Moai stone statues. Statues of Easter Island. What are the statues on Easter Island called?
The natives who greeted the Dutch sailors on Easter Sunday 1722 seemed to have nothing in common with the gigantic statues of their island. Detailed geological analysis and new archaeological finds have allowed solve the riddle these sculptures and learn about the tragic fate of the masons.
The island has fallen into disrepair, his stone sentries fell, and many of them drowned in the ocean. Only the miserable remnants of the mysterious army managed to rise with outside help.
Briefly about Easter Island
Easter Island, or Rapanui in the local dialect, is a tiny (165.5 sq km) piece of land lost in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Tahiti and Chile. It is the most isolated inhabited (about 2000 people) place in the world - the nearest town (about 50 people) is 1900 km away, on Pitcairn Island, where in 1790 a rebel The Bounty Team.
The coastline of Rapanui is embellished hundreds of frowning native idols They call them "moai". Each is hewn from a single piece of volcanic rock; the height of some is almost 10 m. All the statues are made according to the same pattern: a long nose, drawn earlobes, a darkly compressed mouth and a protruding chin over a stocky torso with arms pressed to the sides and palms lying on the stomach.
Many "moai" are installed with astronomical precision. For example, in one group, all seven statues look at the point (photo on the left) where the sun sets on the evening of the equinox. More than a hundred idols lie in the quarry, not completely hewn or almost ready, and, apparently, waiting to be sent to their destination.
For more than 250 years, historians and archaeologists could not understand how and why, with a shortage of local resources, primitive islanders, completely cut off from the rest of the world, managed to process giant monoliths, drag them kilometers over rough terrain and put them vertically. Many more or less scientific theories, and many experts believed that Rapanui was once inhabited by a highly developed people, possibly a carrier of the American one, who died as a result of some kind of disaster.
Reveal the secret The island has allowed detailed analysis of its soil samples. The truth about what happened here can serve as a sobering lesson for the inhabitants of any corner of the planet.
Born sailors. Once upon a time, the Rapanui hunted dolphins from canoes hollowed out of palm trunks. However, the Dutch who discovered the island saw boats made of many fastened boards - there were no large trees left.
The history of the discovery of the island
April 5, on the first day of Easter 1722, three Dutch ships under the command of Captain Jacob Roggeveen stumbled in the Pacific Ocean on an island that was not marked on any map. When they anchored off its eastern shore, a few natives swam up to them in their boats. Roggeven was disappointed, Islanders' boats, he wrote: "bad and fragile ... with a light frame, sheathed with many small planks". The boats were flowing so hard, the rowers had to bail out water every now and then. The landscape of the island also did not warm the soul of the captain: "His desolate appearance suggests extreme poverty and barrenness".
The conflict of civilizations. The idols from Easter Island now adorn museums in Paris and London, but it was not easy to get these exhibits. The islanders knew each "moai" by name and did not want to part with any of them. When the French removed one of these statues in 1875, the crowd of natives had to be held back with rifle shots.
Despite the friendly demeanor of the brightly colored natives, The Dutch went ashore, ready for the worst, and lined up in a battle square under the astonished eyes of the owners, who had never seen other people, not to mention firearms.
The visit soon turned dark tragedy. One of the sailors fired. Then he claimed that he allegedly saw how the islanders raise stones and make threatening gestures. "Guests" on the orders of Roggeven opened fire, killing 10-12 hosts on the spot and injuring the same number. The islanders fled in horror, but then returned to the shore with fruits, vegetables and poultry - to propitiate the ferocious newcomers. Roggeven noted in his diary an almost bare landscape with rare bushes no higher than 3 m. only unusual statues (heads) standing along the coast on massive stone platforms (“ahu”).
At first, these idols shocked us. We could not understand how the islanders, who did not have strong ropes and a crowd of construction wood for the manufacture of mechanisms, nevertheless managed to erect statues (idols) at least 9 m high, moreover, quite voluminous.
Scientific approach. The French traveler Jean Francois La Perouse landed on Easter Island in 1786, accompanied by a chronicler, three naturalists, an astronomer and a physicist. As a result of 10 hours of research, he suggested that in the past the area was wooded.
Who were the Rapanui?
Humans settled Easter Island only around 400 AD. It is believed that they sailed on huge boats from East Polynesia. Their language is close to the dialects of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. The ancient fishhooks and stone adzes of the Rapanui found during excavations are similar to the tools used by the Marquesas.
