Scientists reveal the secrets of Easter Island's fallen idols!!!

Interesting Article!
Brings up some good points....
Enjoy!

Scientists reveal the secrets of Easter Island's fallen idols

By Cahal Milmo

According to Polynesian legend, the stone monoliths of Easter Island were put into place by a king who invoked divine power to command the statues to walk. Archaeologists have long preferred the more prosaic theory that they were heaved into position along a network of purpose-built tracks.

But the first British archaeological expedition in nearly a century to the archipelago, whose giant artifacts have long baffled academics and explorers, has arrived at a conclusion which threatens to overturn a 50-year-old consensus about the role played by the island's ancient road system.

The team, from London and Manchester, travelled to the island off Chile to examine the toppled minimalist statues which researchers have long believed were abandoned on the roadside during failed attempts to haul them from inland quarries to their final vantage points overlooking the coast. There are about 1,000 statues, most on platforms on the island's perimeter, with others inland in an apparently random fashion.

The theory about these inland rock effigies, which are known as moai and weigh up to 86 tons each, was first outlined in 1958 by the Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdhal, who suggested that the ancient Polynesians simply left the broken statues beside the track and they served no spiritual purpose.

But evidence from the researchers, from University College London (UCL) and Manchester University, has upset this convention after hi-tech equipment discovered that, far from being the detritus of clumsy construction workers, each of the tumbled statues had a stone platform and would have had pride of place on the road system as part of a religious avenue.

The discovery confirms the findings of the last British archaeologist to work on the island, Katherine Routledge, in 1914, and suggests that rather than serving solely as a transportation route for coast-bound statues, the system of tracks criss-crossing the archipelago had a more complex role.

Researchers have long assumed that the quarry in an extinct volcano, Rano Raraku, where the statues were carved, was merely a workplace from which the roads fanned out to the coastal sites. The latest findings show that the volcano was in fact also a sacred site.

Dr Sue Hamilton, of UCL, said: "Ever since Heyerdhal, it has been assumed that the roads were used for transportation and little else. But what we know now is that the roads very much had a ceremonial function and the quarry was where the islanders would go because it was a sacred centre.

"The statues by the roadside were not abandoned. They had individual platforms and faced in towards the road. They ended up on the ground after falling over in the intervening centuries but we think it is beyond doubt that they intended to stand where they were found. Volcano cones were considered as points of entry to the underworld by the ancient inhabitants of the island. It seems that the volcano was a holy place. It was the birthplace of the statues and people would come to it rather like a cathedral."

The British team say that as the roads approach Rano Raraku, the statues become more frequent, suggesting they form the climax of a processional route to the volcano.

The inhabitants of Easter Island, carved their figures between 1200 and 1500AD. The tallest statue, named Paro, is almost 10m high and weighs 75 tonnes. Several expeditions have tried to re-create their transport, using wooden rollers and timber A-frames. But Dr Hamilton said: "If you just focus on one part of the story of Rapa Nui [the tribal name for Easter Island], then you will miss the wider history. We will not get the answers to how the statues were moved; we need to consider them in the context of their landscape and its spiritual dimension."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/scientists-reveal-the-secrets-of-easter-islands-fallen-idols-1981131.html

Yeah Kinney - very interesting. I've always wondered about the bigger picture, the statues "in the context of their landscape and its spiritual dimension."

Best of all, and I say must respond with Thanks for posting this, is the inspiration this article has given me to paint a nice large canvas (diorama) of the Rano Raraku volcano as a cathedral with the statues, ceremonial roads, native peoples in procession towards the volcano etc. Real moody and atmospheric like.

I'll be at my easel tonight I think. Cheers! G

Go G Go!
Right on!
Awaiting your masterpiece....
That cathedral comment did bring up some great inner-visuals!
Can't wait to see them realised....

They walked? Someone paint o picture of this please.

YOU NEED TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
NOT JUST THE OPENING SENTENCE,HELLOTIKI!
:)

All that science stuff is a bunch of baloney. You know how those idols got there? They walked !!

The ancient Polynesians had it right. :D

SO THAT JACK KIRBY COMIC WAS TRUE!

One question tho......
If they walked
why ain't there any feets on them?

Where did I see that diagram? One theory was that they put a yoke around the Moai's neck with 2 legs on it, forming a tripod with the Moai. Using gravity, the Moai "walked" downhill - first the Moai swung through the 2 legs then the legs swung past the Moai.

On 2010-05-25 15:54, little lost tiki wrote:
SO THAT JACK KIRBY COMIC WAS TRUE!

One question tho......
If they walked
why ain't there any feets on them?

Dig, LLT, Dig !!

After four shots of Okolehao, every thing starts walkin'.

Here you go, make your own walking Moai

I HEARD THAT METHOD WORKS GREAT FOR SMALL SOUVINEER OR PAPER MOAIS!

On 2010-05-25 12:52, little lost tiki wrote:
I
"The statues by the roadside were not abandoned. They had individual platforms and faced in towards the road. They ended up on the ground after falling over in the intervening centuries but we think it is beyond doubt that they intended to stand where they were found. Volcano cones were considered as points of entry to the underworld by the ancient inhabitants of the island. It seems that the volcano was a holy place. It was the birthplace of the statues and people would come to it rather like a cathedral."

Fascinating!

...and one night...
...the statues start walking...

