, Rana Kao, at the other end of the island—some on boulders and some-shallow incised drawings—on the slabs of stone used in the construction of the inverted boat-shaped hats which were connected with the " bird cult." All of these were evidently cut—in all probability with stone implements— on the solid stone. Anyone interested in this subject should consult The Mystery of Easter Island, by Scoresby Routledge.—
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