At first, European navigators met naked islanders, but by the 19th century they were weaving clothes themselves. However, family heirlooms were more valued than ancient crafts. Men sometimes wore headdresses made from the feathers of birds long extinct on the island. The women wove straw hats. Both of them pierced their ears and wore bone and wooden jewelry in them. As a result, the earlobes were pulled back and hung down almost to the shoulders.
Lost generations - found answers
In March 1774 an English captain James Cook found about 700 on Easter Island emaciated from malnutrition of the natives. He suggested that the local economy was badly damaged by the recent volcanic eruption: this was evidenced by many stone idols that collapsed from their platforms. Cook was convinced that they were carved out and placed along the coast by the distant ancestors of the current Rapanui.
“This time-consuming work clearly demonstrates the ingenuity and perseverance of those who lived here during the statue-making era. The current islanders are almost certainly not up to it, for they do not even repair the foundations of those that are about to collapse.
Scientists only just found answers to some moai riddles. Analysis of pollen from sediments accumulated in the swamps of the island shows that it was once covered with dense forests, thickets of ferns and shrubs. All this was teeming with a variety of game.
Exploring the stratigraphic (and chronological) distribution of the finds, scientists found in the lower, most ancient layers the pollen of an endemic tree close to the wine palm, up to 26 m high and up to 1.8 m in diameter. Its long, straight, unbranched trunks could serve as excellent rollers for transportation of blocks weighing tens of tons. Also found was the pollen of the plant "hauhau" (triumfetta semi-three-lobed), from the bast of which in Polynesia (and not only) make ropes.
The fact that the ancient Rapanui people had enough food follows from DNA analysis of food remains on excavated dishes. The islanders grew bananas, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, taro, and yams.
The same botanical data show a slow but steady destruction of this idyll. Judging by the content of swamp sediments, by the year 800, the area of forests was declining. Wood pollen and fern spores are displaced from later layers by charcoal - evidence of forest fires. At the same time, lumberjacks were working more and more actively.
The scarcity of wood began to seriously affect the way of life of the islanders, especially their menu. The study of fossil garbage heaps shows that at one time the Rapanui people regularly ate dolphin meat. Obviously, they caught these animals floating in the open sea from large boats, hollowed out from thick palm trunks.
When there was no ship timber left, the Rapanui people lost their "ocean fleet", and with it dolphin meat and ocean fish. In 1786, the chronicler of the French expedition, La Perouse, recorded that in the sea the islanders mined only shellfish and crabs living in shallow water.
The end of the "moai"
Stone statues began to appear around the 10th century. They probably personify Polynesian gods or deified local leaders. According to the Rapanui legends, the supernatural power of "mana" raised the hewn idols, led them to the allotted place and allowed them to roam at night, guarding the peace of the makers. Perhaps the clans competed with each other, trying to carve out the "moai" larger and more beautiful, and also put it on a more massive platform than the competitors.
After 1500, statues were practically not made. Apparently, there were no trees left on the devastated island, which were necessary for their transportation and lifting. Since about the same time, palm pollen has not been found in swamp sediments, and dolphin bones are no longer thrown into garbage dumps. The local fauna is also changing. Disappear all native land birds and half of sea birds.
Food is getting worse, and the population, which once numbered about 7,000 people, is decreasing. Since 1805, the island has been suffering from raids by South American slave traders: they take away some of the natives, many of the remaining ones are ill with smallpox picked up from strangers. Only a few hundred Rapanui survive.
Easter Islanders erected "moai", hoping for the protection of the spirits embodied in the stone. Ironically, it was this monumental program that brought their land to ecological disaster. And the idols rise as eerie monuments to thoughtless management and human recklessness.
At an early stage in the development of civilization, it was common for people around the world to install megalithic structures. Let us recall at least Stonehenge in the UK, numerous dolmens or phallus-like blocks. But from this series of ancient megaliths, those that Easter Island is famous for stand out. The statues erected there amazed the Europeans from the very beginning. And they continue to amaze me to this day. After all, their secret has not yet been fully unraveled. In addition, the question of where the first people came to this small piece of land, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, three thousand kilometers from the mainland, has not been disclosed. In this article, we will briefly talk about the secrets of Easter Island. After all, this land is simply overflowing with attractions.
