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Huki Cuadros, director of the Ma’u Henua Indigenous community that administers the Rapa Nui National Park, where the volcano is found, told AFP.

“The interesting thing is that, for at least the last 200 or 300 years, the laguna was three metres deep, meaning no human being could have left the moai there in that time,” said Huki, who is also the provincial head of the local branch of the national forestry corporation, which is collaborating with the restoration of the marshland.

Moai are distinctive monolithic carved stone figures with elongated faces and no legs that were mostly quarried from tuff, a kind of volcanic ash, at the Rano Raraku volcano.

This Moai is 1.60 metres tall and was found lying down on its side looking at the sky.