A new moai statue has been discovered by researchers on the Chilean island of Rapa Nui, joining the around 1,000 other famous monolithic sculptures on what is known as Easter Island.
Researchers from O’Higgins University and the Universidad of Chile made the discovery.
When compared to some of the other statues with prominently featured heads and torsos that reach heights of up to 72 feet, the new statue is tiny at only 5.2 feet.
Salvador Atan Hito, vice president of the Ma u Henua indigenous group that looks after Rapa Nui’s archaeological riches, speculated that more sculptures may be unearthed in the dry lake that sits at the core of the Rano Raraku volcanic crater.
Atan told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that the statue “is in good condition, it has wear from time, erosion, water, but its shapes and features are still very noticeable.”
“This discovery is something historic for this new generation,” he continued.
The majority of the island’s 1,000 moai are dispersed throughout the island’s 60 square miles, with about 400 of them either inside the volcano crater or on its outer slopes.
Some of the moai are believed to still be buried beneath the earth’s surface.
Atan said that this most recent fine had not before been categorized.
According to Atan, the figures are the ancestors of the Rapa Nui people, and they serve to safeguard the community’s members. This is why they were positioned gazing inward from the sea.
In 1995, UNESCO designated Rapa Nui, which is 2,300 miles from the continent, as a World Heritage Site.
Its original name, Easter Island, was changed to “Rapa Nui-Easter Island” in 2019.