Where is Easter Island
Moai statues were the first to be met in 1722 by European navigators. The ship under the leadership of Captain Jakob Roggeven moored to unknown shores on Holy Week, so it was decided to name the island in honor of the upcoming holiday. The natives themselves called their land Te-Pito-o-Te-Khenua, Rapa-Nui and Mata-Ki-Te-Range. But the word Pascha (Pascua) was more familiar to the ear of Europeans, and on all maps of the world the island appears that way. It is located in the eastern corner of the Pacific Ocean and is a triangle of land with a face length of no more than twenty-four kilometers. The island is of volcanic origin, so it is mountainous. The highest point is 539 meters above sea level. Administratively, this land belongs to Chile, although it is three thousand six hundred kilometers away from the nearest city of Valparaiso. Easter Island has a wonderful climate conducive to a measured rest. The waters near its shores are warmed up to + 24 degrees all year round, and the beaches are strewn with interesting pinkish sand. But the main attraction that attracts many tourists to Easter Island is the statues.
The history of the discovery of a lost civilization
The Dutch navigator J. Roggeven was the first to suggest that the idols rising along the entire coast of Rapa Nui could not have been made by the natives whom he found. The people who inhabited the island at the beginning of the eighteenth century reached the level of development of primitive society. They had primitive tools, and it was doubtful that they could make such sculptures and deliver them from the quarries to the shore. Roggeven spent only a day on the island, but he managed to observe how the natives sat around the idol, lit a fire and sang ritual songs. A second expedition led by Felipe González arrived in 1770. The Spaniards suggested that stone idols were brought here from the mainland. But who delivered the statues to Easter Island and from where? Excavations carried out in the 20th century helped to establish that the moai are of local origin. A quarry was also found. It was located in the crater of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku.
mysterious people
The statues of Easter Island, whose photos are the hallmark of this Chilean province, are not the only mystery of these places. Even the first sailors described what they found among the natives of representatives of three races. There were blacks, and Asians, and people with completely white skin. J. Cook guessed to bring a Polynesian with him to the island, who somehow managed to communicate with the locals. They said that twenty-two generations ago, their leader Hotu Matua arrived here. But from where - they could not really say. The natives also explained that the stone statues on Easter Island are not images of gods, but of their former rulers, whose souls continue to take care of their descendants. Where did its first inhabitants sail to the lost island? Many hypotheses have been put forward in the scientific world. Opinions were expressed that the natives came from Egypt, India, Scandinavia, the Caucasus and even the disappeared Atlantis. Thor Heyerdahl made a successful attempt to sail to the islands of Polynesia from the coast of Peru on a primitive raft, but this does not yet prove the Aztec origin of the inhabitants of Rapa Nui.
Statues in Easter Island
Moai knowingly caused a stir among researchers and gave rise to so many scientific hypotheses. After all, it was not the very presence of megalithic sculptures that was strange, but the fact that the existing primitive society could not create them in any way. First of all, the size of stone idols is impressive. The height of most of them is about ten meters, and the average weight is fifteen tons. The largest statue reaches parameters of 21 meters and 90 tons. How could hunters and gatherers carve them out of solid rock and take them to their destination? All this gave rise to the esoteric hypothesis that the statues were brought to Easter Island by aliens from outer space. No less interesting is the appearance of the moai. Long-eared, with flat cheekbones - they do not look like any of the human races. Some idols are decorated with imitation tattoos or necklaces. Others wear a strange stone headdress on their heads.
What the excavations have shown
Modern research has brought some clarity to the question of the origin of the moai. It turned out that the idols do not belong to a civilization that existed thousands and even millions of years ago. They were installed from the 10th to the 16th century. And they were carved in the crater of an extinct volcano Rano Raraku. And most of the statues remained in the quarry. A few more were broken in transit. The sculptures were transported using ropes and platforms with rotating rollers. Work began with the face and headgear. The eyes of the idols were filled with white coral and black obsidian. But the bodies of the statues from Easter Island were more stylized.
Mysterious tablets
Modern archaeologists have also discovered something that, unlike idols, was not visible to anyone, and even from afar. They were wooden boards covered with inscriptions. And these artifacts, most likely, were brought. Because there is not a single tree on the island. Unfortunately, the mentioned texts have not yet been deciphered. What is written on the tablets is still a mystery. Basically, it seems that in the tenth century, representatives of a more developed civilization arrived on Easter Island. Gradually, society, due to extreme isolation, degraded. The inhabitants forgot the script and stopped creating new moai.
