Reimiro
Appearance
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Reimiro_with_faces.jpg/400px-Reimiro_with_faces.jpg)
A reimiro is a crescent-shaped pectoral ornament once worn by the people of
Polynesian canoe
.
Each side of the reimiro ended in a human face. The outer, display side had two small pierced bumps through which a cord was strung for hanging it. The inner side contained a cavity that was filled with chalk made from powdered seashells.
A reimiro provides the image of the
Flag of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It also appears to feature in the rongorongo script of Easter Island (as glyph 07:
), and one reimiro
is preserved with a long rongorongo text.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/RR_07.png/12px-RR_07.png)
Although the human faces on the reimiro are unique to Easter Island, the pectoral itself is part of a wider tradition. In the Solomon Islands, for example, women wear shell pectorals which resemble reimiro.
Gallery
-
A reimiro is the emblem of theFlag of Rapa Nui.
-
A large (61 cm) reimiro with very stylized faces. It may be that pectorals of this size were worn by men.
-
A reimiro inscribed with rongorongo glyphs
-
A Solomon Islands woman wearing a shell pectoral resembling a reimiro
References
- Stéphen-Charles Chauvet. 1935. L'île de Pâques et ses mystères ("Easter Island and its Mysteries"). Paris: Éditions Tel. (An online English version is available www.chauvet-translation.com here.)
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rei Miro.
- Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Reimiro
- A reimiro at the Indiana University Art Museum