On Easter Island, a Sight Unseen for Centuries Emerges

For centuries, the Easter Island moai lay hidden in a volcano crater filled with water. Five years ago, that crater lake began to dry up, and last week, the dry lake bed revealed what it had concealed for so long, per AFP. A team of volunteers from three Chilean universities were working to restore the marshland of the Rano Raraku volcano crater on Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, on Feb. 21 when they discovered the statue carved from volcanic tuff lying faceup in the lake bed, the Ma'u Henua Indigenous Community, stewards of Rapa Nui National Park, announced Tuesday. Its age is unclear, though other moai date from between 1300 and the early 1600s, per National Geographic.

"The interesting thing is that, for at least the last 200 or 300 years," the crater lake was 10 feet deep, "meaning no human being could have left the moai there in that time," Ninoska Avareipua Huki Cuadros, the group's director, tells AFP. "Nobody knows this exists—even the ancestors, our grandparents, don't know [about] that one," Salvador Atan Hito, the group's vice president, tells Good Morning America. "For the Rapa Nui people, it's [a] very, very important discovery." It marks the first time a moai has been found in a lake bed, according to University of Arizona archaeology professor Dr. Terry Hunt, an expert on moai, who describes Rano Raraku as "the statue quarry," per GMA.

The moai is just over 5 feet tall, making it smaller than most other statues on the Chilean island territory. The average height is 13 feet, per National Geographic. It's "full-bodied with recognizable features but no clear definition," the Ma'u Henua said, adding it will conduct an extensive study if funding can be obtained. However, there are "no plans to remove the moai from where it is." The new find is especially welcome following an October forest fire that damaged hundreds of moai around Rano Raraku. It's also prompted fresh excitement that more moai might still be uncovered, per Artnet News. About 1,000 moai are known to exist, though many are thought to "remain buried in the Rano Raraku quarry," Nat Geo reports. (More Easter Island stories.)