# Easter Island Statues



## Matt308 (May 7, 2012)

Am I the only person on the planet that didn't know these statues actually have bodies????


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## Geedee (May 7, 2012)

Well Stone me !!


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## Lucky13 (May 7, 2012)

Well, slap me and call me Ginger!


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## Thorlifter (May 7, 2012)

News to me!


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## herman1rg (May 7, 2012)

More details here it seems

http://www.eisp.org/


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## Bucksnort101 (May 7, 2012)

Jan likes his Gingerslaps Seriously though, I never knew they had bodies. Makes one wonder how much manpower was needed to carve those things and then lift them into position.


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## Njaco (May 7, 2012)

I never knew! Is this who the Terra-cota Army were marching out to do battle with?


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## Gnomey (May 7, 2012)

News to me too Matt! Just makes them even more impressive!


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## gumbyk (May 7, 2012)

None of these photos show their hats though!
BBC NEWS | Science Environment | Giant statues give up hat secret


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## Airframes (May 7, 2012)

Agree with all. Must have been a heck of a job to dig 'em in !


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## fubar57 (May 7, 2012)

Good post Matt. I remember watching a documentary on how they thought the heads were moved. Just moving the heads were very labor intensive. Might have to make another documentary.

Geo


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## Matt308 (May 7, 2012)

I almost didn't post this thread. I looked very carefully to see if this was Photoshopped. But my BS detector was only at about 25% so I wagered a good thrashing by you guys vs not posting it. I'm still flummoxed.


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## Matt308 (May 7, 2012)

Njaco said:


> I never knew! Is this who the Terra-cota Army were marching out to do battle with?



If so, they would have lost miserably! Hah!  Good one, Njaco!


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## Matt308 (May 7, 2012)

Lucky13 said:


> Well, slap me and call me Ginger!



From what I've heard you liked to be slapped and called Mary Ann. Back on your knees Lucky...


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## gumbyk (May 7, 2012)

As long as its not slapped and called Captain!


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## beaupower32 (May 7, 2012)

Wow, news to me as well. 


All lucky needs now is a tattoo that says welcome aboard.....


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## meatloaf109 (May 7, 2012)

That is so cool!
One more twist in the weirdness tail.
There are so many mysteries out there, not talking about the "Bermuda triangle" type of foolishness, but real existing puzzles.
Stonehenge, that would have required (theoreticaly) every person on the British isles to devote every waking hour for ten years to the construction.
Machu picchu, and hundreds of other structures of giant stone that were made so precisely that a piece of paper cannot be inserted between them.
And possibly the most intriguing of all, the Coral Castle in Florida. Built just in the last century by a 98lb. consumptive, this has to be seen to be believed.


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## T Bolt (May 7, 2012)

WOW! Who'd a thunk it?


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## Capt. Vick (May 7, 2012)

Damn that is interesting. Great post! Thanks Matt!


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## Njaco (May 8, 2012)

Matt308 said:


> If so, they would have lost miserably! Hah!  Good one, Njaco!



I knew you would get it!


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## Wayne Little (May 8, 2012)

Wow....didn't know that...


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## RabidAlien (May 8, 2012)

Well, that explains why something so big, "balanced" on its narrow end (and several looking like they're standing at angles), haven't fallen over already. Kewl!


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## herman1rg (May 8, 2012)

Is this now the official Weirdness thread?


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## Lucky13 (May 8, 2012)

Head over heels, anyone?


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## Messy1 (May 8, 2012)

I had no clue myself! I was amazed I never knew that the head, also had BODIES!


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## bobbysocks (May 8, 2012)

sometimes i never noticed there was a head on some bodies!! but seriouosly i never thought of that and i have seen several documentaries about them....this is the one new thing i learned today.

after going back and looking at them again...whats even more amazing is the detail and inscriptions on the buried portion....shows how much wind erosion has take its toil on the exposed part.


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## Matt308 (May 8, 2012)

yeah I noticed that too. wonder what the designs signify.

"head over heels anyone"... I will not dignify that with a response.


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## mikewint (May 8, 2012)

Been away for a while, jest caught this thread. While many posted pics of the Easter Island "Heads" do indeed show just a Head, there are also many pics that show various degrees of sunkeness. Those that are less buried clearly show a torso. There are also many posted pics of statues further inland standing on rocks that show the entire body


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## Matt308 (May 8, 2012)

Very cool.


