MegalithFringe site
Orongo
DatedEst. 1500 BCE–900 CE
Photo kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. It consists of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings with very low doors, set on the high south-westerly tip of the volcanic caldera of Rano Kau.
Between the 18th and mid-19th centuries it was the centre of a birdman cult. It now has World Heritage status as part of the Rapa Nui National Park.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Orongo
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Below Orongo on one side a 300-meter barren cliff face drops down to the ocean; on the other, a more gentle but still very steep grassy slope leads down to a freshwater marsh inside the caldera. The village comprises 53 stone masonry houses. The site has numerous petroglyphs, mainly of tangata manu (birdmen), which may have been carved to commemorate some of the winners of the birdman race.
The race was very dangerous, and hunters often fell to their deaths from the cliff face or were killed by sharks.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Between the 18th and mid-19th centuries Orongo was the centre of a birdman cult whose defining ritual was an annual race to bring the first manutara (sooty tern) egg back undamaged from the nearby islet of Motu Nui to Orongo. The race was very dangerous, and hunters often fell to their deaths from the cliff face or were killed by sharks.
In the 1860s most of the Rapa Nui islanders died of disease or were enslaved, and when the survivors were converted to Christianity, Orongo fell into disuse. In 1868 the crew of HMS Topaze removed the huge basalt moai known as Hoa Hakananai'a from Orongo; it is now housed in the British Museum.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
In 1974 UNESCO sponsored a project to restore Orongo. Under the supervision of William Mulloy, with the support of the Rapanui archaeologist Sonia Haoa Cardinali, the first half of the village's 53 stone masonry houses was investigated and restored in 1974. The remainder was completed in 1976 and subsequently investigated in 1985 and again in 1995.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
The site was included in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund, and listed again four years later, in 2000. The threat was soil erosion, caused by rainfall and exacerbated by foot traffic. After 2000 the organization helped devise a site management plan with support from American Express, and in December 2009 more funding was announced for the construction of a sustainable visitor center.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Other prehistoric stone monuments
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification.
Several of these are underground. A hypogeum is literally an "underground" temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. An early example is found at the Minoan Bronze Age site of Knossos on Crete, a beehive-shaped vault cut into soft rock. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE. It is a complex of underground chambers, halls and passages covering about 500 square metres on three levels, partly carved to imitate temple architecture and containing extensive prehistoric art.
A rock-cut tomb is cut into an existing rock formation, usually a cliff or sloping rock face, and was a common burial form for the wealthy in several parts of the world. Famous clusters are in Egypt, Iran, Lycia in Turkey, Petra in Jordan and Sicily. Phrygian rock-cut tombs such as the Midas monument date to about 700 BCE, and Etruscan ones to about 500 BCE.
The general rule for these records is that the type tells you how a monument was made, not who made it or when. Dating is taken from the source for each site where a source gives one, and otherwise left as a broad range.
When visiting, read the site's own description first, since the Atlas can offer only a general frame.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Hypogeum, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1868
In 1868, the crew of HMS Topaze removed the huge basalt moai known as Hoa Hakananai'a from Orongo.
Source - 1919
1919. The Mystery of Easter Island; the Story of an Expedition.
Source - 1974
In 1974 UNESCO sponsored a project to restore Orongo.
Source - 1974
Under the supervision of William Mulloy, with the support of Rapanui archaeologist Sonia Haoa Cardinali, the first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses was investigated and restored in 1974. The remainder was completed in 1976 and subsequently investigated in 1985 and again in 1995. Orongo now...
Source - 1993
1993. Easter Island Studies: Contributions to the History of Rapanui in Memory of William T.
Source - 1996
The site of Orongo was included in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund, and listed again four years later, in 2000. The threat was soil erosion, caused by rainfall and exacerbated by foot traffic.
Source - 1998
ISBN 0-932813-48-8 (1998 US reprint)
Source - 2000
After 2000, the organization helped devise a site management plan with support from American Express, and in December 2009 more funding was announced for the construction of a sustainable visitor center.
Source
Photographs
5 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 1500 BCE–900 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a other in the Andes and Amazonia is normally dated between 1500 BCE and 900 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Site type
- stone village and ceremonial centerSource: Site type
- Buildings
- low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled structuresSource: Buildings
- Houses
- 53 stone masonry housesSource: Houses
- Main cliff
- 300 meters above the oceanSource: Main cliff
- Restoration
- begun in 1974 and completed in 1976Source: Restoration
- Heritage
- part of Rapa Nui National ParkSource: Heritage
Where it stands
Chile
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 27°11′22″ S, 109°26′33″ WFor a GPS or map app: -27.18944, -109.44250
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1551834wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Easter Island 13.jpgkallernaCC BY-SA 4.0
- Orongohaus2.jpgAmerican at alemán WikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0
- Orongohaeuser.jpgAmerican at Duits WikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0
- Orongomotus.jpgAmerican at Duits WikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0
- Rano Kau Orongo by Gustavo Gerdel.jpgGgerdel - Fotografía tomada por: Gustavo GerdelCC BY-SA 4.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Orongo" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): OrongoCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1551834CC0