The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies

[progressoid]

A fun weekend tidbit for you...

Maybe this isn’t a newsflash to anyone but me, but, um, the Moai “heads” on Easter Island have bodies.

Because some of the statues are set deep into the ground, and because the heads on the statues are disproportionately large, many people tend to think of them as just big heads. But the bodies (generally not including legs, though there is at least one kneeling statue) are there — in many cases, underground. What’s even more interesting — there are petroglyphs that have been preserved below the soil level, where they have been protected from erosion.



This research report http://www.eisp.org/3879 / has been making the rounds; it discusses recent progress by The Easter Island Statue Project to uncover, study, and catalogue two statues. It includes (among the dry details of the research) a day-by-day journal of the work, as well as remarkable photographs showing the petroglyphs and team members excavating. Above is an image from a previous excavation (source unknown) that shows you the scale of the statues, and how deep they were buried. (Note: visitors are prohibited from climbing on the Moai; the expedition pictured above appears to predate the EISP and the current practice of conservation.)

http://www.worldsstrangest.com/mental-floss/the-easter-... /

Bunch of cool photos at: http://www.eisp.org/3879 /

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lucinda]

2. Very cool. I hand not seen these shots!

Thankie

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Wow.

That is interesting.

.

[Suich]

4. I had no idea!

Why would they bury so much of it? To make sure it didn't tip over?



Thanks for posting this, progressoid!

[OswegoAtheist]

43. Soil erosion

The long-ago occupants of Easter Island cleared every tree off the island eventually; this led to quick, widespread soil erosion, which in turn eventually buried the statues.

Oswego "#occupyoswego" Atheist

[Maraya1969]

72. That was dumb of them. Any reason why?

[SkyDaddy7]

73. Not dumb...

Part soil erosion part preventing them from tipping over. Easter Island is a perfect example of what happens to a society built on never ending CONSUMPTION! They stripped the land of every major tree in order to move the statues from the quarry to the coast.

[lob1]

85. I read somewhere it was due to over population.

They theorized the heads might've been built to please the gods and bring back the trees. No link, I read it a few years ago.

[Marnie]

88. They probably found out by trial and error that they fell over easily.

After all they knew what was under the soil so there was on religious loss to them to bury the rest of the body and its markings.

Either that or they were afraid that some idiots would try to expose their religious symbols so they hid them from heathen eyes.

[Motown_Johnny]

139. and it buried them right up to the necks... exactly to the necks?

this seems unlikely

[defendandprotect]

141. Diamond's research is highly opposed -- doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[sakabatou]

78. Me neither.

[Paper Roses]

5. This is amazing. We all thought they were just heads and partial

bodies. What an amazing discovery. Civilizations before us continue to provide us with clues to their amazing accomplishments.
Would love to see this as well as the pyramids. It will never happen but any news like this is exciting!

No tools except primitive implements, these accomplishments cannot be explained.

[AlbertCat]

50. Civilizations before us continue to provide us with clues to their amazing accomplishments.

Ancient peoples were not stupid.

Which is why we don't need ancient astronauts! (now THAT'S stupid)

[Fawke Em]

74. It's stupid to think there might be intelligent life somewhere

in the universe?

Gee... I never knew Carl Sagan and the scientists at NASA and SETI were stupid.

[liberation]

76. What it is stupid is to think that every achievement by humanity

has to be somehow the product of an alien intervention.


Really bad comprehension or analogies you got going there, unless you were trying to be funny... in which case the joke wasn't that good either.

[Fawke Em]

80. I think you're the one with bad comprehension.

The statement made was, "Which is why we don't need ancient astronauts! (now THAT'S stupid)," and it was to that statement I was commenting.

No one disagreed that some, most or even all human achievement is a direct result of, well, human achievement. My beef is that it's certainly within the realm of possibility that there may have been some alien intervention and it's not "stupid" to consider that possibility.

The point is that I don't know and neither do you.

[liberation]

87. Yes, it is stupid because bold claims require extraordinary evidence

Just because we don't know, it doesn't mean or imply that anything goes when it comes to explain that unknown, it simply means that: we don't know.


We don't even know if there is extraterrestrial life out there. Some people theorize that given the vastness of time and space in our universe, that the probability is high for extraterrestrial life. However, going ahead and extrapolate from that assumption that events in human history, for which we don't have a full account, must have involved extraterrestrial intervention is beyond ridiculous.


