In the South Pacific, in the French Polynesian part, there is a group of volcanic islands called the Marquesas Islands .
The largest of them is Nuku Hiva, and a total of about 8 thousand people live on all the islands of the area. It is a small community but with its own unique culture. Hidden in the jungles and mountains of the Marquesas Islands are hundreds of ancient stone sculptures carved from red volcanic tuff .
The creatures depicted with these sculptures have humanoid features, but they are extremely grotesque – the eyes are huge, the mouth is thick and wide, like a frog, with fully human arms, legs and genitalia.
Archaeologists call these sculptures ” Tiki “, which is a common name for ancient stone sculptures in Polynesia. This word is from the language of the Maori living in Hawaii, and in their mythology it is the name of the first man (and demigod).
The Hawaiian Tiki statues are also quite remarkable, but the Tiki of the Marquesas Islands seem much scarier and ” alien “. Not surprisingly, paleocontact theorists have long been interested in them. These researchers believe that at the dawn of humanity aliens visited our planet and it was they who taught humans agriculture, science, mathematics, etc.
Historians believe that the Polynesian statues depict various deities, priests or shamans. And supporters of the paleocontact believe that the ancient Polynesians tried to depict the aliens, considering them as Gods. So here they pretty much agree…
Some Marquise Tikis have been placed in museums, others have remained where they were found. It is believed that there are many more statues in uninhabited areas of the islands that have not yet been discovered.
Most of these Tikis are around a meter or less in height, but there are also giant ones that reach up to 2.5 meters in height. There are both group figurines and single ones.
When these statues were created is a very difficult question, since dating stone is not at all as easy as dating biological objects. This is why there are such difficulties with the exact age of Stonehenge and other ancient megalithic structures. Scientists only speculate that stone Tikis may be several hundred to several thousand years old.
In the folklore of the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands, there is a very interesting legend about the Tikas. It is said that a long time ago, Gods arrived from the sky and gifted them with knowledge and skills. In honor of these Gods, people carved Tikis out of stones.
Similar legends are found very often in the folklore of different countries of the world, but scientists consider them just fairy tales and fantasies.
Unfortunately, after France conquered the Marquesas Islands, as well as a significant part of Polynesia, in the 19th century, the ancient knowledge began to be forgotten among the local inhabitants. Now about 90% of the local population are Christians and know practically nothing about the religion and culture of their ancestors.
Some of them only vaguely remember that Tikis once played an important role in their society and each sculpture had its own special name.
Most often, Tiki statues are installed in special sacred places called ” meae “. Tikas are often surrounded by stone circles or walls. Sometimes sacred rituals were performed, during which people dressed in ceremonial clothes and offered food to the statues.
In rare exceptions, strange creatures are carved not as a Tiki statue, but as a wall bas-relief. The image below shows a group of creatures with huge heads wearing what look like helmets or headphones.
In addition to Tiki and bas-reliefs, images of strange, bug-eyed humanoids in the Marquesas can be found on various household objects – clay bowls, boats, oars, hair combs. People also wore them as amulets against the ” evil eye ” on their chests.