Location: Chile, Easter Island
Made by: between 1250 - 1500 years
Coordinates: 27°07"33.7"S 109°16"37.2"W

Short description

Easter Island is lost in the Pacific at a distance of 4000 km from Chile. The closest neighbors - the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island - live 2000 km from here.

Easter Island got its unusual name for a reason: it was discovered by a Dutch navigator on Easter Sunday morning, April 5, 1722. The landscapes of the island are extinct volcanoes, mountains, hills and meadows. There are no rivers here, the main source of fresh water is rainwater that accumulates in the craters of volcanoes. The Paschalians call their island "The Navel of the Earth" (Te-Pito-te-henua). This secluded and isolated corner from the rest of the world attracts scientists, mystics, lovers of secrets and mysteries.

First of all, Easter Island is famous for its giant stone statues in the form of a human head, they are called "moai". Silent idols weighing up to 200 tons and up to 12 meters high stand with their backs to the ocean. A total of 997 statues have been discovered on Easter Island. All moai are monolithic. The craftsmen carved them from soft volcanic tuff (pumice) in a quarry on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano. Some of the statues have been moved to the ritual platform (“ahu”) and added with a red stone cap (pukau). According to scientists, moai once had eyes: squirrels were laid out from coral, and pupils from sparkling pieces of volcanic glass.

Obviously, the installation of statues required a huge amount of labor. According to legend, the idols walked by themselves. However, the hypotheses, confirmed by scientific experiments, prove that the inhabitants of the island and no one else moved the moai, but it has not yet been determined exactly how they did it. In 1956, the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl experimented with moving a moai statue by hiring a team of Easter Island natives who successfully reproduced all the stages of making and installing a moai.

Armed with stone axes, the natives carved a 12-ton statue, and, grabbing onto the ropes, began to pull it along the ground. And in order not to damage the fragile giant, the islanders made a wooden sled to prevent it from rubbing against the ground. With the help of wooden levers and stones placed under the base of the statue, it was hoisted onto a platform-pedestal.

In 1986, the Czech explorer P. Pavel, together with Thor Heyerdahl, organized an additional test in which a group of 17 natives rather quickly set the 20-ton statue upright using ropes.

"A petrified world with its petrified inhabitants"

The settlement of Easter Island began in 300 - 400 years by immigrants from East Polynesia. According to another version, proposed by Thor Heyerdahl, the first inhabitants of the island were settlers from Ancient Peru. Crossing the Pacific Ocean from the coast of South America to Polynesia on a wooden raft "Kon-Tiki", the Norwegian scientist proved that even under conditions ancient civilization American Indians could cross large expanses of water.

The indigenous population of Easter Island belonged to two tribes - "long-eared", which created the moai, and "short-eared". The "long-ears" got their name because they wore heavy jewelry in their ears, sometimes so large that the earlobes were pulled down to their shoulders. Paschalians believed that the supernatural power of their clan, called "mana", was contained in stone statues. In the beginning, the long-eared and short-eared lived in peace and harmony with each other, but their later history was marked by a series of brutal wars caused by food shortages.

Because of the drought, crops were declining, there were not enough trees to make boats from which it was possible to fish. Now moai were identified with the image of the enemy, and the statues were destroyed by rival tribes. There are many theories regarding the purpose of the moai. Perhaps these were island gods etched in stone, or portraits of the leaders who ruled the island. According to Thor Heyerdahl, the statues depict white Indians who arrived on the island from Latin America . In the era of cultural prosperity (XVI-XVII centuries), up to 20 thousand people lived on Easter Island.

After the arrival of Europeans, the population declined, many Easterlings were taken to Peru for hard labor. Today the island is inhabited by about 4,000 people. The living conditions of the islanders have improved significantly, an airport has been built, and tourists bring a small income. But Easter Island still seems deserted, as in the days of Thor Heyerdahl's research, when the Norwegian saw "some kind of petrified world with its petrified inhabitants."

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 statues and learn about tragic fate stonemasons.

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 sailors met naked islanders, but to XIX century they wove their own clothes. However, more valued family heirlooms rather 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.

On the Easter Island there are mysterious giants called "moai" in the local language. They rise silently on the shore, lined up and looking towards the shore. These giants are like an army defending their possessions. Despite the simplification of the figures, moai are fascinating. These statues look especially powerful in the rays of the setting sun, when only huge silhouettes appear ...

Location of the Easter Island statues:

Giants stand on one of the most unusual islands of our planet - Easter. It has the shape of a triangle with sides of 16, 24, and 18 kilometers. Being in the Pacific Ocean, it is thousands of miles away from the nearest civilized country (the nearest neighbor is 3,000 km away). Local residents belong to three different races - blacks, redskins and, finally, completely white people.