Sure, extraterrestrials could have created those statues. I mean it makes perfect sense that they had nothing better to do than to travel untold light years, using amazingly advanced scientific knowledge, only to stop by to help a bunch of sapient apes shape and erect a few random statues made of stone. Well, either that or maybe a super powerful and smart species of flying squirrels must have been responsible, hey it is "within the realm of possibility."

[defendandprotect]

91. No -- it means that we have common sense and can surmise that

the people of that time could not have accomplished moving these stones.

Just as the pyramids are still in question for that reason.


As for the statues, I believe they have alignment with star systems -- very

sophisticated knowledge.

"A few random statues made of stone" -- wow!

"a bunch of sapient apes" -- ???? -- wow !!



Rather, consider it this way -- we may be hybrids who were engineered hundreds of

thousands of years ago. ETs may be continuing to follow their creation and build

intellience on the planet.

The origional "Garden of Eden" may have simply been a DNA lab --

Native Americans report they arose from underground -- maybe another location for DNA lab.

When you say, "We don't know" -- that doesn't mean we are a blank slate.

There is evidence in physical history -- an even in bible babble --

[X_Digger]

97. Derp..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK1Rzch89Dw

Just because *you* can't imagine it, that doesn't mean that *nobody* can.

[liberation]

99. That guy in the video is obviously an alien spreading misinformation

duh!!!

[liberation]

101. Common sense doe not mean what you want it to mean...

[defendandprotect]

112. And it does not mean what you'd like it to mean ...

[liberation]

115. Derp...

you're running on empty, aren't you?

[defendandprotect]

119. You mean imitating your meaningless comment is meaningless -- ? ROFL

[liberation]

127. It was actually meaningless, and given your reply

it is still obvious that the term "common sense" does not mean what you wanted to mean.

Had you said "let me make some extrapolations based on projections and ignorance on the subject" that would have been closer to the mark.

[defendandprotect]

131. Had you not made so many meaningless comments ... maybe someone would have taken you seriously ..!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


or this one --

"So you're claiming then to have a time machine"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

It's called disingenuousness -- and you're on ignore --

[Confusious]

103. Jesus, they were so smart, yet they couldn't move a rock

They had a lot of water and a lot of dirt. Make some mud. get lots of people and a rope.

rock moved.

That's common sense.

Not aliens.

[skepticscott]

108. Any number of methods

have been tried and shown to be plausible means by which people with primitive tools and muscle power could have moved the statues, albeit slowly. And many of them fell over and were abandoned along the roads from the quarry to the platforms, which would hardly have happened if some more sophisticated technology had been involved. Your "surmise" would be better informed by a little reading on the subject.

[defendandprotect]

113. What you're saying ....

simply makes obvious that you have very little information about current thinking --

what you're saying is the equivalent of "Doug 'n Dave" did it.

This is not simply about "stones," either --

it's also about astronomical knowledge that the people certainly didn't have at that time.

[liberation]

116. So then you're claiming to have a time machine.

since you know exactly what the people at time and location did know or didn't know. No?


Why don't you treat human kind with the extra information you seem to posses then? e.g. what were the actual star alignments of the Easter Island heads, and what did the inscriptions in the sculptures read, etc, etc.

[defendandprotect]

118. I have no superior knowledge any more than you do -- !!

However there are people who actually do research these issues --

visit the areas -- have an awareness of how far anyone would have to go to even

find stones of this nature.

Examine and understand the work on the stones -- in some cases very like machine

made - laserlike.

To understand Easter Island is to understand these are not simply stones -- as

most other formations like these are not simply "stones." In almost every case

there is a connection to astronomy - star alignments.

Stonehenge for one in its three circles is a model of our solar system.

The stones themselves are sources of energy.

[skepticscott]

122. I can see you've gone

totally woo-woo on this. You need to stop reading exclusively the whacko fringe and educate yourself about real archaeology. As far as the statues, we know very well how they were carved. There are numerous statues still partially completed, embedded in the rock, and the carving picks they used are still lying all over the place. Oh, but the aliens left those there just to throw us off, right? Just like gawd put all those fossils in the ground to test our faith in Genesis.

[defendandprotect]

123. Thanks for making it easy ....

to put you on ignore --

When I referred to "laser" I was not referring to the Easter Island statues --

but why pay any attention to what's being said to you?

Bye --

[liberation]

128. Wow, you tell others to go and get "educated"

but when someone one replies to you with actual knowledge, you put them on ignore?

