Crossroads of Curiosity

"Moai"

 

David Normal:

 

"Moai" Statues from Easter Island (Rapa Nui). The unfeeling visages of these idols compliments the inhumanity of the machine gun. Remnants of a lost civilization that exhausting its resources found itself trapped on the island with no escape.  The idols,  objects of status the construction of which the chieftains of the island lavished all of their resources upon,  looked on emptily as the Rapa Nui Islanders descended into cannibalism, eating one another for sustenance (so it has been said).  No rites of magic or sacrifice to their monolithic stone masters could reverse the fate.

 

Image taken from page 60 of '[The Countries of the World: being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe. [With plates.]]'Collection of the British Library.

View illustration on British Library's Flickr Photostream

 

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