Posted on 05/12/2010 2:03:18 PM PDT by decimon
Archaeologists have disproved the fifty-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter Island
Archaeologists have disproved the fifty-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter Island.
Fieldwork led by researchers at University College London and The University of Manchester, has shown the remote Pacific island's ancient road system was primarily ceremonial and not solely built for transportation of the figures.
A complex network of roads up to 800-years-old crisscross the Island between the hat and statue quarries and the coastal areas.
Laying alongside the roads are dozens of the statues- or moai.
The find will create controversy among the many archaeologists who have dedicated years to finding out exactly how the moai were moved, ever since Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl first published his theory in 1958.
Heyerdahl and subsequent researchers believed that statues he found lying on their backs and faces near the roads were abandoned during transportation by the ancient Polynesians.
But his theory has been completely rejected by the team led by Manchester's Dr Colin Richards and UCL's Dr Sue Hamilton.
Instead, their discovery of stone platforms associated with each fallen moai - using specialist 'geophysical survey' equipment – finally confirms a little known 1914 theory of British archaeologist Katherine Routledge that the routes were primarily ceremonial avenues.
The statues, say the Manchester and UCL team just back from the island, merely toppled from the platforms with the passage of time.
"The truth of the matter is, we will never know how the statues were moved," said Dr Richards.
"Ever since Heyerdahl, archeologists have come up with all manner of theories – based on an underlying assumption that the roads were used for transportation of the moai, from the quarry at the volcanic cone Rano Raraku.
"What we do now know is that the roads had a ceremonial function to underline their religious and cultural importance.
"They lead – from different parts of the island – to the Rano Raraku volcano where the Moai were quarried.
"Volcano cones were considered as points of entry to the underworld and mythical origin land Hawaiki.
"Hence, Rano Ranaku was not just a quarry but a sacred centre of the island."
The previous excavation found that the roads are concave in shape –making it difficult to move heavy objects along them
And as the roads approach Rano Raraku, the statues become more frequent – which the team say, indicated an increasing grades of holiness.
"All the evidence strongly shows that these roads were ceremonial - which backs the work of Katherine Routledge from almost 100 years ago, " said Dr Sue Hamilton.
"It all makes sense: the moai face the people walking towards the volcano.
"The statues are more frequent the closer they are to the volcano – which has to be way of signifying the increasing levels of importance."
She added: "What is shocking is that Heyerdahl actually found some evidence to suggest there were indeed platforms.
"But like many other archaeologists, he was so swayed by his cast iron belief that the roads were for transportation – he completely ignored them."
###
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Routledge and her husband arrived at Easter Island in 1914, to publish her findings in a popular travel book, The Mystery of Easter Island in 1919.
Geophysical surveys are used to create subsurface maps by passing electrical currents below the ground and measuring its resistance.
High quality images are available.
Drs Hamilton and Richards are available for comment
For media enquires contact: Mike Addelman Media Relations Officer Faculty of Humanities The University of Manchester 0161 275 0790 07717 881 567 michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
Which is to say the roads served as ceremonial paths and, that is additionally, the roads served as transport corridors.
IIRC, Heyerdahl, being among other things a practical man, tried out the methods he thought they used. (could be wrong, could have been someone else, later.) SOMEONE succeeded in using rollers, palm-fiber rope, etc., as I've seen pictures. —— Wikipedia says it was a Charles Love.
Another guy has his own theory, and a scale-model demo video: http://www.tegakinet.jp/moai.htm
We could always hold a seance and ask.
A small dog and big whips?
Now there you go - that makes sense... just hook one up to the old John Deere...
I saw that. He’s some guy in the upper Mid west who had nothing better to do on cold winter’s nights than figure out how to leverage stones. His wife is so ugly he’d rather move huge weights since he doesn’t have the stones for anything else.
It’s actually pretty cool to watch. It’s on YOu tube somewhere if you know how to search for it.
The pointy heads will still need Federal Grant Monies to operate their word processors tho...
:’)
Thanks Fred Nerks!
Maybe I’m saying that. The fact is, however, no one can explain how the Egyptians erected all those obelisks, or even how they carved them out of solid granite. Thousands of slaves, maybe, but that’s what the pulleys attempted to simulate. Throwing around a couple tons of boulders is one thing. Actually constructing something out of 1,000 ton pieces of sculpted granite is another. But then again, I don’t really know what I’m saying, do I?
There is another guy I see from time to time on the History Channel that has erected several very tall obelisks (50 feet) using the sand pit method. You still have to get it higher flat but they stand right up. Still there is a serious mystery as to how the old tribes did all this stone moving without killing their societies.
The sand pit method is interesting in that it opens a Pandora’s box of other mysteries. I’ll admit it’s possible, but unlikely. The ability to move that much mass around without leaving a trace, namely. Several obelisks arrayed in one place, as though several small mountains of sand were moved there, removed again, moved there again, and again removed, over and over. And then there’s the task of getting those huge stone blocks up those small mountains to begin with. However all-powerful those Pharaohs were, we’re underestimating them in that case. They did it somehow, though, I’ll grant that, we just don’t know how. All our theories wash out or are inadequate.
The stone movers understood things or had access to technology past what we consider them capable of. That said I am more and more leaning to ET influence. The Sumarian texts are very compelling and full of stories that are hard to ignore. In addition, the Stargate theory is of great interest. There are a few pictures in ancient Egypt structures that show a pharoh partially comming out of a door and no view of the part behind the door. Plus all the aircraft like objects that are found in South America. Modern hydraulics are very interesting, I have daily access to an industrial forklift that can pick up 36,000 pounds with ease. It is also possible the stone movers had some access or understanding of using fluids to move things.
Yes, well-said. It’s good to remain skeptical in the face of lacking evidence, but it’s good to have an open mind as well.
They rolled them over the bodies of Dodo birds.
I was thinking that the roads were first used to transport the things. Along with statues along the way. After the statues were in place the people went to go worship them (or whatever).
Hundreds of years of walking along those same routes as they went to and fro to worship could have caused the concave shape.
Has anybody asked Hellen Thomas, she was around back then.
Ya know, this says the statues were originally on platforms. The legend is that the statues walked to where they are. The platforms were also the transportation devices?
I think the locals’ answer about how they got to their locations — “they walked” — was just a bit of dry local humor. It has been suggested that they were rocked from side to side (just a little) after they were upright, but I don’t think it’s true, not least because Von Danniken made such a big deal out of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.