Other attractions
What else is able to surprise the traveler Easter Island? Statues (excavations have found about 300 more, sprinkled with volcanic alluvium) are not the only attraction of this lost piece of land. Take at least the pedestals on which these stone idols are installed. It is believed that these are tombstones, on which from one to several statues were ritually erected. In the administrative center of Hanga Roa, you can get acquainted with the history of Easter Island. It is also recommended to visit the Au Tahai fortress. Modern Easter Island is a piece of paradise lined with luxury hotels.
Stone inhabitants of Easter Island - stone idols - perhaps the most mysterious cult statues in the history of mankind. Even about the more ancient Egyptian pyramids, scientists know almost everything, but nothing about stone idols from Easter Island.
At 3703 km from the coast of South America in the east and 1819 km from the nearest inhabited islands in the west, there is a small triangular island with an area of only 165 square kilometers. The island has as many as three native names - Te Pito-te-Khenua, which means "Navel of the Islands", "Rapa-nui" ("Big Rapa"), and the third - "Eye looking into the sky", on the original - Mata- Keith Rani. Europeans, on the other hand, call this piece of land Easter Island.
The most outstanding attraction of this land are the world-famous sculptures of stone idols - moai. There are 997 statues in total and their appearance is so peculiar that these impressive heads, placed on frail bodies, these faces, weighted with powerful chins and long ears, cannot be confused with any other creation of human hands. Individual sculptures flaunt thousand-kilogram red headdresses. Despite the fact that the mysteries of idols have haunted people almost since the discovery of Easter Island, despite the presence of many original and witty theories of their purpose, the main questions regarding moai are still on the agenda: who, when and most importantly, why created them, how were the multi-ton sculptures delivered to the installation site, and why were they defeated?
Who were the idols?
To this question, as well as to the question: to whom the images were dedicated, modern science does not have an exact answer. Indigenous people have lost their historical memory. In addition, almost the entire indigenous population of the island died out in the 19th century, during a smallpox epidemic brought here from the continent. There is a theory that the idols performed the functions of tombstones, i.e. were the guardians of the dead and portrayed the deceased ancestors. Other theories see tall statues as devices for nautical orientation, because on a treeless island, the statues are clearly distinguishable from a distance. Someone even projected the location of the moai on a star map and considers them to be astronomical signs. In any case, none of the theories has been 100% proven to this day.
Probably, like most religious objects, the purpose of the idols changed over time. Older moai served, most likely, as images of local gods. This is indicated by their similarity with the stone statues of the Polynesians, inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands. Starting from the 14th-15th centuries, the sculptors of the island, in an already established manner, began to sculpt their rulers, clan leaders, governors, priests and other prominent local residents. The fact that these are not images of one god or person proves that each idol has its own name. A little more than 50 moai names have been deciphered for certain today. The name could be given to the statue, regardless of who it personified: a person, a spirit or a god. And it could also coincide with the name of the sculptor-manufacturer of the sculpture. In those cases when the name given at birth was forgotten, the statues were called either by the general concepts “Statue of a God”, “Statue of a sorcerer”, etc., or by location or sculptural features: “Statue near the house”, “Straight moai” and etc.
Same or different?
One thing is certain about the mysteries of idols: whatever the statues were considered to be, they were, without a doubt, cult figures. The moai cult reigned on Easter Island from the 12th to the 17th centuries. Over the past period, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge: the applied purposes of the figures have changed, even their appearance. The statues made at different times differ significantly from each other in their anthropometric parameters: in shape, height and width.
The most ancient statues did not exceed human height and were made of basalt. They have very little in common with the canonical sculptures of a later period, except for the position of the hands that has not changed over the centuries. Over time, these basalt products ceased to play any role at all in the minds of local residents; they often began to be used as a building and repair material for ceremonial sites ahu. Ahu is a flat or slightly inclined area from ten to one hundred meters long and about fifty meters wide. For the most part, they are located on the seashore, separated from the water only by a pedestal for moai with a height of 3 to 6m. Whether the first-born of the sculptural row of Easter were installed on platform pedestals is still unclear.
Around the middle of the 14th century, the technology for making idols changed. They began to be made from volcanic tuff (colloquially, pumice) in the quarry of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku. It was then that the statues acquired their canonical form. The statues increased significantly in height, began to reach 10-12m in height, and their weight approached 20t. In 1868 the British tried to take out any example of the architecture of Easter Island to their homeland, but could not even budge them. After numerous attempts to transport the full-length sculpture, the sailors abandoned these intentions, and got by with a 2.5m bust, which can still be seen in the British Museum. The largest statue, over 21 m high and weighing close to 100 tons, remained unfinished. It can be observed in the quarry, where it has been lying since the start of production.