The island is now a small piece of land - only 165 square meters, but at the time of the erection of the statues, Easter Island was 3 or even 4 times larger. Some part of it, like Atlantis, went under water. On a good day, some areas of flooded land are visible at depth. There is an absolutely incredible version: the progenitor of all mankind - the mainland of Lemuria - sank 4 million years ago, and Easter Island is its tiny surviving part.

Stone statues stand near the Pacific Ocean along the entire coast, they are located on special platforms, these pedestals are called "ahu" by the locals.

Not all statues have survived to this day, others are completely destroyed, others are toppled. Many statues have been preserved - there are more than a thousand figures. They are not the same size and differ in thickness. The smallest are 3 meters long. Large ones weigh 80 tons and reach 17 meters in height. All have very large heads with a heavy protruding chin, short necks, long ears, and no legs at all. Some have "caps" made of stone on their heads. The facial features of all are the same - a somewhat gloomy expression, with low foreheads and tightly compressed lips.

Our planet is only revealing its secrets to humanity. How many of its corners are yet to be visited and explored? How many amazing discoveries will be made in the foreseeable future? It is very difficult to give a definite answer to all these questions. At almost every step, we all come across amazing phenomena and phenomena, which thousands of scientists around the world are trying in vain to explain. Unusual finds that are scattered around the globe are just waiting for their "finest hour" to discover their true nature and purpose.

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How to get to Easter Island, read our article.

Today I propose to go together to one of the most unusual islands - Easter Island, which belongs to the Latin American state of Chile. It was here that amazing giants made of stone - monolithic statues of Moai - appeared for the first time before the discoverers of distant lands. Officially, they are known as the idols of Easter Island. It is believed that the statues were created by the natives who inhabited the island. Stone sculptures date back to 10-15 centuries. In addition, the island is simply “teeming” with interesting finds in the form of ancient caves, grooved alleys that go somewhere into the ocean. All this indicates that the island was once the center of a nation unknown to archaeologists with unusual traditions and unique customs. Interested? Still would!

Not every one of us knows why the island got such an unusual name. The first impression that the name is tied to a famous holiday turns out to be correct. The island was first visited by Europeans in 1722. It was in this year that a ship from Holland under the command of Jacob Roggeveen dropped its anchor off the coast of a distant Pacific island. Since overseas lands were discovered just at the time of the celebration of Easter, the island received the appropriate name.

It was here that one of the most impressive man-made phenomena of the entire civilization was discovered - stone statues of Moai. Thanks to the stone statues, the island has become known throughout the world and is rightfully considered one of the main tourist centers of the Southern Hemisphere.

The purpose of the statues

Since the statues appeared on the island in ancient times, their size and shape evoke thoughts of extraterrestrial origin. Although it was still possible to establish that the statues were created by local tribes that once inhabited the island. Despite the fact that several centuries have passed since the discovery of the island, scientists still have not been able to unravel the true purpose of the stone giants. They were credited with the role of tombstones, and places for worshiping pagan gods, they were even considered as real monuments to the famous islanders.

The first descriptions of the Dutch navigator help to form a definite impression of the significance of the statues. For example, the discoverer in his diary noted that near the statues, the natives made fires and prayed. But the most surprising thing was that the natives did not differ in a developed culture and could not boast of certain achievements in construction or some technologies developed even for that time. Accordingly, a completely logical question arose about how these tribes, living according to primitive customs, could create such amazing statues.

Numerous researchers made the most unusual assumptions. Initially, it was believed that the statues were made of clay or even brought from the mainland. But soon all these conjectures were refuted. The statues were completely monolithic. Skillful authors created their masterpieces directly from the fragments of rocks with the help of primitive tools.

Only after the island was visited by the famous navigator Cook, who was accompanied by a Polynesian who understood the language of the natives of the island, it became known that the stone statues were not at all dedicated to the gods. They were installed in honor of the rulers of ancient tribes.

How the statues were made

As already mentioned, the statues were carved out of monolithic fragments of stony rocks in the quarry of the volcano. The work on creating unique giants began with the face, gradually moving to the sides and arms. All statues are made in the form of long busts without legs. When the Moai were ready, they were transported to the place of installation and erected on a stone pedestal. But how these multi-ton giants moved from the quarry of the volcano to the stone pedestals over a great distance is still the main mystery of Easter Island. Just imagine how much force could be required to deliver a 5-meter stone giant, whose average weight reached 5 tons! And sometimes there were statues more than 10 meters in height and weighing more than 10 tons.

Every time humanity is faced with something inexplicable, a lot of legends are born. That's what happened this time as well. According to local lore, the huge statues were once able to walk. Having reached the island, they lost this amazing ability and remained here forever. But this is nothing more than a colorful legend. Another legend says that the untold riches of the Inca people were hidden inside each statue. In pursuit of easy money, antiquities hunters and "black archaeologists" destroyed more than one statue. But nothing but disappointment awaited them inside.

