ABSTRACT
The corpus of Easter Island rock art, comprising several thousand designs, is one of the most impressive in Oceania. The early European visitors marveled greatly at the Easter Island statues, as well as the red baskets balanced on top of them. Subsequent expeditions clarified that these adornments were made of red stone and possibly represented a headgear. In the 1980s, the Easter Island Petroglyph Documentation Project directed by Georgia Lee established a new standard in documentation of Rapa Nui rock art using a grid of strings, producing accurate drawings of several pukao petroglyphs. Among the numerous topknots associated with ceremonial platforms, only a few are adorned with secondary petroglyphs. Other topknots with secondary adornments can be found at the Vinapu complex on the South coast. The topknot blanks lying near the Puna Pau quarry are profusely adorned with secondary petroglyphs.