So basically you ignore any type of information which does not fit your narrative (regardless of how ill educated that narrative may be). A bit hypocritical, don't you think.

[X_Digger]

129. Why let facts get in the way of woo-woo dogma?

Pssht. Silly rabbit, facts are for those patriarchal religions that caused humans to start eating meat in only the last 6,000 years.

[defendandprotect]

130. I didn't tell anyone to "go and get educated" ---

I did tell "skepticscott" that there was more current information that I didn't

think he was aware of --

And this is the reply I got --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


As I said -- that kind of a reply "makes it easy" to see to see thadt it's not someone

I want to discuss anything with.

Additionally, my comments re precision tools and lasers did not refer to Easter Island.

[NashVegas]

138. Ask ANY Artist

Anyone out there who is practiced in art can tell you about the Golden Rule. We didn't need aliens to figure out what any guitar player can tell you.

Anyone out there is capable of creating a clock from a sun dial and making spacial notations of it, and noting the position of the stars at a particular time.

Some people are just so dull that they can't imagine anyone would want to.

[NashVegas]

136. It's Tragic That There Are People Who Believe Everything Great That Ever Happened Was a Hack

and then when someone in their circle does something brilliant, say, "wow, you got lucky."

[Delphinus]

51. This is exciting!

Can't wait to read more.

[AtheistCrusader]

57. Actually, they can and have been explained.

There's an entire book on it, called 'Aku aku'. Natives actually re-create the process to erect one of these statues with nothing more than wooden poles, and rocks for tools.

Quite fascinating.

[liberation]

75. "We all thought?"

Not really, there are lots of examples of Rapa Nui sculptures which clearly showed the body.




This is not news really.

[Confusious]

102. Yes they can be explained, very easily

It doesn't take magic to carve or move a rock.

[Fumesucker]

6. At least some Rapa Nui statues also had topknots, which is why the heads are flat..

[Hardrada]

7. They still couldn't scratch themselves.

[stuntcat]

8. so interesting!

TY, This is neato!! k & r

[Tesha]

9. Yeah, but do they have any "Gum gum"?

[CoffeeCat]

62. LOL!

I love a good chuckle in the morning!

Thanks! I LOLd.

[DesertRat]

10. I had no idea

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

[GoCubsGo]

11. COOL!!!!

Thank you for posting that!

[Tansy_Gold]

12. FYI --

Thor Heyerdahl's 1958 account, Aku-Aku, of his visits to Rapa Nui includes photos (color photos, even!) of moai excavated down to their bellies, including one who was kneeling and sitting on his heels. Also included are photos of the top-knots, though at that time none were actually on the moai; many have since been replaced and many moai returned to their ahus.

Heyerdahl also investigated the volcanic crater Rano Raraku from which the moai had been carved, noted the stone picks that were lying all about, and speculated on plausible, human techniques for carving, moving, and raising them -- not unexplainable at all. Many moai remained in the quarry in various stages of completion when Heyerdahl was there.

While there has been much more research done since then, and many of Heyerdahl's theories have been disproved, it's incorrect to assume that these are recent discoveries.



Tansy Gold

[liberalmuse]

13. This is news to me. Cool!

How long has this been out there?

[thelordofhell]

14. Just like burying your buddy at the beach

[Arugula Latte]

125. I'll come back to dig you out, Frank, really...

...in, oh, several hundred years...

[arcane1]

15. Easter Island continues to amaze in both its inspiration and its warning

Thank you so much for finding this!

[Poll_Blind]

33. Very cool of you to bring that up and point that out- I don't think many know of the warning.

A cautionary tale for us all, on this island Earth.



PB

[hootinholler]

39. Well I for one am not aware of it.

I have ideas like the mummy's curse.

[Poll_Blind]

40. They absolutely tore through their natural resources. That's it in a nutshell.

However, the real story (as it has been pieced together, archaeologically) paints a much more explicit and horrifying cycle of events. You see, in a way, Easter Island is a microcosm of what we're doing to the Earth now and a warning where things can go if we don't become better custodians of our environment and resources.

Starting at the Wiki page for Easter Island is a good beginning. But there have been a few documentaries, especially recent ones which examine new archaeological evidence, which shed a light on the terrifying reality of what went down there.

Seriously, it's some creepy shit.

