What Scientists Discovered Underneath The Easter Island Heads! Unbelievable! (Videos)
Big surprise: everyone knows that Easter Island’s giant statues have stunning heads, but did you know they have great bodies too? Pictures: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
The grand mystery of the heads of Easter Island has just deepened…literally!
Archeologists have excavated around the heads and guess what they found? The heads have full bodies! The bodies are covered in ancient and as of yet indecipherable writings called petroglyphs.
“The reason people think they are [only] heads is there are about 150 statues buried up to the shoulders on the slope of a volcano, and these are the most famous, most beautiful and most photographed of all the Easter Island statues,” Van Tilburg, who is also a fellow at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Life’s Little Mysteries. “This suggested to people who had not seen photos of [other unearthed statues on the island] that they are heads only.”
Watch the video to see these awe-inspiring, ancient works of art uncovered for the first time in modern history!
Excavation: 150 statues stand upright on the slopes of Easter Island’s quarry. They are buried to varying depths and often appear as heads only. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
Wow, bodies too: in 1955 adventurer Thor Heyerdahl led the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition excavating several statues. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project.Source: Supplied
- Excavations expose torsos of two 7m tall statues
- Easter Island is 3,550km west of South American coast
- Deforestation destroyed island’s ecological balance
THE giant stone statues scattered around remote Easter Island are even more impressive than they first appear. Hidden from view, the heads are attached to bodies that extend metres underground.
A dig at Rano Raraku, the quarry where Easter Island’s statues were hewn out of rock, is casting new light on a remarkable discovery forgotten for decades.
In 1919 pictures of the first excavations by the Mana Expedition to Easter Island revealed that some statues were full sized.
The discovery was confirmed in 1955 by the explorer Thor Heyerdahl when his Norwegian Archaeological Expedition excavated a statue.
Over subsequent decades the discoveries were gradually forgotten, known by archaeologists but not by tourists, who began visiting the island when flights between Santiago and Tahiti, via Easter Island, began in the 1990s.
Excavations: Rano Raraku quarry was first reported to the outside world in 1868 by officers of HMS Topaze. The world was fascinated, and many sketches, essays, newspaper articles, and books were published describing the statues embedded in the slopes as “heads.” Pictures: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
Today, a team of local archaeologists is working to unlock the secrets of their mysterious island.
Led by UCLA archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project, they have excavated two seven metre tall, full-size statures, estimated to weigh about 20 tonnes.
For anyone who has stood next to these huge, imposing heads, or marveled at how a primitive people moved them many kilometres from one side of the island to the other, it’s a remarkable discovery.
Excavation: the dirt partially burying the statues was washed down from above and not deliberately placed there to bury, protect, or support them. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
Since 1990, the Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) has been undertaking an archaeological survey on Easter Island, aiming to create a full and complete, island-wide inventory for each statue.
“It is vital to have a good record of the statues,” said the EISP’s director Jo Anne Van Tilburg.
“What they look like, where they are found, and how they relate to the sites on which they are found. It is also essential to amass a catalog of the statues as artifacts in order to preserve them for future generations.”
One of the most isolated islands on Earth, Easter Island sits 3,550km west of the South American coast. Picture: Google Maps. Source: Supplied
Since it was named by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722, the 887 monumental statues of Easter Island have inspired wonder and raised countless questions.
How was the island populated? How were the statues made? How were they moved around the island? And what happened to a society that had resorted to cannibalism by the time Captain James Cook visited in 1774?
In recent decades the anthropologist Jared Diamond and others have held up the eventual decline and fall of Easter Island as a warning of the environmental and societal dangers of over-exploitation.
Some questions were tackled by the first archaeological expedition to Easter Island, led by Katherine Routledge in 1919.
“Unfortunately, the excavations she conducted were very poorly documented, when they were documented at all,” said Van Tilburg.
“Therefore, her work was highly flawed and needs to be clarified.”
