{"id":6551,"date":"2016-02-23T20:03:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T20:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/ava-ranga-uka-a-torote-hau\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:19:53","slug":"ava-ranga-uka-a-torote-hau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/ava-ranga-uka-a-torote-hau\/","title":{"rendered":"AVA RANGA UKA A TOROKE HAU"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AVA RANGA UKA A TOROKE HAU<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ancient Watercourse Constructions for Ritual Purpose<\/span><\/b>s<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2007 an expedition led by Burkhardt Vogt, under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, found a natural pond that measures 80 meters in length and 50 meters high, which empties into the vale at Vaipu halfway up the Terevaka hill. It has a bed made of worked stones, called \u201cPaenga\u201d by the old people, through which\u00a0 the 1000 mm of anual rainfall that was normal in this part of the island could flow.\u00a0This construction made by the ancient Rapanui people left many unknowns related to its practical and ritual uses.\u00a0It suggests that in the past the Island was exposed to occasional droughts that alternated with periods of abundant rainfall. The excavations continued in 2008 and 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to legend, little \u201cUka\u201d, the daughter of \u201cToroke Hau\u201d, died when she drowned in a gully in this sector.\u00a0 Her parents had gone to a feast, leaving her home alone, when a sudden flood washed away the house and the girl.\u00a0 From there came the name which means, \u201cgully in which the girl Uka , daughter of Toroke Hau, was floating\u201d.\u00a0 This was one of several gullies which descend along the vale in a northeastern and southeastern direction and were probably the only permanent water flows on the Island. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The scientists noted that the terrain suggested the presence of two dikes set one after the other as in a cascade, which formed barriers across the width of the vale to slow the force of the water as it descended. They also found remains of constructions, which were posible retaining walls for the banks and terraces.\u00a0 Some small openings found in the covering of the dikes, combined with heavy sediments behind them, leads them to believe that, since the dike was built, there were periods of uninterrupted heavy rains which caused a rapid sedimentation and gave the builders no time to properly fill them.\u00a0In addition, two thin layers of finer sediments indicate that there were also periods of prolonged drought.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Other discoveries indicate the presence of human settlements to the west of the rivulet, on the border of the gully, since traces of foundations of typical houses and holes for plantings were found. There are also the remains of a destroyed Ahu (ceremonial platform) with a fallen Moai (statue), which according to oral tradition was called \u201cAhu Hanuanuamea\u201d or ahu of the rainbow.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the excavations in 2008, a rectangular pool was found, with interior dimensions of 5 m by 2.75 m and an average depth of 1.5 m.\u00a0 It was built of eleven \u201cPaenga\u201d stones and located some 50 m above the first dike.\u00a0 Due to its location within the bed of the gully, it would seem to have once been used for water control.\u00a0 In the base of the pool, they found a large quantity of organic material, such as bits of wood and twigs, vegetable fibers, compressed leaves and shells of the nut from the Chilean palm (Jubaea chilensis), abundant on Rapa Nui in ancient times.\u00a0\u00a0 Markings on the shells were determined to be from gnawing by rats which had been introduced by the Rapanui when they colonized the Island.\u00a0 In the fill within the pool, there was also a large amount of accumulated utensils made of obsidian, basalt and wood.\u00a0 When they were subjected to Carbon-14 testing, the age was surprising, as they were dated between the 16th and 17th Centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

The existence of a cult of water has not been proven until now, but can be supposed from local legends such as that of \u201cAva Ranga Uka\u201d.\u00a0 The Pre-Christian god of rain, Hiro, was one of the most important divinities of the Rapanui pantheon.\u00a0 He was in charge of the fertility of the fields and orchards, as well as of the humans.\u00a0One of the offerings that was used to invoke him was a piece of coral which was still wet and covered with algae which would be buried to make Hiro \u201ccry his long tears\u201d.\u00a0 In this excavation, several pieces of coral were found in the cavity of the reservoir behind the first dike, indicating that this ritual had been held in this sector.\u00a0 To that can be added the discovery of three petroglyphs carved into the base of the pool which represent a human foot, a fish or a dolphin, as well as a design of curved lines which represent a boat.<\/span><\/p>\n

The young Rapanui anthropologist, Merahi L\u00f3pez-Atan, who was invited to participate in the German excavations, commented that : \u201cObviously the reason for this site was to retain water although we don\u2019t yet know why.\u00a0 There may be many possible hypotheses. One is that it could perfectly have been a ritual site.\u00a0 Another idea is that, due to the velocity of the w\u00e1ter when it flows, these were built to stop the flow in the pool to let it decant for clean w\u00e1ter.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 At this time, the site has been reburied to protect it, but work will be resumed in the middle of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Reportajes relacionados:<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ancient Hydraulic Construction with Ritual Purposes, Rapa Nui and Easter Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-6551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archeology","tag-archeology-and-anthropology-in-rapa-nui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}