PB

[harmonicon]

60. It fascinates me as well.

I think it's frightening not only to think that those things did happen, but how it seems to be a sort of microcosm for the entire world (to them, their island was the entire world - in their culture, that was all there was - no other land, no other people) and what we're doing to ourselves right now.

[defendandprotect]

92. Wait -- that only happened AFTER the intervention there of the white man ... !!!

The very same poison which has destroyed this hemisphere!!

[wickerwoman]

82. Jared Diamond talks about it in Collapse

as an example of what happens as resources begin to get scarce.

The more they ran out of wood, the more they thought the gods were cursing them, so they used up more and more creating the statutes until the ecology of the island completely collapsed.

[defendandprotect]

95. Lot of propaganda of white male history out there ---

those evens only happened after the arrival of the white man --

You might also recall not so long ago that RW proapganda was suggesting

that some natives were "cannibals" -- finally someone looked again and

challenged the research. Seems that also happened AFTER white men arrived.


Remember the legends of native Ameicans "scalping" white men? Turns out

white men were first "scalping" native Americans.

Remember Katrina -- rapes and mayhem in the stadium. Looting by citizens.

None of that turned out to be true. And it was the police doing the looting!

[wickerwoman]

105. Not every bad thing that has ever happened in history is the fault of white men

Some indigenous people actually were cannibals and it had absolutely nothing to do with colonialism. In New Zealand, Maori tribes routinely ate each other after battles. It's part of the culture. You picked the part of your enemy that symbolized his strength (such as legs if he was a fast runner) and then ate it to absorb that strength. They also preserved the heads of their enemies keeping them on display in their meeting halls to impress visitors. They freely admit that they did this and that the practice only died out as a result on contact with missionaries.

Hell, Europeans practiced canibalism extensively throughout the Mediterranean up until classical times. There's lots of evidence of starving populations getting through the winter by killing and eating their neighbors or enemies. It happened in Russia during WWII.

And on Easter Island, Europeans arrived in 1722 when the island was already heavily deforested, all of the major bird species were extinct and the population was 1/7th what it had been in earlier times. It's not even vaguely implausible that people resorted to cannibalism as their society collapsed and they ran out of food.

There was *another* collape of the population which resulted from European diseases and slave raids (by Peruvians- not "white men") but resources on the island were already largely tapped out by then.

There is a lot of propoganda out there, I'm not disputing that. But it's equally culturally condescending to pretend that all evil stems from white male colonialism and that indigenous people aren't also capable of superstition driven idiocy or acts of true desperation.

[defendandprotect]

114. No -- but not far from the truth ---

Simply reverse the propaganda of white male history and you'll be closer

to the truth --


Even still goes on -- War on Indians still goes on -- in fact, an epidemic 10/15

years ago -- a virus -- was lied about in trying to link it back to people living

on Indian reservations!


Read something about the state of this continent and the native peoples here and then

tell me who destroyed it in a few brief hundreds of years!!

Right -- native Americans were practicing capitalism -- !!


They weren't trying to enlighten us about nature -- and the meaninglessness of the

dollar bill, by any chance?

They were also into enslaving people -- and anti-women -- and anti-homosexual --

What absolute nonsense -- !!

[Confusious]

106. wrong

By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000 – 3,000 from a high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier." <23> By that time, 21 species of trees and all species of land birds went extinct through some combination of overharvesting/overhunting, rat predation, and climate change, the island was largely deforested, and it did not have any trees more than 10 feet tall. Loss of large trees meant that residents were no longer able to build seaworthy vessels, significantly diminishing their fishing abilities. This was further exacerbated by the loss of land birds and the collapse in seabird populations.

[defendandprotect]

96. d u p e

those evens only happened after the arrival of the white man --

You might also recall not so long ago that RW proapganda was suggesting

that some natives were "cannibals" -- finally someone looked again and

challenged the research. Seems that also happened AFTER white men arrived.


Remember the legends of native Ameicans "scalping" white men? Turns out

white men were first "scalping" native Americans.

Remember Katrina -- rapes and mayhem in the stadium. Looting by citizens.

None of that turned out to be true. And it was the police doing the looting!

[Yupster]

54. Sepressing to me, not inspirational

They used up their trees building sledges to drag around a bunch of statues. Then they starved because they didn't have wood to build canoes that could chase their principal food supply which was tuna.

Then they turned to eating each other.

A very sad story of greed and excess.

Read Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" for the archaeological evidence of the disaster.

