Easter Island and the mystery of the giant stone statues
or Easter Island is one of the strangest mysterious islands in the world, which drooled many historians, scientists and researchers.
Easter Island includes about 900 stone statues with human figures, as these statues are the main attraction of the island.
It dates back to ancient times but three centuries ago, when European explorer Jacob Rogevin arrived in this South American region located 5,153 kilometers from Colombia, interest in this area became global.
So much so that by the date of Rogevin’s arrival, on April 5, 1722, it was recognized throughout much of the West and was named Easter Island.
But the biggest mystery and the question that puzzled scientists, is how and who built these giant and huge statues?
Where is Easter Island located?
Easter Island, is an island and special territory of Chile located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, in the far southeast of the Polynesian triangle in Oceania.
The name of Easter Island comes from the day the Europeans arrived in 1722, when the Dutch explorer Jacob Rogeven discovered it, as he did not know where it was located exactly, so he called it by that name, especially since the date of his discovery of it, coincided with the celebration of the Catholic holiday.
It is estimated that at its height, the territory was inhabited by between 6,000 and 30,000 people. As elsewhere in Polynesia, the population was divided into two distinct categories: chiefs and villagers.
This stratification was repeated in each of the 12 existing clans, each belonging to an area starting from the coast inland.
The island is famous for its nearly 1,000 colossal statues called moai, created by the Rapa Nui people, the island’s first inhabitants.
The island is home to one of the most fascinating mysteries in history: its huge monolithic statues. To this day, in the 21st century, this mystery undoubtedly remains one of the great mysteries of humanity.
These giant statues, carved from volcanic stone, each 10 meters high and each weighing approximately 100 tons, are undoubtedly the stars of this island that geographically belongs to Polynesia and politically to the state of Chile.
The mystery of the Easter Island statues
The Rapa Nui tribe is believed to have arrived on Easter Island around the fifth century. For centuries, the ethnic group has been divided into many hierarchies, especially those with long ears, the strongest class, and the short-eared.
Experts and scientists are beginning to wonder how the indigenous people “Rapa Nui” managed to transport rocks weighing between 75 and 100 tons to different places on the island.
In the beginning, they considered the possibility of human power to be the only way to move the statues, that is, that these inhabitants relied on their physical strength to build and move these giant statues.
Soon after, researchers also found buried machines, meaning locals used ropes and wooden skis to transport the statues, though they are primitive.
The truth about the Easter Island statues
The question that arises strongly why Rapa Noi built these huge statues? after years of research, scientists from the University of California found that monolithic stones were built to enhance soil fertility and agriculture and not just from ornamental eating or for religious purposes.
Specifically, the researchers focused on studying two monolithic stones found in the interior of the Rano Raraku quarry. Excavations uncovered food debris, including bananas, taro and sweet potatoes.
According to the authors of the study, the place served as a quarry and as a place of agricultural production.
But one of the other mysteries is, why all the statues are placed along the coast?
In a scientific essay written by forgotten archaeologist Catherine Routledge, she managed to collect at least a hundred years of rapa nui history through writings, photographs, drawings, vocabulary lists, maps and family trees.
she admitted : “When we started examining the details of hydrology, we began to notice that access to fresh water and the location of the statues are inextricably linked,” explained Carl Lebow, an anthropologist at Binghamton University in New York.
The alienation of the Rapa Nui people
The disappearance of the Rapa Nui civilization is as mysterious as the swaying of the moai they built. Some claims point to an environmental catastrophe caused by the people themselves that led to their destruction, or perhaps due to a civil war between them or the arrival of European colonists and explorers.
Perhaps the civilization, like other civilizations in South America, collapsed when the Europeans arrived, and perhaps the most famous example of this is the destruction of great civilizations such as the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations, after the arrival of the Spanish colonizers.
One day, perhaps all the mysteries surrounding these magnificent stone heads that seem to harbor in their silence the history of a magical and different people will be discovered.
But for now, one thing is certain: the inhabitants of Easter Island were brilliant and innovative spiritual engineers, even without advanced and sophisticated tools and technology.