Despite the fact that all sculptures have similar proportions and a large number of common features, each of them is unique in its own way, its features are individual. Interestingly, all the statues have elongated earlobes. This feature gave rise to some researchers to say that idols are not people, but aliens. In reality, long ears are just an optical illusion. The head of the idols is extremely elongated, according to the canons of local tradition, because of this, it seems that the upper part of the ears is located at the level of the top of the head.
Easter Island Sculptors
The unusual appearance of the moai gives rise to many versions of the origin of the sculptures. Some researchers put forward completely fantastic versions, for example, believing that the manufacturers of these monuments were mythical characters (Atlanteans) or even space aliens. However, in reality, the tuff idols are the work of the Paschal people themselves. And there is overwhelming evidence for this. In the Rano Raraku crater, there is still a kind of workshop for making idols. The matter was brought to a head. The inhabitants of the island simultaneously worked on the production of a large number of statues. Many unfinished idols in varying degrees of completion are in the quarry. Work on some of them was stopped due to a defect in the material: cracks in the stone or inclusions of hard rocks that make it impossible to carve the nose or chin of the idol. Others are abandoned at various stages of work, there are almost shapeless blocks, and almost finished products. Over 300 moai were left unfinished because the islanders, for unknown reasons, suddenly stopped sculpting statues and abandoned the quarry forever.
Moai were made in the following way: initially, a face was carved in tuff, then ears and hands with long fingers connected below the abdomen. The sculptors then shaped the back of the figure by carving the stones from the sides. The statue, still connected with its back to the main rock, was polished, and only then this dorsal umbilical cord was cut off and the finished product was lowered down to the foot of the volcano. In the tons of fragments and wastes of stone-cutting activity accumulated over the centuries, a hole was dug out, where an almost finished statue was installed. In a vertical position, finishing the neck and back of the idol was completed, after which the figure was subjected to final polishing with pumice and was ready for transportation to the installation site.
To work on the idols, the craftsmen used a set of stone axes of various sizes, made of basalt. The shape of the ax resembled a chisel, on average they were 30-40 cm long, but others reached a meter. It is difficult to say how long the creative process took. Thor Heyerdahl, who spent a lot of time studying Easter Island, together with the descendants of stonemasons, decided to find out experimentally. Replacing each other, two teams of stone-cutters made the contours of the future figure. It took them a year to do it. The finished statue still needed to be delivered to the installation site, which also required both time and effort. How did this happen?
Walking giants
Of all the technical means that could help in the process of transporting multi-ton statues, the inhabitants of the island had only ropes and tree trunks, from which rollers and levers were made. Perhaps, when transported by water, it was possible to make a large raft or cargo boat from the same tree? In any case, the descent of a heavy statue down from the slope of the volcano, its transportation for several kilometers and the subsequent ascent to the ceremonial platform ahu required titanic efforts from the small population of the island. There is a hypothesis that the center of gravity of the statues was calculated in such a cunning way that in an inclined state, turned around with the help of ropes, the idol could move almost independently, walk. For these purposes, the pedestal of the figure was made not flat, but slightly convex. An indirect confirmation of this hypothesis is the legend, which tells that they got to the place of installation of the statue on their own. This was experimentally proved by the Czech engineer Pavel Pavel, with a team of workers consisting of 17 people, he managed to make the moai walk in the right direction.
The statue occupied its place on the prepared elevation after an artificial embankment was made under it, comparable in height to the pedestal itself. Delivery and installation on a pedestal did not mean the completion of work on a stone idol. Already on the spot, the sculpture was “brought to mind”, like a sea liner, for which launching does not mean the end of work on it. The giants mounted on the ahu still had to acquire “hair” - a kind of multi-ton cap or “pukao” crown. The version that this is hair, and not a headdress, appeared due to the color of pukao - it is red, and most of the inhabitants of the ancient island were red-haired. The stone for the manufacture of the only non-monolithic part of the idols of Easter Island was mined in the crater of the Puna Pau volcano. About 90 pieces of these scalps have survived to this day.
