Hoa Hakananaia

The statue was defined by the islanders as Hoa Hakananaya, while the first record of the name made by the British team that took the statue sounded like Hoa Haka-Nana-ia or Hoa-Haka-Nama-ya ^[7] . The name was translated differently from Rapa Nui (Polynesian) as “breaking the wave” ^[8] , “surfing”, ^[7] , “surfer” ^{[9] [10]} , “master wave breaker” ^[11] , “Lost or stolen friend” ^[12] , “stolen friend or hidden friend” ^[13] or “burglar” or “mockery of a friend” ^[9] .

At the time of the description in 1868, Hoa Hakananaya stood straight, part of it was enclosed inside a stone ceremonial "house" in the village of Orongo at the southwestern tip of the island. He was turned to face the extinct volcanic crater Rano-Kau , his back to the ocean ^{[14] [15]} . Perhaps the statue was created here or pre-made in another place and then moved to where it was found ^{[15] [16]} .

Most of the statues on Rapa Nui are made of reddish tuff ^{[17] [18]} , but Hoa Hakananaya is created from a block of dark gray-brown streaming lava ^[19] . Although the statue is usually described as made of basalt , which is mined near the place where the statue was found ^[18] , there are no records of petrological analysis confirming this ^{[20] [21]} . The statue has a height of 2.42 meters (7.9 feet), 96 cm (3.15 feet) across, and weighs 4.2 tons ^[22] . The base of the statue, now hidden in the modern pedestal, may have been initially flat, and then narrowed or was rough and tapering from the very beginning ^{[23] [24] [25]} .

The typical Moai of Moai, Hoa Hakananaya, has a heavy forehead, a blocky face with a prominent nose and a protruding chin, nipples, thin, slightly angled hands, lowered down to the sides and directed towards the stomach, which is not far from the base. It has a raised Y-shape in the center of the chin, the eyes are hollowed out in a characteristic manner for statues erected on ceremonial platforms ahu , and long, rectangular stylized ears. The line around the base of the neck is interpreted as protruding clavicles ^{[23] [24] [25]} ; there is a semicircular cavity for the suprasternal notch.

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  Front view of the statue of Hoa Hakananaya.

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  Damage to the front of the hands of Hoa Hakananaya.

It has an original shape, the back consists of a smooth part, separated from the maro (belt), which consists of three raised lines and a circle above and below the M-shaped vertical line. Near the base there are slight signs of buttocks ^[25] .

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  The lower back of Hoa Hakananaya with a "maro" (belt) and buttocks.

The upper part of the head is smooth and even ^[21] and initially could support pucao , a cylindrical stone “hat”. The flat round stone found next to the statue could be such a hat ^[26] or, if the lower part of the stone was flat, then it could serve as the foundation on which the statue once stood ^[27] .

There are no statues on Easter Island whose age would be scientifically determined, but the creation of statues as a whole began no earlier than 1000 AD. e. ^[28] and lasted mainly between 1300 and 1500 BC. e. ^[29] . The production of statues ended by 1600, when the islanders began to destroy them ^[30] . In episode No. 70 of the BBC Radio-4 series, “The History of the World in a Hundred Objects” (2010), the statue was described as being created between the years 1000-1200. e.

Y on the chin and collarbone are rare on Easter Island statues and are late innovations ^[31] .

The back of the statue, between maro and the top of the head, is covered with embossed carvings added at an unknown time after the statue was created ^{[4] [32] [33]} . They are similar in style to the petroglyphs depicted on a rock near the village of Orongo , where they are more common than anywhere else on the island ^{[34] [35]} . On both sides and above the ring on the maro are two standing human birds ((tangata manu), stylized human figures with hooked heads, like frigates birds. Above them, in the center of the statue’s head, a smaller bird, presumably the Dark Tern (manutara), is visible On both sides of it is a ritual dance oar (ao), a symbol of masculine power and prestige. On the edge of the left ear is the third oar, due to its smaller size, perhaps rapa rather than ao. On the right ear there are strings of four characters of the vulva (komari.) Y-shaped lines extend from the top of the head ^{[36] [37]} .

At a time when Europeans first saw the statue, the thread was painted red on a white background. The paint was completely or mostly washed away when the statue was delivered to HMS Topaze ^{[38] [39]} .

The exact definition of the meaning of these figures is not clear. People-birds are usually interpreted as Make-mak , the god of fertility and the main god of the cult of the human bird ^[40] . This cult is supposed to replace the older cult of statues that was described by early European travelers ^[41] .

The cult ceremonies included an annual contest to get the first egg laid by the migrating Dark Terns . The competition was held in Orongo , and the winner became the representative of Mack-Mack for the next year ^{[42] [43]} . It is believed that the last ceremony took place in 1866 or 1867 ^[44] .

