By Matthew
Zuk
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Partially buried Moai on Easter Island
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As explained in the previous article; Easter Island: Statues of Mystery (read here),
the statues of Easter Island, called Moai, have baffled archaeologists.
One of the chief mysteries that surrounds them is the question of
how the inhabitants of the island moved the massive Moai.
There are two primary theories that attempt to answer this question:
the wooden sledge theory and the “walking” theory.
The wooden sledge theory
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The testing of the wooden sledge theory
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which was then rolled over log rails. Jo Anne Van Tilburg,
director of the Easter Island statue research at UCLA and a leading researcher of the Moai,
has successfully tested this theory.
[1] This theory may be the most prominent because it gives an explanation
for the large-scale deforestation that took place (evidence suggests that
there once was a palm forest on the island).
This overexploitation devastated the island, leading to social collapse,
civil war and even extreme acts of cannibalism and ultimately the demise of the civilization.
[2] By the time of its discovery in 1722,
the island had become treeless and the population had fallen from
about 15,000 to a mere 1,000-2,000 people.
[3] The “walking” theory
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The testing of the "walking" theory
did-easter-island-statues-walk-or-rock-and-roll/
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which holds that the Moai “walked” to their locations.
This idea correlates with the ancient tales told by the local population.
According to legend, mostly discredited as mere fairy tale,
the statues actually “walked” to their positions.
The legend has now become a theory,
shown to be one of the possible ways the inhabitants moved the massive statues.
[4] This theory suggests that three ropes were tied to the Moai’s head,
one on each side and one on the back. The statue would then be leaned forward and
each side would pull, shifting the statue from side to side, rocking it,
which resulted in forward motion.
[5] The key to this technique relies on the belly of the statue,
which, according to this theory, was designed specifically
in order for the Moai to be moved this way.
The belly provided the weight and center of gravity
for the statue to move forward when it was rocked.
[6]Testing the TheoryThis theory was tested by a team led by three leading experts on the Moai;
Carl Lipo (California State University),
Terry Hunt (University of Hawaii), and Sergio Rapu Haoa
(archaeologist and former governor of Easter Island).
Lipo had noticed that many of the statues found lying on the roadside were on inclines,
having fallen from an upright position. on an uphill climb the statues fell on their backs,
on a downhill climb they fell on their faces.
This and other observations contradict the widely accepted wooden sledge theory,
which caused the team to investigate the ancient “walking” legends.
[7] In order to demonstrate this technique,
the team made a 4.35-ton replica of a Moai and eighteen people
succeeded in moving it 100 meters in an hour.[8]
