160 CultureShock! Chile
which allowed the islanders to devote much time and energy
to ceremonial activities. Priests, scribes and artists were
important to cultural development.
Easter Island is most famous for its Moais, large stones
carved in the shape of predominantly male heads and torsos.
The Moais are thought to represent dead chiefs or gods. There
are also over 300 large stone platforms thought to be altars,
called ahu. They were used for burials, ancestor worship
and to commemorate past chiefs. Some are astronomically
aligned, indicating an advanced degree of knowledge.
Rongorongo is a hieroglyphic script that was found
inscribed on many wooden tablets and staffs in 1864. It is
the only indigenous Oceania script found to have existed
before the 20th century. The glyphs themselves are very
small, about 1 centimetre in height, and portray humans,
birds, fish and plants. Every other line is written upside
down so that the tablet must be inverted to continue
reading. By 1866, only two years later, most of the tablets
had been burnt, hidden or used for boat planks or fishing
implements. Today, only about 20 tablets remain and no
one has been able to successfully decipher them.