Very sad story.

[closeupready]

93. Ever since I saw the film "Rapa Nui", that's how they make me feel, also.

Just a sad story, the extinction of a species of tree - just to indulge in man's superstitions.

[defendandprotect]

143. Story of Easter Island has been distorted by .....

Jared Diamond --

All of those things happeed AFTER the arrival of the white man --

There are much stronger writings on opposition to Diamond's revisionism --

but this is strong enough from Wiki --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[defendandprotect]

142. Revisionism put forth by Diamond are unlikely ---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[JoePhilly]

Very cool.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Oneo f the world's great mysteries.

Ancient Aliens?

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. What don't you understand about them? (nt)

[Blue_In_AK]

18. They seem beyond whatever technology people were supposed to have back then.

I was being sarcastic about the Ancient Aliens, by the way. Or was I?

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. General opinion is that wooden sledges and ropes would be enough to move them

See eg http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/move/

[zappaman]

24. Ridiculous.

I lean towards some sort of alien technology.
Tractor beams, perhaps?

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Don't count out a determined population of earthworms

All they have to do is ingest and excrete the dirt at just the right places, and off they stones jolly well move!

[zappaman]

28. earthworms? No.

alien worms?
possibly.

[liberation]

77. Tractor beams? Now that is ridiculous!!!

These statues were the obvious byproduct of alien farts, space time travel did a number in their digestive tracts. What you are seeing are the remains of ancient alien heart burn medication bottles.

Duh!

[Arugula Latte]

126. You're all wrong. They're natural products of erosion.

Wind and water just happened to carve them into human-like figures, that's all...Hey, it happens.

Mount Rushmore? Same thing.

[TreasonousBastard]

31. I read Thor Heyerdahls's book "Aku-Aku" where he claims to have witnessed...

the islanders finishing a partially cut statue and getting it to stand up. He had pictures in it, too.

Since then, there have been a few detractors, some who may have a point, and some who never bothered to read his book.

Anyway, if people without modern computers and construction machinery could build the Pyramids, the Colosseum, and the Cologne Cathedral, one would think they could put up a few stone statues.

[defendandprotect]

132. Doug 'n Dave did them -- ~~~

[AlbertCat]

52. Ancient Aliens?

No.

[defendandprotect]

133. Agree -- much more to their story -- may have been apart of larger island astronomical observator--!

Even Wiki has trouble hiding this more likely history of the Island --

Besides its more well known name of Rapa Nui, Easter Island is also known as Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua, meaning ‘The Navel of the World’, and as Mata-Ki-Te-Rani, meaning ‘Eyes Looking at Heaven’. These ancient names, and a host of mythological details ignored by mainstream archaeologists, point to the possibility that the remote island may once have been a geodetic marker and the site of an astronomical observatory of a long forgotten civilization. Speculations about this shadowy antediluvian culture include the notion that its mariners had charted the world’s oceans, that its astronomers had sophisticated knowledge of long-term astronomical cycles such as precession and cometary orbits, and that its historians had records of previous global cataclysms and the destruction they caused of even more ancient civilizations.

In his book, Heaven’s Mirror, Hancock suggests that Easter Island may once have been a significant scientific outpost of this antediluvian civilization and that its location had extreme importance in a planet-spanning, mathematically precise grid of sacred sites. He writes,

“The very existence of such an ancient world grid has been staunchly resisted by mainstream archaeologists and historians – as, of course, have all attempts to relate known sites to it. Nevertheless, the definite traces of lost astronomical knowledge that are to be seen on Easter Island, and the recurrent echoes of ancient Egyptian spiritual and cosmological themes, cast doubt on the scholarly explanation that the odd name ‘Navel of the World’ was adopted for purely ‘poetic and descriptive’ reasons. We suspect that Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua may originally have been selected for settlement, and given its name, entirely because of its geodetic location.” “What we are suggesting therefore is that Easter Island might have originally have been settled in order to serve as a sort of geodetic beacon, or marker – fulfilling some as yet unguessed at function in an ancient global system of sky-ground co-ordinates that linked many so-called ‘world navels’”.