Is the mystery solved?

Not so long ago, a group of American scientists who were engaged in the study of ancient giants, announced that they came close to unraveling the Moai statues. The researchers claim that the transportation of the statues was carried out in groups using primitive lifting mechanisms, huge carts and even large animals. Since the statue was transported in an upright position, from a distance it seemed as if the stone block was moving independently.

Tourism

From the very moment when tourism began to develop at a crazy pace, when the popularity of this type of outdoor activity and pastime gained immense popularity among lovers of the exotic and just curious citizens, Easter Island has become a real place of excitement. Thousands of people come from all over the world to look at the amazing stone statues. Each statue is unique and has its own decoration, shape and size. Many of them have bizarre headdresses. By the way, hats differ in color. And, as it turned out, they were made elsewhere.

Mounted on special pedestals, these silent creations of human hands cause sincere admiration from everyone who was lucky enough to see them with their own eyes. They seem to peer with their "dead eyes" deep into the island or into the blue expanse of the ocean. If they could speak, how many interesting things could they tell about the life of their creators? How many mysteries could be comprehended without being tormented by numerous conjectures?

The most popular place to visit is the Tongariki platform. 15 statues were placed on a stone base at once different size. The statues have retained a lot of traces civil wars and other devastating events to which the island has been subjected. There is information that in 1960 a monstrous tsunami hit the island, which threw stone sculptures 100 meters deep into the island. Residents managed to recreate the platform on their own.

Finding a platform is not difficult. It is located in close proximity to the Rano Raraku volcano, which became their deposit. Taking pictures among the giant Moai is the sacred duty of every tourist who has visited the Chilean island. According to "experienced photohunters", the best time for photo sessions - sunset and sunrise. In the rays of the sun, stone giants appear in a different, unusual beauty.

The mere sight of these stone giants evokes awe and respect for their creators, makes you think about your life and true place in the Universe. The giants of Easter Island are one of the most mysterious creations, the secret of which we all have yet to learn. They came to us from the quarry of the volcano and carry a still unknown mystery of thousands of centuries.

How to get there

Unfortunately, getting to Easter Island even today is very problematic. Although there are two simple ways- air and water - yet they are quite costly. The first method will require you to purchase a ticket for a regular plane. You can fly from the capital of Chile, Santiago. The flight will take at least 5 hours. You can also get to Easter Island by cruise ship or yacht. Many tourist ships that pass off the coast of the island are happy to enter the local port, providing their passengers with a unique opportunity to touch the ancient history of the mysterious island.

Easter Island idols- giant stone heads decorating the entire island.

The small Easter Island in the South Pacific, owned by Chile, is one of the most mysterious corners of our planet. Hearing this name, you immediately remember the cult of birds, the mysterious writings of kohau rongo-rongo and the cyclopean stone platforms ahu. But the main attraction of the island can be called moai.

Moai - statues-idols of Easter Island

In total, there are 997 statues on Easter Island. Most of them are placed quite chaotically, but some are lined up in rows. The appearance of stone idols is peculiar, and statues of Easter Island cannot be confused with anything else.
For example, there is nothing like it.

Huge heads on frail bodies, faces with characteristic powerful chins and facial features as if carved with an ax - all these are moai statues.

Moai reach a height of five to seven meters. There are individual specimens ten meters high, but there are only a few of them on the island. Despite these dimensions, the weight statues on easter island on average does not exceed 5 tons. Such a low weight is due to the source material.

To create the statue, they used volcanic tuff, which is much lighter than basalt or some other heavy stone. This material is closest in structure to pumice, somewhat reminiscent of a sponge and crumbles quite easily.

Easter Island idols and the first Europeans

In general, there are many secrets in the history of Easter Island. Its discoverer, Captain Juan Fernandez, fearing competitors, decided to keep his discovery, made in 1578, a secret, and after some time he accidentally died under mysterious circumstances. Although whether what the Spaniard found was Easter Island is still unclear.

After 144 years, in 1722, the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen stumbled on Easter Island, and this event took place on the day of Christian Easter. So, quite by accident, the island of Te Pito o te Henua, which in the local dialect means the Center of the World, turned into Easter Island.

In his notes, the admiral indicated that the natives held ceremonies in front of stone heads, kindled fires and fell into a trance-like state, swaying back and forth.

What the moai were for the islanders was never found out, but most likely the stone sculptures served as idols. The researchers also suggest that the stone statues could be statues of deceased ancestors.

It is interesting that Admiral Roggeven with his squadron not only sailed in this area, he tried in vain to find the elusive land of Davis, an English pirate, which, according to his descriptions, was discovered 35 years before the Dutch expedition. True, no one, except Davis and his team, has ever seen the newly discovered archipelago.

