# How do you think the Easter Island heads got there? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 8, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468 "2016-01-08T03:43:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/21 "2016-01-08T21:04:48Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > the real question is “why”? … The extraordinary resemblance between Easter Island sculptures and wooden human representations (chemamull) of the Mapuche people in the Museo Etnologico of Santiago could indicate that some Mapuche people had drifted to the island and erected the giant statues facing their native land to which they could not return, in the hope they would be seen. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/22 "2016-01-09T00:36:22Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > The extraordinary resemblance between Easter Island sculptures and wooden human representations (chemamull) of the Mapuche people in the Museo Etnologico of Santiago could indicate that some Mapuche people had drifted to the island and erected the giant statues facing their native land to which they could not return, in the hope they would be seen. Except that the people of Easter island are of SE Asian origin, and have no connection with the peoples of South America. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/23 "2016-01-09T00:37:37Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > Except that the people of Easter island are of SE Asian origin, and have no connection with the peoples of South America. Maybe they were there first and left some statues that the Polynesians copied. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/24 "2016-01-09T00:47:11Z")
To me, the most interesting mystery of Easter Island is their undeciphered written language, [Rongorongo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo). Aside from just cool looking glyphs, there are only 26 know examples remaining and we basically [haven’t got the first clue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decipherment_of_rongorongo) as to how to read them. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/25 "2016-01-09T01:04:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Anyone who’s moved a large piece of furniture can figure this out, really. You can “walk” a lot of things that are vastly too heavy to pick up. [Here’s an interesting clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvx5gSnfW4) from a pbs show demonstrating various ways of moving huge blocks. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/26 "2016-01-09T11:51:40Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > Except that the people of Easter island are of SE Asian origin, and have no connection with the peoples of South America. Not sure about that: “Andeans do have lineages belonging to the same mtDNA haplogroup (B) as Polynesians. 32% of Mapuche lineages, in particular, belong to haplogroup B” ( Baillet, G., Rothhammer, F., Carnese, FR, Bravi, CM and Bianchi, NO (1994). Genetic variation among the Mapuche Indians from the Patagonian region of Argentina: mitochondrial DNA sequence variation and allele frequencies of several nuclear genes.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/27 "2016-01-09T18:18:44Z")
Thor Heyerdahl spent several months on Rapa Nui in the 1950s investigating the idols. He had the locals partially carve out and shape a large stone in a quarry bashing them with rocks from that quarry. And then dragging another stone just using ropes and muscle power, re-erecting a toppled one, etc. Clearly all were doable using the usual techniques. von Däniken, of course, ascribed extraterrestrial powers to their origins, citing Heyerdahl’s book for information about the idols. But not citing the material on the demonstration on the mundane way they were actually made. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/28 "2016-01-10T10:09:03Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > The accepted theory is the natives used all the trees on the island for the purpose of statue moving, thus denigrating their environment to the point of societal collapse, around the time of the first European visit. Easter Island is often referenced as an analogy to worldwide environmental issues. And I’ve heard this pat view challenged recently. This is an [interesting article](http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/rethinking-the-fall-of-easter-island/99999) on the subject. First it presents the conventional thinking: > [@](#): > > In his 2005 book Collapse, Diamond described Rapa Nui as “the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources.” > > Two key elements of Diamond’s account are the large number of Polynesians living on the island and their propensity for felling trees. He reviews estimates of the island’s native population and says that he would not be surprised if it exceeded 15,000 at its peak. Once the large stands of palm trees were all cut down, the result was “starvation, a population crash, and a descent into cannibalism.” When Europeans arrived in the 18th century, they found only a small remnant of this civilization. > > Diamond is certainly not alone in seeing Rapa Nui as an environmental morality tale. In their book Easter Island, Earth Island, authors John R. Flenley of Massey University in New Zealand and Paul G. Bahn worried about what the fate of Rapa Nui means for the rest of human civilization: “Humankind’s covetousness is boundless. Its selfishness appears to be genetically inborn…. But in a limited ecosystem, selfishness leads to increasing population imbalance, population crash, and ultimately extinction.” However, the author goes on to make a case for another cause, the introduction of an invasive species, rats. > [@](#): > > It is not a new observation that virtually all of the shells housing palm seeds found in caves or archaeological excavations of Rapa Nui show evidence of having been gnawed on by rats, but the impact of rats on the island’s fate may have been underestimated. Evidence from elsewhere in the Pacific shows that rats have often contributed to deforestation, and they may have played a major role in Rapa Nui’s environmental degradation as well. After he makes the case, his conclusion is of interest: > [@](#): > > I believe that the world faces today an unprecedented global environmental crisis, and I see the usefulness of historical examples of the pitfalls of environmental destruction. So it was with some unease that I concluded that Rapa Nui does not provide such a model. But as a scientist I cannot ignore the problems with the accepted narrative of the island’s prehistory. Mistakes or exaggerations in arguments for protecting the environment only lead to oversimplified answers and hurt the cause of environmentalism. We will end up wondering why our simple answers were not enough to make a difference in confronting today’s problems. So, it may not just be the simple story, no matter how much we would like to have it. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/29 "2016-01-10T10:59:56Z")