Two other alternative scholars, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, have extensively studied the location and possible function of these geodetic markers. In their fascinating book, Uriel’s Machine, they suggest that one purpose of the geodetic markers was as part of global network of sophisticated astronomical observatories dedicated to predicting and preparing for future cometary impacts and crustal displacement cataclysms. The great floods of archaic myths did not result from the melting of the ice caps between 13,000 and 8000 BC (an event which may not have actually occurred) but rather from two great cataclysms that were caused by cosmic and cometary objects affecting the entire planet. These cataclysms were 1) the pass-by of a cosmic object and an ensuing planet-wide crustal displacement in 9600 BC, and 2) the seven cometary impacts of 7640 BC which resulted in the massive waves (3-5 miles high, traveling at over 400 miles per hour for distances of more than 2000 miles), volcanic activity and other terrestrial and climatological events recorded in myths all across the planet. Prior to these cataclysmic events however, in what is commonly called the late Paleolithic era, a maritime civilization may have existed with cities situated along coastlines that are now submerged beneath the seas.


Easter Island may have been the higest peak of a much larger island --

"EYES LOOKING AT HEAVEN" -- !!







http://sacredsites.com/americas/chile/easter_island.htm...

[nenagh]

19. Moving statues of those dimensions...

Really is a mystery...

Thanks for posting this

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. It's not a mystery.

Sheesh....it is pretty simple, really.

Lots of people, some ropes and some logs. Move just about anything you want with that.

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. I thought you were going to say a Peterbilt and a flatbed.

Hope you're doing well! Careful this winter...

[A HERETIC I AM]

36. LOL!

Yeah...but if you use the Pete and the Flatbed, you need a crane as well!

I'm good. Just delivered a 9 car/7 drop load through Western, NC. Now partially loaded from Brunswick, GA & JAX (load the JAX units in the AM) for SW Fla.

7 1/4 hrs avail. on the log book tomorrow. Just enough time to put on 6 more and make it down the state to the 1st drop.

Hope you're well, CP.

[defendandprotect]

134. Agree --- and many other similar mysteries re the pyramids and other sacred sites ---

some that look like precision tools were used -- laserlike cuttings --

stunning stone walls where the stones are melded together -- as though some

great heat were used to fuse them together.


You might also be interested in this post I made lower down on the thread ...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[xchrom]

20. Recommend

[jwirr]

21. If these have not already been dated this should help. Interesting.

[harmonicon]

63. They've been dated.

A lot is known about the culture that created them from the archeological record. Most fascinating to me is their still un-deciphered, and independently developed, writing system. Look into the rise and fall of their civilization - it's fascinating and completely frightening at the same time.

[a simple pattern]

83. I wonder if the newly-revealed petroglyphs

will contain clues to decipher the rongorongo.

[zappaman]

22. If you think about it, the only explanation is an alien race

the larger question is WHICH race of aliens did this and why?

[Tansy_Gold]

32. You're kidding, right?

[AtheistCrusader]

58. Sure. Humans didn't originate on that island, so yeah, you could call them aliens.

[mistertrickster]

26. It just occurred to me . . . one reason to bury the statues would be to stand them upright.

You drag the giant statues on log rollers to the hole, and to stand them up, you drop the base down into the hole.

With 99 percent of the weight now on the base, it could be levered and hoisted plum.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. But..if you did intentionally bury them why bury the writing on them?

The petroglyphs are not visible until evacuation.

[mistertrickster]

30. Because the petroglyphs had religious significance, not informational?

They were never intended to be read, and maybe most people lacked the ability to read them anyway?

The Egyptians wrote on tomb walls that were intended to be kept sealed forever, iirc.

I really don't know . . . just speculating.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Good point, had not thought of that.

[TorchTheWitch]

35. why is it assumed the were buried?

Time's accumulation of dirt could have buried them. Ancient civiliations, after all, are normally found far underground.

I saw an interesting documentary on YouTube about how the Egyptians likely made an obelisk stand upright, and the easiest way was to build a structure to hold sand that was then removed so that the monument dropped onto its intended platform and then was just pulled the short rest of the way upright. Very cool that was.

[AtheistCrusader]

61. And they didn't exactly have foundations built to code.

In all seriousness, the deforestation of the island by the natives led to significant erosion. The statues were likely buried over hundreds of years by natural processes.

[defendandprotect]

135. True -- and not all were buried -- two, they are reporting on here.

You might also be interested in this post I made further down

on the thread ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[krispos42]

37. Cool.

Thanks for the info.

