A report on Puna Pau, Pukao and Easter Island

A red scoria pukao on the head of a moai at Ahu Tahai, made using rock from Puna Pau

Re-erected tuff moai at Ahu Tahai with restored scoria pukao and replica coral eyes.

Inside of park brochure for Puna Pau (in Spanish)

Outside of park brochure for Puna Pau (in English)

Traditional cultivars of sweet potato (kumara) were staple crops on Polynesian Rapa Nui

A View of the Monuments of Easter Island, Rapanui, c. undefined 1775–1776 by William Hodges.

Rapa Nui people, painted by Louis Choris, 1816

Motu Nui islet, part of the Birdman Cult ceremony

Jacob Roggeveen analyzing a Moai statue, 18th-century engraving.

"Queen Mother" Koreto with her daughters "Queen" Caroline and Harriette in 1877

General Pinochet posing with a young Rapa Nui woman

Manu Piri symbolizes love and union between two people. The slogan of the current administration is "Rapa Nui hai mahatu", translated as "Rapa Nui with love".

Souvenir Moai from Rapa Nui, bought at the Artisan's Market, 2020

Easter Island, Isla Salas y Gómez, South America and the islands in between

Typical landscape on Easter Island; rounded extinct volcanoes covered in low vegetation.

Bird paintings in the cave called "Cave of the Men Eaters"

Two ahu at Hanga Roa. In foreground Ahu Ko Te Riku (with a pukao on its head). In the mid-ground is a side view of an ahu with five moai showing retaining wall, platform, ramp and pavement. The Mataveri end of Hanga Roa is visible in the background with Rano Kau rising above it.

A Hare Moa, a Chicken House, image cut from a laser scan collected by nonprofit CyArk.

Ancestor figure, circa 1830, from LACMA collections

Satellite view of Easter Island 2019. The Poike peninsula is on the right.

Digital recreation of its ancient landscape, with tropical forest and palm trees

Hanga Roa seen from Terevaka, the highest point of the island

Tukuturi, an unusual bearded kneeling moai

All fifteen standing moai at Ahu Tongariki, excavated and restored in the 1990s

Ahu Akivi, one of the few inland ahu, with the only moai facing the ocean

Makemake with two birdmen, carved from red scoria

Fish petroglyph found near Ahu Tongariki

Polynesian dancing with feather costumes is on the tourist itinerary.

Front view of the Catholic Church, Hanga Roa

Interior view of the Catholic Church in Hanga Roa

Maunga Puna Pau is a small crater or cinder cone and prehistoric quarry on the outskirts of Hanga Roa in the south west of Easter Island (a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean).

- Puna Pau

Pukao are the hat-like structures or topknots formerly placed on top of some moai statues on Easter Island.

- Pukao

They were all carved from a very light-red volcanic scoria, which was quarried from a single source at Puna Pau.

- Pukao

Puna Pau was the sole source of the red scoria that the prehistoric Rapanui used to carve the pukao (topknots) that they put on the heads of some of their iconic moai statues.

- Puna Pau

Lesser cones and other volcanic features include the crater Rano Raraku, the cinder cone Puna Pau and many volcanic caves including lava tubes.

- Easter Island

Red scoria from Puna Pau, a very light red stone used for the pukao and a few moai.

- Easter Island

2 related topics with Alpha

Moai

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Re-erected tuff moai at Ahu Tahai with restored pukao and replica eyes

Petroglyphs on the back of an excavated moai.

Map of Easter Island using moai to show locations of various ahu

Ahu Akivi, the furthest inland of all the ahu

Sign indicating the protected status of the moai

Petroglyph of a birdman with an egg in hand.

Original moai at the Louvre Museum, in Paris

Early European drawing of moai, in the lower half of a 1770 Spanish map of Easter Island; the original manuscript maps of the Spanish expedition are in Naval Museum of Madrid and in The Jack Daulton Collection, US.

Tukuturi at Rano Raraku is the only kneeling moai and one of the few made of red scoria.

Moai on the Easter Island, a painting by William Hodges, 1775–76

Moai or moʻai (moái,, meaning "statue" in Rapa Nui) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500.

The more recent moai had pukao on their heads, which represent the topknot of the chieftains.

The pukao were carved out of red scoria, a very light rock from a quarry at Puna Pau.

Scoria

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Highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that may or may not contain crystals .

Tuff moai with red scoria pukao on its head

Fresh scoria sometimes has a blue sheen to its surface.

Scoria of various hues exists on Mount Tarawera, from its 1886 eruption.

Holocene scoria-producing volcano near Veyo, Utah

Photomicrograph of a volcanic lithic fragment (sand grain) derived from scoria; upper picture is plane-polarized light, bottom picture is cross-polarized light, scale box at left-center is 0.25 millimeter.

Red scoria cliffs at Akyia-kaigan coast in the Oki Islands, Japan. It was erupted 2.8 million years ago.

Scoriaceous boulder near Point Mugu, California.

Pine trees growing on the slope of Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The quarry of Puna Pau on Rapa Nui/Easter Island was the source of a red-coloured scoria which the Rapanui people used to carve the pukao (or topknots) for their distinctive moai statues, and even to carve some moai themselves.