According to a news release issued by Larry Coben, co-chair of The Archaeological Institute of America Site Preservation Task Force:
The Archaeological Institute of America Site Preservation Task Force (“AIA”) announced today that it had awarded a $94,000 grant for the preservation and conservation of Easter Island’s famous megalithic moai statues. The AIA gave the grant to the Easter Island Statute Project (the “Project”), directed by UCLA archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg and co-directed since 2000 by Rapa Nui’s Cristián Arévalo Pakarati. The Project will develop and apply stone preservation techniques to arrest the rapid deterioration of these statues as a result of the fragile nature of their volcanic stone, climate change and unregulated tourism.
The Project will utilize the grant to focus initially upon the conservation of two of Easter Island’s most famous moai, known as the “mama” and the “papa”. According to local tradition, the statues were named while poking fun at the early 20th century explorer Katherine Routledge and her husband William Scoresby Routledge, who were the first to explore and map the island. These statues stand in the Rano Raraku quarry, the source of most of the statues’ stones and still the location of almost 400 giant statues. The knowledge gained in the study of the mama and papa will then be utilized to preserve the numerous additional statues on the island.
According to Dr. Van Tilburg, “this grant will jumpstart our efforts to preserve this remarkable cultural resource for future generations of local Rapa Nui and the world at large. The fragility of the stone, coupled with the fact that Rano Raraku is a major tourist destination, creates an urgent conservation imperative. We thank the AIA for their assistance in this monumental task”. Added co-director and local resident Pakarati, “The AIA grant will enable we local Rapa Nui people to conserve and benefit from the cultural heritage of our ancestors”.
The grant is the second by the AIA’s new Site Preservation Task Force, and the first outside of the Mediterranean region. The Task Force was created earlier this year to combat the accelerating loss of our priceless cultural heritage. “The Easter Island Statue Project exemplifies the new paradigm of preservation that the Task Force seeks to employ,” said University of Pennsylvania archaeologist and Task Force co-chairman Larry Coben, “not only that all preservation will be carried out to the highest technical standards, but most critically that successful preservation requires the empowerment of, and economic development for, local communities.”
The grant was awarded in a ceremony in the office of Rapa Nui Mayor Petero Edmonds, who thanked the AIA. According to Edmonds, “for projects to be successful they require the empowering and strong involvement of the local community. This Project is a wonderful example of the sort of local, national and international cooperation required”.
The AIA Site Preservation Task Force and Grant program is dedicated to combating the loss of the world’s priceless cultural heritage. The Task Force was formed in 2008 in response to the rapidly accelerating destruction of ancient monuments and sites due to war, looting extreme weather, alternative economic uses and neglect. The Task Force believes that new approaches are required for successful and sustainable preservation. In particular, sustainable preservation requires a focus upon people not stones; that is, success requires the empowerment of and economic development for local communities. The all volunteer Task Force thus consists not just of archaeologists, but experts in business, economics, development and international relations.
Photos: Larry Coben
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