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## GrauGeist (May 8, 2012)

Years ago, they found several Moai partially finished in a quarry a considerable distance from the final resting place...it's hard to fathom what those people were up to, since the construction of those statues consumed tremendous rsources that they could scarcely afford to waste...


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## A4K (May 9, 2012)

GrauGeist said:


> Years ago, they found several Moai partially finished in a quarry a considerable distance from the final resting place...it's hard to fathom what those people were up to, since the construction of those statues consumed tremendous rsources that they could scarcely afford to waste...



Slave labour no doubt. The New Zealand Maori regularly took slaves as workers, concubines, and food. 

Great thread Matt, thanks for posting!


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## gumbyk (May 9, 2012)

A4, its more an issue of the islands natural resources. 
I've heard it specualted by people more knowledgable than me that the reason for deforestation on the island could be because they stripped the forests for timber to help construct/move these things.


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## mikewint (May 9, 2012)

There are almost 900 Moai with about half still in the quarry for various reasons: in some cases the carvers found the tuff contained flaws and abandoned the carving, some are incomplete, and some complete ans awaiting transport. None have visible legs except for one kneeling Moai. Most are about 14tons although two big boys are close to 90 and one incomplete would have come in at 270tons.
Present belief is that they represent the faces of dieified ancestors


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## Airframes (May 9, 2012)

Heck, and I'd always thought they were left there due to Walmart cancelling the order for garden ornaments!


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## mikewint (May 9, 2012)

Terry, That's a posibility, and they travel well too, check this one out, it's in your back yard


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## Njaco (May 9, 2012)

I just found out that cars on the bottom at this site have 4 wheels just like the ones up top!! Something new everyday!


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## GrauGeist (May 9, 2012)

car henge was a total waste of some good vintage automobiles (except the Gremlin)...


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## A4K (May 10, 2012)

guys...


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## Matt308 (May 10, 2012)

Please don't tell me that carhenge was supposed to be a work of art.


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## A4K (May 10, 2012)

I think it's the council's new scheme to create extra parking space Matt


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## BikerBabe (May 10, 2012)

I knew. 
And before you all start harassing me about this, I can tell you guys that I totally loved Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's books when I was a teenager, among them were his book "Aku-Aku - The Secret of Easter Island".
I can recommend it.
In the book, Thor Heyerdal tells of his discoveries on Easter Island, among them is the fact that the statues has got bodies.

But did you know that the Moai (as the statues are called) also had eyes and red headdresses, called a pukao?

Pukao are the hats or top knots formerly placed on top of some of the moai statues, as they are called. 
They were all carved from a very light red volcanic stone - scoria, which was quarried from a single source at Puna Pau.
In 1978, a student named Sonia Haoa found fragments of worked coral and a red disk made out of scoria, the same material used to make the pukao. 
When fitted together they formed an unmistakable eye. 
She brought the fragments to archeologist Segio Rapu, who discovered they fit precisely in the eye socket of a moai. 
So the moai did have eyes, although it is unclear if they were permanent fixtures of the statues, or placed in them only on ceremonial occasions, as is done now on the island with replicas of the eyes.







Cheers, Maria

- who once did her best as a teenager to chew her way through Thor Heyerdahl's "American Indians in the Pacific: The theory behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition" and "Archaeology on Easter Island".


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## Airframes (May 11, 2012)

Ah, now I know where the inspiration for 'The Simpsons' originated ........


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## Matt308 (May 11, 2012)

Doo doo di doo di di doo doo doo duh


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## Njaco (May 11, 2012)

Do-uuuh! ummmm, donuts.......................


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## Matt308 (May 12, 2012)

_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZwJ3BZ6gig_


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## mikewint (May 12, 2012)

Maria, I was also a young teen when Kon-Tiki first came out and I also read his Easter island book. There are schools of thought about the headresses/topknots. They were not part of the orginal carvings. They come from a totally different quarry and were put in place at a later date. Apparently there is a custom of placing a stone on top of a carving to indicate the ancestors passing. Only about half the statutes have had these paku placed on them


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