Aku-aku by Thor Heyerdahl

First published:Aku-aku: påskeøyas hemmelighet, 1957 (English translation, 1958); illustrated

Subjects: Arts, race and ethnicity, and science

Type of work: History

Time of work: 1956

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: Easter Island, in the Pacific Ocean

Principal Personages:

• Thor Heyerdahl, a man with a scientific curiosity about the stone heads, who made them, how they were constructed, and the secrets that they hold
• Gonzalo, the mayor, who appears foolish but who actually knows all the secrets of Easter Island
• Father Sebastian, a missionary
• Lazarus, the guide who taught Heyerdahl how to enter a cave

Form and Content

Thor Heyerdahl’s Aku-aku: The Secret of Easter Island offers a vicarious adventure for young adult readers. The most striking human accomplishment on Easter Island is the construction of what appeared to be colossal heads that turned out to be statues with the torso mostly buried. The adventure begins with a mystery: How did the ancient people of Easter Island make and move these huge, numerous stone figures? Early in the book, it seems that no living soul knows how these colossal stone heads were carved out of rock or how they were lifted to an upright position. The ancient people who lived there buried their dead at the foot of the giant heads, until silence came to the island: There were no more people, no more sculpting, and no more signs of life. Such mysteries prompted Heyerdahl’s voyage, which required a year of planning.

The exploring team soon located the place where the sculpting work took place. Heyerdahl explains how the topography assisted in the sculpting of the gigantic heads. The ancient remains of volcanoes had become like small mountains with carved out tops that held water in natural pools. One of these water-filled volcanoes is called Rano Raraku, and it is here that the ancient sculptors seemed to have been most busily at work. The whole mountain was reshaped as hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of rock were cut out and tens of thousands of tons of stone were carried away. In the midst of the mountain’s gaping top lie more than a hundred and fifty gigantic stone men in all stages of completion, from those just begun to those just finished. At the foot of the mountain stand finished stone men, side by side like an army.

Heyerdahl describes the team’s examination of the site and its findings. They first studied the numerous figures in various stages of production on the ledges in the quarry itself. It was clear that the work had been broken off suddenly. Thousands of primitive, unpolished stone picks still lay in the open-air workshop. Since different groups of sculptors had worked simultaneously on many different statues, all stages of carving production were represented. The stonecutters first attacked the bare rock itself to carve the face and the front part of the statue. Then, they cut channels along the sides and made giant ears and arms; they always carved extremely long and slender fingers over the belly. Next, they cut their way underneath the whole figure from both sides, so that the back part took the shape of a boat with a narrow keel.

When the figure was completed in every minute detail, it was rubbed with a sort of pumice and thoroughly polished. The only thing that the sculptors did not do was to mark the eye itself under the overhanging brows; at that point, the giant was to remain blind. Then, the keel was hacked away under the back while the colossus was wedged up with stones to prevent it from sliding down into the abyss. It seemed that the sculptors were indifferent as to whether they carved the figure out of a perpendicular wall or a horizontal slab, with head upward or downward, since half-finished giants lay bent in every direction. The only consistent thing about them was that the back was the last part to remain attached to the rock.

The solution to the mystery about how the colossi were moved is described. When the back was cut loose, transportation down the cliff to the foot of the volcano began. In some cases, colossi weighing many tons had been swung down a perpendicular wall and maneuvered over lower ledges, where there were statues on which work was still proceeding. Many figures were broken in transport, but the overwhelming majority had come down complete—that is to say, complete without legs, for every single statue ended where the abdomen ends and the legs begin, making them lengthened busts with complete torsos. The giant stone men were raised into a standing position at the bottom of the hill, where the sculptors worked on the unfinished back. Heyerdahl notes that the only articles of clothing carved onto the statue were belts decorated with rings and symbols. With only one exception, the colossi were all male figures.

Critical Context

Although Aku-aku is a scholarly work, it has qualities that appeal to young adult readers. The reasons for creating art may seem strange and mysterious to those looking at artifacts from an unknown culture. These artifacts may include knowledge, beliefs, styles, and several other characteristics of the originating culture. This 384-page book offers many illustrations to provide the vicarious experience of visiting Easter Island. The landscape, the residents, and Thor Heyerdahl and his team are shown in color photographs, and maps, drawings, and an index are also included.

Some young adult readers are looking for adventure—for travel across the high seas or for a visit to a remote tropical island. All these elements can be found in Aku-aku, which describes a heroic quest. Heyerdahl’s expert use of description allows the reader to imagine every setting. He creates suspense and engages his reader’s intellect with questions, supplying an answer to each one. Reviewers referred to the book as absorbing or as being a vigorous adventure story, with the lure of mysteries to be solved.

The context of the book places a seemingly heavy emphasis on race and ethnicity. Special value is accorded to European influences, while the native people, such as the mayor, seem to be less important in their own land. By the end of the expedition, however, this relationship is shown to be reversed. Heyerdahl reveals the apparently ignoble mayor to be the one who holds the keys to all the mysteries that Heyerdahl and his fine team of experts were at a loss to discover on their own. Heyerdahl likes to provide his book with some intriguing turns. He asks challenging questions before he offers answers; he sets up mysteries that he later solves. It could be that the racial and ethnic emphasis in Aku-aku was another technique to lead readers to make certain superficial judgments, only to be caught by surprise when these presumptions are overturned.

Heyerdahl is also the author of Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen (1950; Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, 1950), which chronicles his voyage on a craft made of balsa.