"Hare Moa - Native houses" Easter Island Things to Do Tip by mad4travel

Some 1,233 prehistoric stone "houses", called hare moa ("chicken house") can be found on the island. The stone houses were up to 6 meters long, with a distinctive boat-shaped structure combined with a stick and palm leaf or thatch superstructure. The entrances were very low, and getting in required crawling.

Germans excavated some of the Hare Moa in 1882 and found human remains inside. Locals told them that they were resting places for the ariki, Easter Island kings and chiefs. Each house had two small holes—if a hostile spirit entered through one, the spirit of the deceased could escape through the other.

The stone houses are similar to Indian chullpas in Peru and Bolivia. The remaining numbers of the stone houses and moais are quite close to each other, possibly meaning that for each person buried in a stone house, a moai was immediately constructed.

Usage of stone houses as graves seems to have ceased around the same time when production of moais ended and ancestral worship declined.

During the turmoils of the late 18th century, the islanders seem to have started to bury their dead among the ruined ahus—the moai platforms—and use the stone houses as chicken shelters. There are no human remains in them any more.