K&R

[applegrove]

38. That is so cool. I did not know.

[MADem]

41. I did NOT know this and I find it fascinating--thank you for posting this nt

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bloomington-lib]

45. dupe

[bloomington-lib]

46. I assumed they would have checked already to see if they had bodies

Weren't some of the structures in Egypt partially buried

[progressoid]

66. Yes

Here is a shot of the Great Sphinx from 1880 before its excavation.

[Highway61]

47. That's really cool

Thanks for posting

[HappyMe]

48. Cool!

Always figured they were just heads!

[Zanzoobar]

137. A man is waiting for wife to give birth.

A man is waiting for wife to give birth. The doctor comes in and informs the
dad that his son was born without torso, arms or legs. The son is just a head!

But the father loves his son and raises him as well as he can, with love and
compassion. After 21 years, the son is old enough for his first drink. Dad
takes him to the bar and tearfully tells the son he is proud of him.

Dad orders up the biggest, strongest drink for his boy. With all the bar
patrons looking on curiously and the bartender shaking his head in disbelief,
the boy takes his first sip of alcohol. Swoooop! A torso pops out!

The bar is dead silent; then bursts into a whoop of joy. The father, shocked,
begs his son to drink again. The patrons chant "Take another drink!"

The bartender still shakes his head in dismay. Swoooop! Two arms pops out.

The bar goes wild, but the bartender is clearly disapproving.

The father, crying and wailing, begs his son to drink again. The patrons
chant "Take another drink!" The bartender ignores the whole affair.

By now the boy is getting tipsy, and with his new hands he reaches down, grabs
his drink and guzzles the last of it. Swoooop! Two legs pop out. The bar is
in chaos. The father falls to his knees and tearfully thanks God.

The boy stands up on his new legs and stumbles to the left... then to the
right... right through the front door, into the street, where a truck runs
over him and kills him instantly. The bar falls silent. The father moans in
grief. The bartender sighs and says, "That boy should have quit while he
was a head."

[AlbertCat]

49. Here ya go...

Buy your own! But you'll hafta supply the body.

http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/DB555.do

[ceile]

53. Interesting!! n/t

[mod mom]

55. Hubbie just reminded me that the society that built these collapsed because of the deforestation

needed to build these, as written about the book Collapse:

http://www.grist.org/article/kavanagh-collapse

[defendandprotect]

140. "Jared Diamond's environmental revisionism doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny" -- !!

Many have written about these false conclusions but even Wiki covers it --

"describes the foundation of Diamond's environmental revisionism and explains why

it does not hold up to scientific scrutiny."

: "By the time detailed observations were made in the 1880s, the old culture was virtually dead <...> It is my own suspicion that none are valid." Most of the information was "gleaned from a few surviving natives from the late nineteenth century onwards, by then decimated, demoralised and culturally impoverished population which had lost most of the collective cultural-historical memory"

The accounts and reports that cover the period between Easter's discovery in 1722 and the extermination of its culture 150 years later are fundamentally inconsistent and contradictory. When, at the start of the 20th century, the first archaeological expeditions tried to reconstruct the island's history, they stumbled upon an exhausted terrain: the indigenous population had been almost completely annihilated, its culture and natural habitat destroyed as a result of physical, cultural and environmental obliteration.

http://sacredsites.com/americas/chile/easter_island.htm...


This would be "discovery" by Dutch --

{b]...research into both the causes and timing of deforestation remains contentious.

Diamond's assertion that Easter's discoverers encountered an island devoid of trees is also contradicted by Carl Friedrich Behrens, Roggeveen's officer. According to Behrens' description of the island and its inhabitants, the natives presented "palm branches as peace offerings." Their houses were "set up on wooden stakes, daubed over with luting and covered with palm leaves" (Behrens, 1903:134/135; his account was originally published in 1737).

Behrens concluded his remarkably cheerful description of Easter Island and its natural environment on a high note: "This island is a suitable and convenient place at which to obtain refreshment, as all the country is under cultivation and we saw in the distance whole tracts of woodland " (Behrens, 1903:137).



and there is much more which raises doubts -- like this --

Roggeveen maintained that Easter Island was exceptionally fertile. It produced large quantities of bananas, potatoes, and sugar-cane of extraordinary thickness. He concluded that, with careful cultivation, the island's productive soil and benign climate could be turned into an 'earthly paradise'. Captain Cook, on the other hand, was less impressed. When he visited the island 50 years later amidst high expectations (in all probability as a result of reading Behrens' upbeat report), he was disappointed by what he perceived to be an impoverished island. Yet, regardless of what may have happened in the aftermath of discovery and early visits, there are compelling reports from the late 18th century that Rapa Nui was far from being in a state of terminal decline. As Rollin, a major of the French expedition to Easter Island in 1786, underlined:

"Instead of meeting with men exhausted by famine, <...> I found, on the contrary, a considerable population, with more beauty and grace than I afterwards met in any other island; and a soil, which, with very little labour, furnished excellent provisions, and in an abundance more than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants" (Heyerdahl & Ferdon, 1961:57).






