<Li> Red scoria from Puna Pau, a very light red stone used for the pukao and a few moai . </Li> <Li> Tuff from Rano Raraku, a much more easily worked rock than basalt that was used for most of the moai . </Li> <P> The large stone statues, or moai, for which Easter Island is famous, were carved in the period 1100--1680 CE (rectified radio - carbon dates). A total of 887 monolithic stone statues have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections . Although often identified as "Easter Island heads", the statues have torsos, most of them ending at the top of the thighs, although a small number are complete figures that kneel on bent knees with their hands over their stomachs . Some upright moai have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils . </P> <P> Almost all (95%) moai were carved from compressed, easily worked solidified volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site on the side of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku . The native islanders who carved them used only stone hand chisels, mainly basalt toki, which lie in place all over the quarry . The stone chisels were sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dulled . While sculpting was going on, the volcanic stone was splashed with water to soften it . While many teams worked on different statues at the same time, a single moai took a team of five or six men approximately a year to complete . Each statue represented the deceased head of a lineage . </P>

When were the statues on easter island built