After installing the stone hairstyle, the final stage of work on the sculpture began. At this stage, the statue was carved with impressive eye sockets. Eyes made of shells, corals or obsidian were inserted into the eye sockets. According to beliefs, only having acquired eyes, the idol could survey the place where he found himself. Believing that the energy of the soul comes through the eyes, the Paschalians, giving the statues organs of vision, seemed to enliven them. Currently, several restored statues look at the world with mysterious coral eyes.
Fall of idols
For reasons that are not clear for certain, some kind of catastrophe overtook Easter Island. Europeans who arrived here in the 18th century found the idols of the island overturned, lying on the ground. Although quite recently, at the time of the discovery of Easter Island, the statues were still upright, located, as they should, facing deep into the island. What cataclysms toppled the old gods and leaders from their pedestals?
There are several theories for this. The most plausible is this: as a result of climate change, the island, which does not have natural fresh water reserves, has undergone a long severe drought. As a result of this, the Paschalians lost all the forests of sandalwood, hibiscus, toromiro, coconut palms, etc., down to the last tree. The missing trees, of course, could neither provide shade, nor retain moisture in the soil, nor protect the crops from the burning dry wind. A terrible famine approached the island, and there was nothing to build boats to leave the land that had become inhospitable for life - the trees disappeared. Cut off from the rest of the world, the island was doomed to extinction. In this situation, the leaders of the tribes demanded from their subjects additional efforts to please the deities.
Consequently, it was necessary to make more moai, larger and more impressive than those already in existence. The titanic efforts made in this direction did not give any result. The people rebelled. Clashes began between the tribes inhabiting the island, the ceremonial sites of the ahu were destroyed, and the statues standing on them were overturned and smashed. Few people who survived this terrible time had to start all over again. The Paschalites needed a new society and a new religion, fundamentally different from the failed old one.
The place of the fallen idols was taken by a new divine being with the head of a bird. The freedom to leave the arid lands at any time by air, inaccessible to mankind, was expressed in these new beliefs. Former gods and heroes were instantly and firmly forgotten. The cult of the moai was abandoned forever and ceased to be, in fact, a cult. Stone idols from Easter Island have become an object of curiosity for tourists and researchers. However, this is what attracted people from the continents to the island, which in our time exists solely at the expense of guests. So, we can say that even the defeated idols continue to serve the good of the inhabitants of a small triangular piece of land lost in the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks to the asceticism of the restorers, some sculptures have already taken their former places on the ahu, but their physical condition causes alarm among scientists. Statues are constantly exposed to destruction under the influence of climatic factors, especially wind and rain. The main material of manufacture - tuff - quickly collapses, because of this, harder inclusions fall out, dents and cracks form on the idols. The moai are in urgent need of conservation. Mankind must find the forces and means for this necessary work quickly enough to preserve these amazing statues of one of the most mysterious places on Earth for future generations.
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited piece of land in the world. Its area is only 165.6 square kilometers. Belongs to the island of Chile. But to the nearest mainland city of this country, Valparaiso, 3703 kilometers. And there are no other islands nearby, in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. The nearest inhabited land is located at 1819 kilometers. This is Pitcairn Island. It is known for the fact that the rebellious crew of the Bounty ship wished to stay on it. Lost in the vastness of Easter keeps many secrets. First, it is not clear where the first people came from. They could not explain anything to the Europeans about this. But the most mysterious mysteries of Easter Island are its stone idols. They are installed along the entire coastline. The natives called them moai, but they could not clearly explain who they were. In this article, we have tried to summarize the results of all recent scientific discoveries in order to unravel the mysteries that have enveloped the most remote land area from civilization.
History of Easter Island
On April 5, 1722, the sailors of a squadron of three ships under the command of the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen saw land on the horizon that had not yet been marked on the map. When they approached the east coast of the island, they saw that it was inhabited. The natives sailed to them, and their ethnic composition struck the Dutch. Among them were Caucasians, Negroids and representatives of the Polynesian race. The Dutch were immediately struck by the primitive technical equipment of the islanders. Their boats were riveted from bits of wood and so let the water through that half of the people in the canoe bailed it out, while the rest rowed. The landscape of the island was more than bleak. Not a single tree towered on it - only rare bushes. Roggeven wrote in his diary: "The desolated appearance of the island and the exhaustion of the natives suggest the barrenness of the land and extreme poverty." But most of all, the captain was shocked by the stone idols. How, with such a primitive civilization and scarce resources, did the natives have the strength to carve out of stone and deliver so many heavy statues to the shore? The captain had no answer to that question. Since the island was discovered on the day of the Resurrection of Christ, it received the name Easter. But the natives themselves called it Rapa Nui.
