Image: Rapa nui cyark 2

Description: Translated from the term Hare Moa, the Chicken House ruin is a stone construction of a type particular to the Polynesian culture of Rapa Nui. The Hare Moa are the most abundant free-standing permanent constructions on the island;1233 of them have been counted. Built from small pieces of basalt, these structures generally measure around 10 feet wide, 6 feet tall, and 20 feet long, though some examples measuring up to 70 feet in length have been found. The Hare Moas' inner chambers often have both human-sized and animal-sized (chicken) entrances. Evidence points to the use of many of the Hare Moa as coops for chickens during later archaeological periods, though quite a few seem to have originally been built as tombs in earlier phases (pre-protohistoric period) then later re-used as coops. In the case of smaller Hare Moa with no side openings and ill-defined roofs, they served as storage for tubers such as sweet potato and taro. The well-protected nature of these chicken coops could be reflective of the decline of food sources on the island, as well as a dearth of wood and/or reeds that would have been used to build thatch coops in earlier times.
Title: Rapa nui cyark 2
Credit: http://archive.cyark.org/hare-moa-chicken-house-scan-shot-1-media
Author: CyArk
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
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