Friday, February 11, 2011

Weekly Project: 2/7-11

The John Carroll Megalith
            In the early 1960’s, the Rapa Nui people migrated from Easter Island to Bel Air, Maryland because they had to escape from the ruler of their area. These people were very faithful to their leaders or places they lived. Also, they really liked to worship their living space and the people with them together as one. They liked to have big gatherings where all the local people would gather at their favorite spots, then they would do tons of stuff. They would talk and converse with each other, dance and sing, tell stories, play different games, and worship their Gods. As you can see, the Rapa Nui people loved to be with their friends and locals and unite together as one family. The Rapa Nui people saw a building being constructed, and they thought they should cherish this place because they have escaped safely to the area. They waited till the night and then they constructed a diamond of rocks around the John Carroll sign in the front of the school. The head at the bottom was to scare off anything that was going to harm the school. The Rapa Nui people developed these megalith ideas from there old home on Easter Island. The rocks were all specially picked. All of them were Andesite rocks. This means they were made from volcanic rock. Since it was so important for the Rapa Nui people to make this megalith site, they traveled all the way down to the Caribbean Islands to the closest volcano. Once they got the rock, they shaped the rocks into the same diamond shape of the John Carroll plant arrangement. They did this because it is the same form of the Pope's hat and they thought it would be necessary for the school. They shaped the rocks by chipping them away with hand carved knives. It took each person about 5 hours to shape the whole rock. After they created all the rocks, they placed the smaller rocks on the edges and the big rocks on the corners. The people had to dig out the ground a little bit, and then firmly put the rocks into place so they couldn't be moved. It took the Rapa Nui people 4 days to complete their whole project with a work force of about 15 people. All of the people worked together to complete it, and when it was done they worshiped it greatly! They believed that this area around the sign was sacred and they would watch over it very carefully. 

Front View:

Top View:

Back View:







1 comment:

  1. This is pretty good. I like you pictures as well as your backstory. Could you perhaps tell us more about these people? What were they like? How exactly did they construct these? (They must have had a lot of people... or had they constructed a special machine?)

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