Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Easter Island's large and impressive stone-carved statues have long intrigued scientists and the public in general. Many have long wondered how the ancient people who inhabited this tiny remote volcanic island in Polynesia built such monumental works.
Moai statues in the Rano Raraku Volcano in Easter Island, Chile. Credit: Adobe Stock - f11photo
How were so many multi-ton monoliths from the quarry inland, and why were these statues raised? These questions have occupied researchers, and countless theories have been put forward. It was believed that the massive statutes consisted of just heads for a long time. However, that is not the case. Many are unaware that the giant Easter Island statures have bodies too.
On Easter Island, there are nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which the early Rapa Nui people created. The tallest moai statue on the island is 33 feet tall and on average, the statues weigh around three to five tons, but can weigh up to 80 tons. Just when most thought there was nothing more to discover on the island, a new moai statue was found in a dry lake bed on the island, according to Salvador Atan Hito, the vice president of Ma'u Henua.
"For the Rapa Nui people, it's [a] very, very important discovery," Hito told "Good Morning America" through a translator at the site. "Because it's here in the lake and nobody knows this exists -- even the ancestors, our grandparents don't know [about] that one."
"The moai are important because they really represent the history of the Rapa Nui people," said Dr. Terry Hunt, professor of archeology at the University of Arizona who has been studying the statues and the Rapa Nui for 20 years.
While the newly uncovered statue is smaller than others, its discovery marks the first in a dry lake bed.
The find came due to changes in the area’s climate. The lake surrounding this sculpture had dried out. If dry conditions persist, it is possible that more currently unknown Moai could appear.
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"Under the dry conditions that we have now, we may find more. They've been hidden by the tall reeds that grow in the lake bed and prospecting with something that can detect what's under the ground surface may tell us that there are in fact more moai in the lakebed sediments," Hunt said. "When there's one moai in the lake, there's probably more."
The team also seeks tools that were used to carve the Moai statues and various writings.
Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
