"A distinguishing mark that was evidently considered of paramount importance to the entire population of Easter Island was the fact that one ancestral group practiced the custom of artificial ear extension whereas all others maintained their normal ear lobes. The custom is reflected in every one of the Middle Period stone statues, and even today the local population distinguish between the minority among them who claim descent from Long-ear lines and those who descend from the victorious Short-ears.

Ear extension was in fact practiced right into historic time, probably surviving through maternal lines, since the most consistent of all tribal memories on the island refers to all but one of the Long-ear men as massacred during the Poike battle whereas certainly the women, and probably even the children, were left to intermix with the victorious Short-ears." (Heyerdahl 2)

The sun earplugs are signs to inform the reader that GD15 does not represent an ordinary man but the sun.

"They [the Easter Islanders which Captain Cook saw] have enormous holes in their Ears, but what their Chief ear ornaments are I cannot say.

I have seen some with a ring fixed in the hole of the Ear, but not hanging to it, also some with rings made of some elastick substance roled up like the Spring of a Watch, the design of this must be to extend or increase the hole." (Beaglehole)

"Both Men and Women have very large holes or rather slits in their Ears, extended to near three Inches in length, they some times turn this slit over the upper part and then the Ear looks as if the flap was cut off.

The chief Ear Ornament is the white down of feathers and Rings which they wear in the inside of the hole made of some elastick substance, roll'd up like the spring of a Watch, I judged this was to keep the hole at is utmost extension." (Beaglehole)