Also, you may be interested in this post I made elsewhere on the thread re

the more likely history of the island --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[FourScore]

56. So cool!! Thanks for the thread, progressoid! n/t

[mactime]

59. Did not know that

Always thought of them as just heads. Very interesting.

[JNelson6563]

64. Cool! Never saw below their heads before.

Those statues are huge! Very cool stuff!

Julie

[gateley]

65. I didn't know that -- thanks!! nt

[AllyCat]

67. I had no idea. Fascinating!!

[Tutankhamun]

68. This just proves that ancient aliens were there.

You see, ancient aliens clearly had bodies, and these Easter Island bodies are clearly not humanoid in form. They must therefore represent the bodies of aliens.

For fans of the "Ancient Aliens" show, it's also clear that Giorgio A. Tsoukalos' hair was brought here by aliens. It is believed that his hair acts as a communications reflector beacon, beaming alien wisdom back and forth from one universe to another.

[AllyCat]

69. LOL!

[sakabatou]

79. That show is full of crap

Instead of "God of the Gaps," it's "Aliens of the Gaps."

[Berlin Expat]

90. LOL! Good one....I watch

"Ancient Aliens" from time to time, and by God, I do believe you've figured out the mystery of Giorgio Tsoukalos' hair. I don't know why that never occurred to me!

[redqueen]

70. Very interesting, thanks.

Some of the comments on this thread seem more fit for facebook or youtube. I guess that's only going to get worse, though. Oh well.

[Phoonzang]

71. Hmm.....

[Bobbie47]

81. Cool

thanks for posting this!!

[Rambis]

84. I love this stuff

[zappaman]

86. There was a comic book in the '60's(TALES TO ASTONISH?)...

that had a story about these things coming out of the ground and raising havoc.
True story perhaps?
Let's hope they never decide to come to life like they did then!

[Divine Discontent]

111. ...

and...



Get it now, or one of a million other designs! http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions...

[Tutankhamun]

120. Very cool comics! Thank you, Divine!

I don't collect or read comics, but that art work and the creative use of history and archaeology really seriously makes me want to start.

[bikebloke]

89. Hollywood does Easter Island

Rapa Nui (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ3kbX5jzX0

[closeupready]

94. I loved that film.

[Ian David]

98. The glyphs on the back say, "Want gum-gum, dumb-dumb." n/t

[a2liberal]

100. K&R (n/t)

[sonias]

104. Awesome!

I didn't know this. Thanks!

[DirkGently]

107. Whoa. That's a lot moa Moa!

[skepticscott]

109. It has actually been known for quite a while

that the statues were not just "heads", even the buried ones. They come in all different sizes, and many have been erected on ceremonial platforms filly exposed, or have been toppled, or were left in the quarry unfinished.

An interesting new book on the subject is The Statues that Walked, by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo. Their take is that the island was settled somewhat later than had previously been though (about 1000-1100 CE), that the reconstructions of "civil war" on the island are every much overblown, and that the primary population decline did not come until after European contact. They also make an intriguing argument that the deforestation (which was by mo means total by the time Europeans arrived) was caused to some extent by the introduction of the Polynesian rat by the settlers.

[liberation]

117. Thank you

There seems to be a lot of people who are emboldened by ignorance. A lot is known about these sculptures, that they had bodies is most definitively not a new development. Since as you mentioned, there are a lot of full body statues known from the beginning and there are actually some great examples of a few of the sculptures which were abandoned at different stages of creation. Giving a great deal of insight into the methods involved.


Funny how some modern people give so little credit to human ingenuity, or don't understand what the "sapiens" in "homo sapiens" means. Probably a projection of their own mental or educational shortcomings.

[liberal N proud]

110. Awesome

Those who came before us (way before us) continue to amaze.

[Tx4obama]

121. This is awesome! Thank you for posting the OP. n/t

[Supply Side Jesus]

124. K&R!!

very cool, thanks for posting!