I personally believe it was aliens ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/30 "2016-01-10T15:21:44Z")
So why were there no attempts to leave the island? The trees may have been cut down, but I am sure that driftwood would have washed up on the beaches-enough to build a few boats. the ancient polynesians were not afraid of long voyages-the knew how to navigate using the stars. It would be logical to assume that they would have headed east-to the South American mainland. It was population pressure that driove them from tyhe Marquesas after all, so it is logical that they would keep moving east… Thor Heyerdahl seemed to think that South Americans reached the island (by drifting west on the prevailing currents)-why wasn’t the other way considered? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/31 "2016-01-10T22:07:40Z")
A few boats mean a few people leaving. The remainder, once the population adjusted to the new circumstances, would have continued to maintain itself regardless of losing a few people here and there to migration. We are very unlikely to know for certain if the islanders knew SA was there, were capable or safely reaching it, etc., nor whether there was any contact the other way. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/32 "2016-01-11T14:31:28Z")
Also, during the era of logging and stone head building, they may not have gone to sea, and those with knowledge of ship building and navigation died off. I do wonder why trade or contact with other island groups appears to have stopped at some point. At least they may have been able to recapture that knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/33 "2016-01-12T04:12:33Z")
I love the way Rongo Rongo looks. I copied some of the characters for my priest of Cthulhu vestments. As for the moai, I agree they got where they are through completely mundane means. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/34 "2016-01-12T06:28:23Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Anyone who’s moved a large piece of furniture can figure this out, really. You can “walk” a lot of things that are vastly too heavy to pick up. And yet, many people didn’t figure it out. Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated it in 1986, but “real” archaeologists discounted it. National Geographic in 2011 said “Last year … Hunt and Lipo showed”, and Wikipedia in 2016 still says “A recent study suggests”. It’s still and open question (there were no films made) but I suggest that the main problem with Thor Heyerdahl’s theory is that Thor didn’t have a PhD when he started doing Archaeology. (I have a low opinion of the discipline in general) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/35 "2016-01-12T07:26:21Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Also, during the era of logging and stone head building, they may not have gone to sea, and those with knowledge of ship building and navigation died off. I do wonder why trade or contact with other island groups appears to have stopped at some point. At least they may have been able to recapture that knowledge. Easter Island is extremely isolated and thousands of miles from neighboring islands. I would imagine that it was a one-way trip to there for the settlers. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/36 "2016-01-12T14:53:57Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Easter Island is extremely isolated and thousands of miles from neighboring islands. I would imagine that it was a one-way trip to there for the settlers. I agree that is likely. I recall reading somewhere about the theories the first European explorers of the Pacific had for explaining how people managed to colonize all those remote islands: people set-out in waves from overpopulated islands in hope they would find an as-yet uninhabited place. Most would never be heard from again, and a few may find new land. I think this does not give the ancient Polynesians their due credit for navigation and raft-building skills. [This article](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070927-polynesians-sailors.html) suggests they had trade routes all over the Pacific for rare, hard to acquire, and useful materials, specifically between Tahiti and Hawaii. I don’t think there is evidence presently connecting Rapa Nui to these trade routes, so it is plausible the initial settlers arrived one day and never saw any outsiders after that. ---
**Author:** ![Indus.1999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Indus.1999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indus.1999)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/37 "2016-01-17T20:53:19Z")
Aha so it was all that knapping. I always thought stone (of that scale) could only be carved by metal. I’ve really learned something. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/38 "2016-01-18T01:33:57Z")
Could it possibly have anything to do with The French Revolution and the Guillotine? (just j/k) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/39 "2016-01-18T01:38:50Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I personally believe it was aliens I personally believe the best ways to move huge, heavy blocks of stone is to put them on a raft (or something similar) and float them in water. I believe that is how the ancient peoples of Egypt transported all those blocks to build those pyramids. When I was a kid, I was amazed that big ships that were made out of iron and steel could float on the ocean. How could they do that? Later on, I learned a little about the laws of buoyancy and understood how that is possible. So, I think that even primitive peoples could use that principle to move those big heavy blocks of granite. Don’t you think so? It don’t take much engineering to be able to float those things anywhere you want them to go. All you really need is enough water to float your boat or your block. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468/40 "2016-01-18T01:43:41Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I personally believe the best ways to move huge, heavy blocks of stone is to put them on a raft (or something similar) and float them in water. I believe that is how the ancient peoples of Egypt transported all those blocks to build those pyramids. > > When I was a kid, I was amazed that big ships that were made out of iron and steel could float on the ocean. How could they do that? Later on, I learned a little about the laws of buoyancy and understood how that is possible. > > So, I think that even primitive peoples could use that principle to move those big heavy blocks of granite. Don’t you think so? > > It don’t take much engineering to be able to float those things anywhere you want them to go. All you really need is enough water to float your boat or your block. Sure, except they were moving them from inland to the shore, there was no water along the way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-easter-island-heads-got-there/742468.md?page=3)