10Why Did The Ancient Easter Islanders Turn On Their Statues?
Upon seeing the huge stone heads, or moai, on Easter Island in 1774 Captain James Cook wrote: “We could hardly conceive how these islanders, wholly unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stupendous figures.”
Polynesians arrived on this isolated volcanic island 3,200 kilometers from Chile sometime between the first and the sixth century AD. It is 11 kilometers wide and 23 kilometers long and includes almost 900 sculptures that have an average height of four meters. Some claim the moai once had coral eyes and were painted too.
Researchers have determined the scarlet top knots were added after the statues were erected. They also established the sculptures were always located near clean water and possibly were meant to give thanks for it. By 1701, only 600 people remained there and had begun to topple them. Did deforestation bring about starvation, civil war, starvation, and anger towards their old gods? No one knows.
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