After the most intensive inspection of the statue to date, a more detailed interpretation of the meaning of the thread has been proposed ^[45] . The new study, which followed the yet unpublished review of 3D laser scanning ^[46] , consisted of a combination of photogrammetry and image conversion used to create high-resolution digital images in 2.5 and 3 dimensions ^{[47] [48] [49]} . This made it possible to clarify a number of details. The Y-shaped lines at the top of the head are the remains of two large komari, partially removed by another thread that was added later. The small bird has a closed beak, not open, as has often been described, and the left human bird’s foot has five fingers, not six. There is a small shallow thread under the left ear, which can be komari or ao. The beak of the right human bird approaches the short rounded end, and not the long pointed tip; The latest reading of digital models was reinforced by a new interpretation of the statue’s photograph taken in 1868 ^[39] .

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  Petroglyphs on the back of Hoa Hakananaya.

The presence of a short beak ^{[50] [51]} was challenged and, in turn, the original study was completed. Other studies have suggested that the carvings on the back concealed the four earlier figures of human birds ^[52] and that an engraved human bird fills in front the area between the nipples and hands ^[53] . The latest version was disputed ^[54] and defended ^[55] . None of the alleged can be seen on the new digital models ^[56] . Archaeologists conducting new digital research have also proposed a new way to read the main composition. It has been suggested that the elements complemented each other to depict a human-bird ceremony, with a left male human bird figure and a female right, and the bird above them shows their newborn chick. “Meanwhile, the whole statue became Make-Mak , his face painted white ... in the style of a bird-man” ^[57] . One of the groups of critics described this interpretation as “interesting, thought-provoking, and even to some extent poetic”, but, despite the “great impression of the work,” rejected this version ^[51] .

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  A thread identifying a man (left) and a woman (right), with their plumage higher, as suggested in the controversial interpretation. Also visible in the photograph are two large earlier komari, which extend to the top of the statue’s head.

Archaeologists have conducted new digital studies and released online photogrammetry models that display and transform images of these images. The latter are the front and lower back , middle back , upper back and back of the head . Viewers can share results to stimulate discussion.

Hoa Hakananaya was found in November 1868 by officers and crew of the British Royal Navy ship HMS Topaze ^[58] . At the time of discovery, the statue was covered with earth to about half its height or even more ^{[26] [59] [60]} It was dug out, dragged down from Rano Kau on a sledge, and rafted out to the ship. ^[1] . The statue was excavated and transported from Rano-Kau on drags and fused to the ship ^[1] . She was photographed while HMS Topaze was in Valparaiso , Chile , from the back ^[39] and front ^[61] . At the same time, Commodore Richard Powell, captain of Topaze, wrote a letter to the British Admiralty , offering the statue as a gift. ^[62]

HMS Topaze arrived in Plymouth , England on August 16, 1869. The Admiralty offered a statue to Queen Victoria , who offered to give it to the British Museum ^[62] . The statue was installed on the ground floor and exhibited at the main entrance to the museum, under the portico. During World War II, she was taken inside the building, where she remained until 1966. In the same year, the statue was transferred to the then ethnographic department of the museum, which had separate rooms in Burlington Gardens. Hoa Hakananaya returned to the main building of the British Museum in 2000 when he was exhibited on a new, higher pedestal in the Great Courtyard before moving to his current location in the Wellcome Trust Gallery (Room 24: Life and Death) ^{[63] [64]} . It was suggested that the statue was originally erected at a slightly different angle, so that the upper part of the head would be exactly horizontal ^[65] .

• Hoa Hakananaya inspired artists, including Henri Godier-Brzeska ^[66] and Henry Moore , who shot a conversation about the statue in 1958 ^[67] . Moore commented on his “amazing essence” and that his creators “instinctively knew that a sculpture intended for open air should be large” ^[68] . Ron Mueck exposed his Mask II to Hoa Hakananaya in 2008/09 ^[69] .

• Robert Frost wrote a poem about the statue called “Bad Easter Island” ^[70] .

• English artist Ronald Lampitt used the statue as a model to illustrate Easter Island in Look and Learn magazine ^[71] .

• A set of six postage stamps issued by the Royal Post in 2003 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the British Museum featuring the Hoa Hakananaya along with other museum exhibits such as the Sutton Hu helmet and Xiuhtecuhtli mask ^{[72] [73]} .

• The statue was chosen by the director of the British Museum, Neil McGregor, as one of one hundred objects with which he told the history of the world ^{[74] [75]} .

• In 2010, he became the object of a protest against BP over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico .

• Rapa Nui mythology