In subsequent years, interest in the island declined. In 1774, James Cook arrived on the island and discovered that over the years some statues of Easter Island were overturned. Most likely this was due to the war between the tribes of the aborigines, but it was not possible to obtain official confirmation.

Standing idols were last seen in 1830. A French squadron then arrived on Easter Island. After that, the statues, installed by the islanders themselves, were never seen again. All of them were either overturned or destroyed.

How the statues appeared on Easter Island

Distant craftsmen carved "" on the slopes of the Rano-Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, at a distance of more than 10 km.

The height of most idols is from five to seven meters, while later statues reached up to 10 and up to 12 meters. Tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, resembles a sponge in structure and easily crumbles even with a light impact on it. so that the average weight of "moai" does not exceed 5 tons.

Stone ahu - platforms-pedestals: reached 150 m in length and 3 m in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons.

All the moai that are currently on the island were restored in the 20th century. The last restoration work took place relatively recently - in the period from 1992 to 1995.

At one time, Admiral Roggeven, recalling his trip to the island, claimed that the natives made fires in front of the moai idols and squatted next to them, bowing their heads. After that, they folded their arms and swung them up and down. Of course, this observation is not able to explain who the idols really were for the islanders.

Roggeven and his companions could not understand how, without the use of thick wooden rollers and strong ropes, it was possible to move and install such blocks. The islanders had no wheels, no draft animals, and no other source of energy than their own muscles.

Ancient legends say that the statues walked by themselves. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is still no documentary evidence left.

There are many hypotheses for the movement of "moai", some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the inhabitants of the island moved the statues and no one else. That's what they did it for? This is where the divergences begin.

It still remains a mystery who and why created all these stone faces, is there any sense in the chaotic placement of statues on the island, why some of the statues were overturned. There are many theories that answer these questions, but none of them has been officially confirmed.

Everything that exists on the island today was restored in the 20th century.

The last restoration of fifteen "moai", located between the Rano-Roraku volcano and the Poike Peninsula, took place relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were engaged in restoration work.

The local aborigines could clarify the situation if they survived to this day. The fact is that in the middle of the 19th century, an epidemic of smallpox broke out on the island, which was brought from the continent. The disease and mowed down the islanders under the root ...

In the second half of the 19th century, the cult of the bird-man also died. This strange ritual, unique for all Polynesia, was dedicated to Makemake, the supreme deity of the islanders. The Chosen One became his earthly incarnation. Moreover, interestingly, the elections were held regularly, once a year.

At the same time, servants or warriors took the most active part in them. It depended on them whether their master, the head of the family clan, Tangata-manu, or a bird-man would become. It is this ritual that owes its origin to the main cult center - the rocky village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the Tangata-manu cult.

Traditions say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader who arrived on the island, was born here. In turn, hundreds of years later, his descendants themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.

Easter Island was and remains a truly "white" spot on the map of the globe. It is difficult to find a piece of land like it that would keep so many secrets that most likely will never be solved.

In the spring, messengers of the god Makemake, black sea swallows, flew to the small islands of Motu-Kao-Kao, Motu-Iti and Motu-Nui, located not far from the coast. The warrior who first found the first egg of these birds and delivered it by swimming to his master received seven beautiful women as a reward. Well, the owner became a leader, or rather, a bird-man, receiving universal respect, honor and privileges.

The last Tangata-manu ceremony took place in the 60s of the 19th century. After the disastrous pirate raid of the Peruvians in 1862, when the pirates took the entire male population of the island into slavery, there was no one and no one to choose a bird-man.

Why did the natives of Easter Island carve "moai" statues in a quarry? Why did they stop doing this? The society that created the statues must have been significantly different from the 2,000 people that Roggeveen saw. It had to be well organized. What happened to him?

For more than two and a half centuries, the mystery of Easter Island remained unsolved. Most theories about the history and development of Easter Island are based on oral tradition.

This happens because no one still can understand what is inscribed in written sources - the famous tablets "ko hau motu mo rongorongo", which roughly means - a manuscript for recitation.

Most of them were destroyed by Christian missionaries, but even those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has been agitated more than once by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, when carefully checked, all this turned out to be not a very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends.

Easter Island idols: history

A few years ago, paleontologist David Steadman and several other researchers carried out the first systematic study of Easter Island in order to find out what its plant and animal life was like before. As a result, data appeared for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.

Easter Island was inhabited around 400 AD. e. The period of manufacture of statues refers to 1200-1500 years. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people are enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees that were available at that time in sufficient numbers.

Paradise, opened to the first settlers, 1600 years later became almost lifeless. Fertile soils, abundance of food, plenty of building materials, sufficient living space, all the possibilities for a comfortable existence were destroyed. By the time Heyerdahl visited the island, there was a single toromiro tree on the island; now it is no more.

And it all started with the fact that a few centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger and larger; their heads began to adorn red 10-ton crowns.