Free Republic

Many questions about the famous moai statues on Easter Island, Chile, have long eluded scholars—from their cultural significance to how they were made and transported. A recent study in the Journal of Archaeological Science by archaeologists Carl Lipo of Binghamton University and Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona poses the theory that the 92-ton statues were transported in a vertical position, with movers using ropes to “walk” the moai across the island and onto their ahu, or platforms. This theory is supported by the oral traditions of the island’s Indigenous Rapa Nui people, which reference the moai “walking” from...

Archaeologists working on the famed Easter Island have unearthed a previously unknown statue while excavating a dry lake bed. The newly discovered statue is one of the Moai, the well-known megalithic statues believed to have been carved by Polynesian tribes between the 10th and 16th centuries. “We think we know all the moai, but then a new one turns up, a new discovery,” archaeologist Dr. Terry Hunt told Good Morning America (GMA) Feb. 25. Hunt teaches archaeology at the University of Arizona and has been studying the statues and the Rapa Nui for 20 years. “The moai are important because...