WITHmysterious statues of Easter Island carved from volcanic rock – beautiful— have occupied a large place in the imagination for centuries. The origins of these massive stone guardians have long been the subject of outlandish theories, including extraterrestrial transporters and artisans from long-lost civilizations. But some archaeologists have focused on a logistical question: How did these multi-ton giants get to their final resting place from the quarry from which they were carved several kilometers away?
One school of thought states that the statues were transported lying on their backs, rolling along a series of constantly moving logs. According to oral traditions statues of the Rapa Nui people, who carved them between 400 and 1000 years ago, walked there. New study published in the journal Journal of Archaeological Science suggests that this is exactly what happened.
Binghamton University anthropologist Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona studied more than 900 beautifulfocusing on the statues clustered around the roads of Easter Island. By creating high-resolution 3D digital models, Lipo and Hunt identified these internal roads. beautiful exhibit some distinctive characteristics that set them apart from coastal ahu beautiful.
According to Lipo and Hunt, it's all about the head and the “legs.” Road beautiful have rounded D-shaped bases that are wider than their coastal counterparts. They also lack deep-set eyes, which give ahu beautiful their iconic expression. These two features, working together, may have allowed the Rapa Nui to “walk” the statues for several kilometers with relatively minimal but well-coordinated effort, the researchers say.
According to Lipo and Hunt, beautiful teams of movers on either side could use their heads to swing the statues in zigzags, pushing them forward, while a third rope held at the back kept them from tipping over completely. Road beautiful the rounded base facilitated this swaying, while their heavier, eyeless heads forced them to lean forward to maintain momentum.
To check your gait beautiful hypothesis, the researchers created a 4.35-ton beautiful their own. Using just 18 people divided into three teams, they successfully completed their massive test over 325 feet in just 40 minutes. “Once you get it moving, it's not difficult at all – people pull with one hand. It saves energy and moves very quickly,” Lipo said in an interview. statement. “The hardest part is getting it to swing.” The speed of the iconic walking statues may not have been enough to win the race, but it is an impressive pace – and feat – for people working several millennia ago without the use of modern technology.
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Main image: Carl Lipo/Binghamton University
