Tiki / Moai head made of lava cast, 75 cm high in olive
Miniature Sculpture - Yogya Collection
Type of stone: cast lava, shaped stone
cast in stone, hand finished & coloured
weatherproof & frostproof
These figures are produced in a so-called dry casting process from concrete and earthenware. In the course of this process, very little liquid is used, giving the figure its characteristically rough surface, similar to that of natural stone. Following the usual casting process, the contours of the sculpture are reworked and refined by hand.
All sculptures made of shaped stone are absolutely frost-proof and can be used outdoors all year round.
Stone Colossuses from Easter Island
The mysterious Moai sculptures have defied rain and wind for centuries, firing the imagination of researchers and dreamers. About 890 monumental stone sculptures of various sizes are located on Easter Island. The Rano Raraku volcano was their sacred place of origin. There must have been hundreds of masters of stone work who created these colossal powerful personalities from pure volcanic rock. Artists first loosened the shape from the rock in rough form, to which they then gave it its striking contours and finally its fine features. How old the Moai's are cannot be determined with certainty. Archaeologists agree that Easter Island was settled around the 4th or 5th century AD and that the natives started to finish altars and first statues relatively quickly after that. The Moai's with round or angular heads and eye sockets are said to have been created from about the 12th to 13th century AD, the more modern Moai's (mainly at Rano Raraku) from about the 15th/16th century AD.