Easter Island - A mystery since its discovery

The Rapa Nui riddle - How did the Moi statues travel from the quarry?

Easter Island has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation

How and why did its inhabitants carve and transport the massive statues which surround the island? What remains of this culture today, and what lessons can we learn from their legacy? Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth. A triangle of volcanic rock in the South Pacific - it is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as Moai, that dot the coastline. The early settlers called the island "Te Pito O Te Henua" (Navel of The World). Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the land, people and language are all referred to locally as "Rapa Nui".
http://www.netaxs.com/trance/rapanui.html

In the early 1950s, the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl...

...(famous for his Kon-Tiki and Ra raft voyages across the oceans) popularized the idea that the island had been originally settled by advanced societies of Indians from the coast of South America. Extensive archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic research has conclusively shown this hypothesis to be inaccurate. It is now recognized that the original inhabitants of Easter Island are of Polynesian stock (DNA extracts from skeletons have confirmed this), that they most probably came from the Marquesas or Society islands, and that they arrived as early as 318 AD (carbon dating of reeds from a grave confirms this).
http://www.sacredsites.com/americas/chile/easter_island.html

The moai walked from the quarry    

One of the astonishing facts about the stone statues or moai of Easter Island is that 95 per cent of them all came from the same quarry, known as Rano Raraku. One of the biggest riddles about Easter Island is how the statues traveled from the quarry to their platforms or ahus, sometimes as far as 20 or 25 kilometres away. Rapa Nui legend has it that the moai "walked from the quarry". Indeed, a drawing by a crew member aboard a 1728 Dutch voyage to Easter Island clearly depicts a standing moai being moved by people using ropes and perhaps even logs. But is this the real explanation?

The Easter Island was a sub-tropical paradise

Thick forests of palm trees covered the hills. Other plants including the hauhau tree, which can be used to make ropes, were also numerous. Seabirds, including the albatross, and boobies, as well as others, used the Island as a nesting place. Porpoises played in the waves. Archaeologists examining bones found in the trash pits discovered that the main meat diet of these early islanders consisted of the porpoise, which had to be caught well off-shore from heavy canoes, and the seabirds. With conditions so fine on Easter the human population quickly swelled. Estimates of population range up to 20,000 at its peak. The islanders soon had enough time left over after mere survival to start building the huge statues...
http://www.unmuseum.org/easteri.htm

Rongo-rongo is the hieroglyphic script of Easter Island

It has remained a mystery since its discovery. For over a hundred years, controversy has raged over the meaning and source of these enigmatic characters. There are only 21 known tablets in existence - scattered in museums and private collections. Tiny, remarkably regular glyphs, about one centimeter high, highly stylized and formalized, are carved in shallow grooves running the length of the tablets. Oral tradition has it that scribes used obsidian flakes or shark teeth to cut the glyphs and that writing was brought by the first colonists led by Hotu Matua. Last but not least, of the twenty­one surviving tablets three bear the same text in slightly different spellings...
http://www.crystalinks.com/easterisland.html

Books about Easter Island - Rapa Nui

The Complete Guide to Easter Island Author: Shawn McLaughlin This book brings together the latest scientific and tourist information in a format designed to appeal to both researchers and lay readers alike: Sections on history, legends, conservation, island theories, antiquities, and culture complement detailed coverage of the village of Hanga Roa, accommodations, shopping, vehicle rental, entertainment, island sights, and more. The Guide also includes a chapter on the Rapanui language, an extensive glossary, a detailed chronology, a comprehensive bibliography, and updated island maps. With 70 additional pages, this revised Guide includes new sections, such as discussions on the role of the sweet potato in Oceania, dating systems used by scientists, and listings of Easter Island artefacts found in museums around the world. Richly illustrated and featuring black & white and color photographs by the author. Whether you´ve been on the island, are planning your first trip, or returning to this most enigmatic place, The Complete Guide is your indispensable Easter Island resource.	The Enigmas of Easter Island Author: Paul Bahn, John Flenley Theorists have invoked everything from restless spirits to extraterrestrials and anti-gravity to explain Easter Island´s giant stone statues. The reality, according to this comprehensive reconstruction of the island´s history, now in its second edition, is more prosaic. The megaliths were carved by humans from the island´s soft volcanic stone to commemorate prestigious ancestors, express clan pride and demarcate "a sacred border...between "home" and "out there" -and because on Easter Island there "was little else to do" but carve stone. In addition to the mechanics of sculpting, dragging and erecting the idols, the book covers other aspects of the island´s vanished culture, from the remarkable seafaring skills of the Polynesians who settled the island to the prevalence of phallic, vulval and birdman motifs in the islanders eccentric artistic stylings. Above all, they see Easter Island´s saga as a cautionary tale of mankinds "eco-stupidity." As the Polynesians and the rats they brought with them decimated the once verdant forests, the island withered into a treeless desert stalked by famine, violence and possibly cannibalism-a microcosm illustrating the consequences of resource depletion for an all too finite Earth.	Easter Island - Rapa Nui Author: Felip L. Soza Easter Island is a book documenting one of Chile´s most famous World Heritage sites declared by UNESCO. In this book, we review the history of an island located in the middle of the South Pacific, halfway between Continental Chile and Tahiti: Rapa Nui. Named as such by its natives, it has become famous all over the world not only for its unique location and geography, but also for the existence of almost one thousand gigantic sculptures that can be found all over the island; carved out of rock and spanning centuries, they are called Moais.	The Mystery of Easter Island Author: Katherine Routledge This classic archaeology book on Easter Island was first published in London in 1919. Heavily illustrated with a wealth of old photos, this treasure trove of information begins with Routledge´s yacht voyage from England across the Atlantic, and around South America to Easter Island. Her account of this incredible adventure is one of the first ever of the life, history and legends of this strange and remote place. Detailing the statues, pyramid platforms, Rongo Rongo script, Bird Cult, and the war between the Short Ears and the Long Ears, Routledge and her companions explore the secret caves and walk the ancient island roads. This rare early account of Easter Island has served as a primary source for the theories that have evolved to explain Easter Island´s enduring mysteries.

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