3D Model of Rano Raraku Suggests Clan-Based Production of Easter Island’s Moai

A high-resolution 3D reconstruction of the Rano Raraku quarry on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) offers fresh insight into how the island's moai were produced and who organized their creation. Using photogrammetry applied to roughly 11,000 overlapping drone images, researchers assembled the most detailed model yet of the volcanic crater where hundreds of unfinished statues remain embedded in the rock.

New map, detailed evidence

The model documents 426 moai at various stages of completion, 341 trenches cut to outline blocks for carving, 133 voids where statues were successfully removed, and five bollards that likely served as anchor points to control the lowering of large figures down slopes. The team identified 30 distinct quarrying zones across Rano Raraku, and evidence that partially finished figures were moved in multiple directions toward different platforms around the island.

Techniques and scale

Most statues were quarried and carved in a supine position and typically worked from the top down, with artisans defining facial features first and then shaping the head and body. Some statues were extracted from the side. The average moai measured about 4 meters tall and weighed roughly 12.5 tons, while some exceeded 20 tons. Among the unfinished figures is the enormous Te Tokanga, estimated at about 21 meters (69 feet) and roughly 270 tons if completed.

Interpretation: decentralized production

“The sheer scale seemed to demand centralized coordination,” says Carl Lipo, coauthor of the study and professor of anthropology at Binghamton University. The new spatial pattern, he and colleagues argue, challenges that assumption: instead of a single island-wide workforce under a paramount chief, production appears to have been organized by multiple, largely autonomous kin groups operating in separate quarry zones.

The researchers contend that the full production chain—from initial cutting into bedrock through final carving—generally stayed within discrete zones rather than moving between specialized workshops. Variation among zones in extraction methods and finishing techniques supports the interpretation of independent teams or clans carrying out their own projects.

Scholarly context and caution

Not all archaeologists view the findings as definitive proof of a clan-based political order. Helene Martinsson-Wallin (Uppsala University) notes that the idea of non-centralized, clan-based organization on Rapa Nui dates back to early 20th-century fieldwork, and that so-called open societies can still undertake large-scale monument construction. Christopher Stevenson (Virginia Commonwealth University) praises the innovative mapping but warns that additional lines of evidence—such as nearby distinctive residential architecture and broader landscape data—are needed to fully test social interpretations.

Broader significance

Settled by Polynesian voyagers about 900 years ago, Rapa Nui has long been central to debates about social complexity, environmental limits, and resilience. Some portrayals have painted the island as a cautionary tale of ecological collapse driven by elite monument-building. The quarry model lends support to a different view: decentralized, community-driven production suggests that no single authority was imposing a destructive island-wide monument program, and that the society may have been more adaptable than once thought. The team also suggests that quarry activity likely continued until European contact, with later disruptions from introduced disease and other impacts contributing to societal change.

Study details: the research was published in the journal PLOS One and relies on photogrammetric reconstruction from about 11,000 drone photographs to map production traces across Rano Raraku. Key contributors include Carl Lipo and other coauthors cited in the paper.