Hare paenga: the canoe-shaped houses and monumental archaeology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Forming the eastern tip of Polynesia is the small and isolated island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Although famous for its extraordinary statues (moai) that once stood on ceremonial platforms (ahu), there is a wealth of associated but less well-known archaeological sites and monuments. As seen in CWA 104, the spectacular ruined ahu complex at Akahanga, with its fallen moai and topknots (pukao) is situated on the south coast of Rapa Nui. With the roar of the Pacific Ocean in our ears, if we walked inland, within a hundred metres or so the foundations of a number of houses (hare paenga) would become visible poking through the low grass. These take the form of a series of shaped black basalt bl