Where did the first inhabitants of Easter Island come from?
This is the first riddle. Now more than five thousand people live on the island with a length of 24 kilometers. But when the first Europeans landed on the shore, there were much fewer natives. And in 1774, the navigator Cook counted only seven hundred islanders on the island, emaciated from hunger. But at the same time, among the natives there were representatives of all three human races. Many theories have been put forward about the origin of the population of Rapa Nui: Egyptian, Mesoamerican and even completely mythical, that the islanders are survivors of the collapse of Atlantis. But modern DNA analysis shows that the first Rapanui landed around the year 400 and most likely came from East Polynesia. This is evidenced by their language, which is close to the dialects of the inhabitants of the Marquesas and Hawaiian Islands.
The rise and fall of civilization
The first thing that caught the eye of the discoverers were the stone idols of Easter Island. But the earliest sculpture dates back to 1250, and the latest (unfinished, left in the quarry) - to 1500. It is unclear how the civilization of the natives developed from the fifth to the thirteenth century. Perhaps, at a certain stage, the islanders moved from a tribal society to clan military unions. Legends (very contradictory and fragmentary) tell of the leader Hotu Matu'a, who was the first to set foot on Rapa Nui and brought all the inhabitants with him. He had six sons who divided the island after his death. Thus, the clans began to have their ancestor, whose statue they tried to make larger, more massive and more representative than that of the neighboring tribe. But what caused the Rapa Nui people to stop carving and erecting their monuments in the early sixteenth century? This has only been discovered by modern research. And this story can be instructive for all mankind.
Ecological catastrophe on a small scale
Let's leave aside the idols of Easter Island for now. They were carved by the distant ancestors of those wild natives who were caught by the expeditions of Roggeven and Cook. But what influenced the decline of the once rich civilization? After all, the ancient Rapa Nuans even had a written language. By the way, the texts of the found tablets have not yet been deciphered. Scientists have only recently given an answer to what happened to this civilization. Her death was not quick due to a volcanic eruption, as Cook assumed. She agonized for centuries. Modern studies of the soil layers have shown that the island was once covered with lush vegetation. The forests abounded with game. The ancient Rapa Nui were engaged in agriculture, growing yams, taro, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and bananas. They went out to sea in good boats made from the hollowed out trunk of a palm tree and hunted dolphins. The fact that the ancient islanders ate well is indicated by DNA analysis of food found on pottery shards. And this idyll was destroyed by the people themselves. Forests were gradually cut down. The islanders were left without their fleet, and consequently, without the meat of ocean fish and dolphins. They have already eaten all the animals and birds. The only food of the Rapa Nui people was crabs and shellfish, which they collected in shallow water.
Easter Island: moai statues
The natives could not really say anything about how they were made and, most importantly, how stone idols weighing several tons were brought to the shore. They called them "moai" and believed that they contained "mana" - the spirit of the ancestors of a certain clan. The more idols, the stronger the concentration of supernatural power. And this leads to the prosperity of the clan. So when the French removed one of Easter Island's moai statues in 1875 to take it to a Paris museum, the Rapa Nui had to be held back with guns. But, as studies have shown, about 55% of all idols were not transported to special platforms - "ahu", but remained standing (many in the primary processing stage) in a quarry on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano.
Art style
In total, there are more than 900 statues on the island. They are classified by scholars chronologically and by style. The early period is characterized by stone heads without a body, with a face turned upwards, as well as pillars, where the torso is made in a very stylized way. But there are exceptions. So, a very realistic figure of a kneeling moai was found. But she remained standing in the ancient quarry. In the Middle Age, the idols of Easter Island became giants. Most likely, the clans competed with each other, trying to show that their mana is more powerful. Artistic decoration in the Middle period is more sophisticated. The bodies of the idols are covered with carvings depicting clothes and wings, and huge cylindrical hats of red tuff are often hoisted on the head of the moai.
