Vaihū

Starting at Vaihū

The tour I joined made its first stop at Vaihū. This was probably because it was the closest controlled site to where we started in Haŋa Roa. However, it worked out very well as a first stop because it introduced several fundamental concepts of early Rapa Nui life.

Vaihū is along the coast, with its ahu close to the shore. It's complete, with all eight mo'ai and several of them with pukao.

Unlike those at the ahu in town, all of these mo'ai remained toppled.

These mo'ai are noticeably of varying colors. The ahu or ceremonial platform has a border of red scoria stone, indicating special importance.

A ceremonial circle immediately in front of the ahu has been reconstructed.

Elements of the settlement have also been reconstructed, the boat-like houses and agricultural features. Vaihū was a good place to start!

In the Van

I had joined an all-day tour run by the Hahave agency. It was excellent. Emilia Tepano, our guide, is very knowledgeable and knows how to present a great deal of brand-new information to a group of people. I've had to do that, I appreciate how difficult it is. There were twelve of us, plus Emilia and our driver.

We were in what I think of as an airport shuttle van with room to spare. 4 rows of 2×1 seats, plus a back row of 4. We started just after 09:00 and returned to town at shortly after 17:00.

I definitely had the feeling of "OK, my brain is full now" by the end. The last two stops were well-chosen for the end of the day. Ahu Te Pito Kura, the next-to-last, was the least interesting of the day. It's of some historical interest but frankly there's not much to see there. And the last stop was Anakena, definitely of historical or at least mythological interest, but mainly a very pretty beach where we could relax and get something to eat or drink.

Off we went to start our day at Vaihū.

Arriving at Vaihū

Vaihū is along the southern coast a short distance east of the south end of the airport's runway. The airport fuel tanks were visible in the distance, below one end of the Rano Kau volcano.

To enter a site, first a local has to show their credentials and state how many are in the group. Then we each showed our national park pass to enter. Our passes were stamped at each site.

Ahu Haŋa Te'e

Vaihū is along the southern coast at a fishing cove. Its ahu is Ahu Haŋa Te'e. It's about 80 meters long and 12 metres wide. Its eight mo'ai have all been tipped forward and remain lying face down, some are partially broken. Three pukao rolled off their heads.

A large circle of stones about 10 metres in diameter, called a paina, lies in front. Rituals performed within the paina provided for the deified ancestors and led to their mana benefitting the living.

This was the only site where I saw such a large reconstructed paina.

There was a long cistern here where they collected fresh water from a small spring. A spring would be discovered by noticing fresh water entering the ocean, and then tracing it back to its source. Vaihū means "place of water".

This ahu is about 80 meters long and 12 meters wide, with a semicircular rear retaining wall. It is bordered by red scoria, the same material used to make the pukao, representing topknots.

The red scoria was sourced from a quarry within the Puna Pau crater. Scoria is ejected from a volcano as a molten blob containing gas bubbles, and it cools and solidifies somewhat as it travels through the air. The name comes from the Greek σκωρία or skoria, meaning "rust", because of the red color caused by oxidized iron.

Human cultures and their languages generally start by distinguishing light from dark. Red is usually the first specific color that a culture recognizes and gives a word. That usually leads to red becoming a sacred color.

The pukao were a later addition to the mo'ai design. The early mo'ai did not have them. The pukao were created at the Puna Pau crater and then rolled along an ancient road network to mo'ai where they would be installed.

The pukao seem to have indicated greater levels of mana or supernatural power associated with specific deified ancestors. They could have indicated to the living which mo'ai should be the object of certain rituals.

The Settlement

Remains of a settlement were found here, and have been partially reconstructed.

The most common type of dwelling was called hare paeŋa, meaning "boat house", because it's a house that looks like a flipped-over boat.

The foundations were made of partially buried basalt slabs with holes to hold the bases of wooden poles. The wooden framework was then covered by multiple layers of woven vegetation.

First, a layer of tortora reeds was fastened directly to the wooden frame. Next, a layer of woven sugarcane leaves, and finally, a layer of woven grass on top of that.

I was struck by several similarities, but also several differences, with the Jōmon era sites of northern Japan, dating back to 14,000–300 BCE.

No, I am not going all Thor Heyerdahl here and suggesting some trans-Pacific connection. But it's interesting to see that two very separated groups of smart people living in two very different environments happened to arrive at similar solutions in housing design.

Agriculture

The Rapa Nui settlers underwent a slight population decrease immediately after they arrived, while they figured out the local environment. For example, the initial settlers would have brought tropical plants, but they had traveled significantly south to subtropical Rapa Nui. The island is a little past 27° south of the Equator.

But once they got established, the population slowly but steadily grew until the Europeans arrived with all the diseases and slavery.

By 2024, a series of recent genetic and archaeological studies had shown strong evidence that there were never more than about 3,000 people living on Rapa Nui. There had been no earlier failure of large-scale farming because that had never existed in the first place. Their agriculture was always much more like gardens rather than farms.

Manavai is the ancient system of cultivation protected by a stone wall. The islanders may have gotten the idea by the microclimates formed by the volcanic calderas and their lakes.

The Rapa Nui people developed lithic mulching — covering plots of crops with small stones. It traps moisture, regulates soil temperature, and improves soil fertility. It has been independently rediscovered multiple times in dry areas of the premodern world, and now is used in vineyards in southern France and elsewhere.

Next❯ Ahu Akahaŋa — Petroglyphs and a Lava Cave