All moai were created with 2 arms reaching down their sides culminating in hands with elongated fingers resting below the belly and navel, even the one I saw in the local cemetery! (See above) The one described in the prior post is the exception with 4 arms, 4 hands and 20 fingers.
Here are photos of the moai at Tongariki. They are the best examples, as many of the island's moai's fingers have eroded away.
Now, that got me thinking. Where else did I see that? At Gobekli Tepe of course. Below is Urfa Man, which is about 11,500 years old, and is housed in the Sanliurfa Museum. He was discovered during a construction project in Sanliurfa. He is considered to be the oldest life sized naturalistic human sculpture ever discovered.
In that same museum are the reproductions of the main pillars of Gobekli Tepe. Again, note the arms and hands.
I did a search on the internet, looking for other such ancient motifs, and there were none. Is this just a coincidence? Are both of these ancient cultures thousands of years apart? Or is the moai culture of Easter Island much older than is believed. Was there any kind of communication between the two in ancient times?
I firmly believe that there was an advanced and seafaring civilization on earth that got mostly wiped out at the end of the last Ice Age. We are what is left from the survivors and have been trying to recover that ancient knowledge ever since.
So this is my final post on the fabulous trip to Easter Island. I leave you with a photo of sunset behind one of the moai at the Hanga Roa harbor.
