How Easter Island’s giant statues “walked” to their final platforms

Easter Island, renowned for its impressive moai statues, has intrigued researchers for centuries. These monumental figures, sculpted around 800 years ago, were originally placed on stone platforms called ahu. The challenge of understanding their cultural importance, as well as the methods used by a Stone Age society to carve and transport these colossal statues, some weighing up to 92 tons, has captivated scholars. One prominent theory, proposed by archaeologist Carl Lipo from Binghamton University, suggests that the moai were moved while standing upright. According to this hypothesis, workers employed ropes to 'walk' the statues into position on their platforms. This idea is supported by the oral histories of the Rapa Nui people, which include narratives about the moai's journey from the quarry, including a song that recounts an ancestor who made the statues walk. Though initial field tests hinted at the feasibility of this approach, it sparked considerable debate within the academic community. To address these concerns, Lipo has collaborated on a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, which presents new experimental evidence and utilizes 3D modeling to explore the physics behind the moai's movement. When the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century, they found only a few thousand inhabitants on the island, which is merely 14 by 7 miles in size and located far from any other land. This led to the assumption that the island's past must have hosted tens of thousands of residents to account for the numerous moai. However, Lipo proposed that fewer workers could achieve this monumental task. In 2012, he and colleague Terry Hunt from the University of Arizona demonstrated that a 10-foot, 5-ton moai could be moved several hundred yards with just 18 people and three ropes by utilizing a rocking motion. In a subsequent study in 2018, Lipo introduced an intriguing concept regarding the placement of red hats atop some moai, which can weigh up to 13 tons. He suggested that these hats were rolled up ramps using ropes. Moreover, findings from Lipo’s team, based on quantitative spatial modeling, indicated that the locations chosen for the moai were likely influenced by the availability of fresh water sources, as revealed in a 2019 paper published in PLOS One.