Transportation
No less a mystery than the idols of Easter Island remained the secret of their transfer to the "ahu" platforms. The natives claimed that the moai themselves came there. The truth turned out to be more prosaic. In the lowest (more ancient) soil layers, scientists have found the remains of an endemic tree that is related to the wine palm. It grew up to 26 meters, and its smooth trunks without branches reached a diameter of 1.8 m. The tree served as an excellent material for rolling sculptures from the quarries to the shore, where they were installed on platforms. To erect idols, ropes were used, which were woven from the bast of the hauha tree. The environmental catastrophe also explains the fact why more than half of the sculptures are “stuck” in quarries.
Short-eared and long-eared
Modern residents of Rapa Nui no longer have religious reverence for moai, but consider them their cultural heritage. In the mid-50s of the last century, the researcher uncovered the secret of who created the idols of Easter Island. He noticed that Rapa Nui is inhabited by two types of tribes. In one, the earlobes were lengthened from childhood by wearing heavy jewelry. The leader of this clan, Pedro Atana, told Thor Heirdal that in their family, the ancestors passed on to their descendants the art of creating the status of moai and transporting them by drag to the installation site. This craft was kept secret from the "short-eared" and was passed down orally. At the request of Heyerdahl, Athan, with numerous assistants from his clan, carved a 12-ton statue into a quarry and delivered it upright to the platform.
Today we will make a trip to the famous Easter Island, which is famous for its Moai stone statues. The island is shrouded in many secrets and mysteries that are unlikely to ever be solved. We will try to consider the most common theories of the origin of stone statues created by the ancient civilization of Rapa Nui.
This is one of the most isolated islands in the world, since 1200 years ago, ancient sailors in canoes sailed here and chose these shores. Over the centuries, a unique community developed in the isolation of the island, for unknown reasons, began to carve giant statues from volcanic rock. These statues, known as Moai, are some of the most amazing ancient relics ever found. The people of the island called themselves Rapa Nui, but where they came from and where they disappeared is unknown. Science puts forward many theories about the mystery of Easter Island, but all these theories contradict each other, the truth is unknown as always 
Modern archaeologists believe that the first and only people of the island are a separate group of Polynesians who once got here, then had no contact with their homeland. Until a fateful day in 1722, when, on Easter Day, the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to discover the island. What witnessed his team and caused heated debate regarding the origin of Rapa Nui. The researchers reported a mixed population of the island, there were both dark-skinned and fair-skinned people. Some even had red hair and tanned faces. This does not quite fit with the Polynesian version of the origin of the local population, despite long-standing evidence confirming migration from another island in the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, archaeologists are still discussing the theory of the famous archaeologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl 
In his notes, Heyerdahl speaks of the islanders, who were divided into several classes. The fair-skinned islanders wore large discs in their earlobes. Their bodies were heavily tattooed and they worshiped giant statues by performing ceremonies in front of them. How could fair-skinned people live among Polynesians on such a remote island? The researcher believes that Easter Island was inhabited in several stages by two different cultures. One culture was from Polynesia, the other from South America, possibly from Peru, where mummies of people with red hair have also been found. 
Heyerdahl also points to similarities between Moai statues and similar monuments in Bolivia. According to his theory, thousands of years ago, people had already mastered the ocean, and sailed in large canoes over great distances. Heyerdahl himself traveled from the coast of Peru to Easter Island on a makeshift raft in 1947, proving that such a movement is possible 
Modern archaeologists strongly disagree with Heyerdahl. They point to the long history of the Polynesians in the South Pacific region. In addition, according to linguistic studies, the most likely origin of the local population is the Marquis Islands or Pitcairn. Researchers are turning to the legends of Easter Island, which speak of an origin from the west. In addition, botanical and anthropometric studies confirm that the island was colonized only once - from the west
There is a third theory, quite young. Around 1536, the Spanish ship San Lesmems disappeared off the coast of Tahiti. Legends speak of Basque survivors who married Polynesian women. Interestingly, genetic testing showed the presence of Basque genes in the blood of Rapa Nui 
But there is a third origin story that is as far fetched as it seems to have scientific evidence behind it. Around 1536 the Spanish ship, San Lesmems was lost near Tahiti. Legends speak of Basque survivors marrying Polynesians. Either they or their descendants set off from Tahiti to try and return home in the 1600s and are never seen again. Interestingly, genetic testing of pure Rapa Nui blood showed the presence of Basque genes. 
Perhaps Easter Island was inhabited by a lost crew of Spanish and Polynesian sailors? 
Of course, over time, science will give us the answer to who the Rapa Nui were. They built a highly organized society on a small island, and in a short time of their existence they created a riddle that puzzled the whole world and has not been solved to this day. 