On 2010-05-26 12:02, little lost tiki wrote:
I HEARD THAT METHOD WORKS GREAT FOR SMALL SOUVINEER OR PAPER MOAIS!

Hmm, I envision a Tiki Central version of the Pinewood Derby!
(I hope you get THIS reference, Ken)

On 2010-05-27 18:29, Mister Naufrago wrote:
...and one night...
...the statues start walking...

Who did this cool artwork? Looks like Bissette/Totleben Swamp Thing...that birdman petroglyph is smokin!

On 2010-05-27 19:27, 4WDtiki wrote:

On 2010-05-26 12:02, little lost tiki wrote:
I HEARD THAT METHOD WORKS GREAT FOR SMALL SOUVINEER OR PAPER MOAIS!

Hmm, I envision a Tiki Central version of the Pinewood Derby!
(I hope you get THIS reference, Ken)

Good idea Bill :D

On 2010-05-27 19:40, Paipo wrote:

On 2010-05-27 18:29, Mister Naufrago wrote:
...and one night...
...the statues start walking...

Who did this cool artwork? Looks like Bissette/Totleben Swamp Thing...that birdman petroglyph is smokin!

Belgian comic book artist William van Cutsen aka Willian Vance.
Cool connection.
More long legged moais.

Awesome! Awesome!
Well i guess comic books trump scientific articles.....
Moais can walk!

and Billy...
we used to call it soapbox derby in my parts...
Moai Walk Derby 2010!

On 2010-05-28 08:03, little lost tiki wrote:
"... and Billy...
we used to call it soapbox derby in my parts...
Moai Walk Derby 2010!"

Soap Box Derby - wooden cars big enough for a child "driver".
Pinewood Derby - small wooden cars, carved from a block of pinewood.
Racing little wooden walking moais is more in the "pinewood" tradition.

Nice "Bande desinee" Mr. Naufrago! Please show us some more!

To me, all this sounds like the super string theory applied. I love this. The Idea of an Atlantis/electro/lemuria/transformer/tron/tiki idea. Volcanic rock coming to life by the intent of a brujo. Cool stuff.

Example:

On 2009-02-26 12:19, Zeta wrote:

This Toltec stone Atlante warriors are my favorite stone idols from pre-hispanic Mexico...
They are in the middle of nowhere.
As with any cool mystery, there are various "theories"...
They where supposed to come to life when Toltec witch doctors (like Carlos Castaneda) put their "intent" in them... like a Frankenstein, like a golem, like a stone robot. How cool is that?!
They are representations of aliens, if you look closely, they are holding a triangle shaped space laser ray gun.
They are representations of warriors from the lost island of Atlantis, they came all the way from the middle of the Atlantic ocean to keep their knowledge safe in Mexico,(the rest of the surviving Atlanteans went to the north of Spain and the South of France and became the Basques... but that is another story) latter the Toltec shaman learned the knowledge and kept it in secret, until the Conquistadors came and kill most of them, then the french came, then the gringos... Now that knowledge is gone forever, right?
They look kinda Tiki to me, so this is my theory, please don't steal it.
They look a lot like Easter Island Moais. Here is why:
Both are made of stone.
Both are tall.
Both have long ears.
Both wear "hats"
And the weirdest of the coincidences, they both wear a belt with some strange circle on the back, which actually, is called "nucleo de integracion", this gave them super powers. This is almost accepted by modern neurology to explain the super human feats accomplished by witchdoctors, shamans and martial artists.
Believe it or not...
Suck on that one Erich von Däniken!

On 2010-03-19 05:57, Zeta wrote:

On 2009-02-26 12:25, Zeta wrote:
Cool DC!!! That is bizarre! Churrasquerias are a type of Brazilian grill.
One more thing about Toltec Atlantean stone warrios and Moais...

The weird belt I was talking about. Picture from the Moai in the British Museum.

On 2010-05-18 21:14, Zeta wrote:
Moai Kava Kava

With super energy belt!

What about the "aliens did it" theory? Is there a thread where this is seriously discussed? where is martian-tiki?

One day in Madrid I went into a used book store and saw a book that had drawings of the appearance of the Easter island aliens... breathtaking... I didn't bought the book ( I already had bought a plastic groceries store size full of old paper) I regret it so much! that graphic of that moai-tiki-alien was priceless... sigh... what was I thinking?!?

P.P. Super energy belts now available!

i kicked ass in moai pinewood derby back in the day!

Zaya-great theory!
Where can i get one of them backpack integratron thingys?

Congrats Bullet! :lol:

Tikis
Toltecs
and Ufo's...

right arm.
:)

how about a palm log derby ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2395gyWjw8&feature=player_embedded

I wonder why the author of this article keeps referring to Easter Island as an archipelago?
It is a single island.
An archipelago is a string of islands, like Hawai'i.

and...
"What about the "aliens did it" theory? Is there a thread where this is seriously discussed?"

Yes, in my book big Stone Head.
Check it out: http://www.bigstonehead.com
A lot of the comic book images seen in this thread, and lot of others, are in the book too.

Chippie, I like that video - can we wear the traditional outfits for the derby?

Tikibars, seems I remember at least one other island off the coast that the birdbird cult would swim to through shark infested waters each year to collect bird eggs. I'm sure there are other small islands off the coast too. An archipelago is not always what we would picture - Scotland is considered an archipeligo because it is surrounded by more than 700 little islands.