Stone Figure
date: label: Accession Date
content: 4 May 1887
label: Collection Date
content: 18 Dec 1886 to 31 Dec 1886
name: label: Collector
content: Maj. William J. Thomson
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department of the Navy
label: Expedition
content: Mohican Survey of Easter Island
label: Vessel
content: U.S.S. Mohican
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "STONE FIGURE WEIGHING ABOUT 3 TONS-SHOWING HEAD, SHOULDERS AND BUST BUT ONLY OUTLINE OF ARMS, THE LATTER, NOT DISTINCT FROM THE BODY, BUT A SLIGHTLY RAISED SURFACE CARVED STRAIGHT DOWN THE SIDE, WITH THE FOREARMS PLACED ACROSS THE STOMACH AT RIGHT ANGLES-FINGERS TOUCHING AND SLIGHTLY INTERLACED. BELOW THIS PONT THE GENERAL SHAPE OF THE MONOLITH IS SQUARE".
label: Notes
content: See also Catalogue No. E128369, which was used as the topknot or pukao for this figure/moai when it was formerly on exhibit in NHB exhibit Hall 8 (even though pukao was probably not actually made for this statue.) See Fig. 10, and pp. 27-28 in "Changing Faces: Rapa Nui Statues in the Social Landscape" by Jo Anne Van Tilburg, in Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island by Eric Kjelgren, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2001. In 2005, this statue or moai was on exhibit in the NMNH Constitution Avenue lobby (but pukao E128369 is no longer included in the exhibit). Exhibit label identifies this as carved of consolidated volcanic ash or volcanic tuff [lapilli tuff] (from the quarry Rano Raraku); collected for the Smithsonian in 1886 from a rare inland ceremonial site called "Ahu O'Pepe"; found lying on the ground with 6 other statues. In 2018, statue/moai was moved further into the museum on the ground floor not far from the NMNH Constitution Avenue lobby/entrance. This moai is Easter Island Statue Project reference # SI-WDC-001.
label: Notes
content: Reference: Van Tilburg, Jo Anne, Kaeppler, Adrienne L., Weisler, Marshall, Cristino, Claudio and Spitzer, Angela 2008. Petrographic Analysis of Thin-Sections of Samples from Two Monolithic Statues (Moai), Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Journal of the Polynesian Society, 117(3): 297-300.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 3 Nov 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Ahu O'Pepe, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 019025
label: USNM Number
content: E128368-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 2 m
label: Width - Object
content: 1 m