Quarry: Rano Raraku, where 95 percent of the stone statues were carved, is a massive mound of consolidated volcanic ash surrounding a reed-filled lake. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
One of the most isolated islands on Earth, Easter Island sits 3,550km west of the South American mainland.
It was first settled by Polynesian people who arrived by canoe as part of a great wave of Pacific colonisation.
UCLA’s Jo Anne Van Tilburg oversees excavations: an all-Rapa Nui field crew works on the excavations, with the assistance of a core goup of Rapa Nui elders. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
For decades archaeologists have speculated about how the sculptures were moved and made.
How did the islanders move the sculptures? “The most certainly did not ‘walk’ them over challenging terrain for many miles, as has been claimed by some,” said Van Tilburg.
“More probably statues of different sizes and shapes were moved in a variety of common-sense and practical ways, including especially in horizontal positions.”
UCLA’s Jo Anne Van Tilburg and her team: an all-Rapa Nui field crew works on the excavations, with the assistance of a core goup of Rapa Nui elders. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
Eventually, the population of Easter Island swelled to around 7000 people, all competing to build statues.
“I don’t think there is any question among today’s researchers that humans were responsible for deforestation on the island, and that deforestation caused significant challenges to the social fabric,” said Van Tilburg.
“Nor is there any question that deforestation forced social adaptation, some of which took place in agriculture.
“In fact, the use of the statues changed significantly but, and this is an important caveat, the purpose of the statues remained the same. I think the issue most people have is with the word “collapse.” They find it perforative or somehow blame-filled.”
“I don’t think that is the case at all. There will always be apologists for human behavior we all know is very much a part of the way all of us, no matter what society we are part of, live in the world, historically and even today.”
Excitement: overview of the dig site with a protective fence on last day of excavation. Picture: Easter Island Statue Project. Source: Supplied
And what lessons can modern humanity learn from Easter Island?
“Society can learn to take the long view and pay attention to the big picture,” says Van Tilburg.
“Rapa Nui society, as the data make clear, was highly conservative but also adaptive when faced with challenges.”
Source: news.com.au + http://bizlifes.net/
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Whistler Blowers, Insiders
Obviously the statues used to stand on the ground. Something happened that buried half of them.
volcanoe soot or ash? isnt the island within or near the ring of fire as well?
B Stallard. Depending on soil type, over time these extremely heavy rocks probably just sank naturally in the ground. I live where its black dirt. I put a 200lb rock in front yard 15 yrs. ago and now you can barely see it. Hope this helps.
They deforested the islands for log rollers to move the statues and then the statues were partially buried by soil erosion from the newly exposed slopes. True story
Wasn’t the fabled lost continent of MU supposed to be somewhere in that vicinity? Looks like it was a high mountainous peak at one time, and perhaps a mud slide or some catastrophic event took place in the ring the fire, leaving behind land which resembles an island. Trees and vegetation have a hard time growing at high altitudes, so maybe Easter Island wasn’t always an island, and maybe the surrounding land was swallowed by the sea which actually had trees, wild life, vegetation and a thriving human population… Those statues reveal that sediment washed down and covered the torsos of these statues and when the island was discovered, no humans, trees or vegetation remained.
Like you say, this was discovered in 1919 but “over subsequent decades the discoveries were gradually forgotten, known by archaeologists but not by tourists”.
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Freakin Awesome
Deforestation caused land erosion thats why they are covered to the head in dirt.
Pangaea, one large land mass and go back in time some more and their probably was a different land mass, earth has this strange ability to shape shift, good thing really because do we really want people of the future to know we existed, they would probably call it “The Dumb age”
And I find it strange that it took so long to look under one of them heads.
they appear to be ancient statues perhaps from atlantis era
Actually they are the bodies of the fallen nephilims offspring – giants. and were buried standing up. Over time they became petrified. This was related to me over a few pints of guiness.
They could not have been buried in a landslide. They would of toppled over. They all have stern looks.
Your right slime. Over time and depending on soil content, They sink naturally due to weight of the rock. Probably a inch or two a year. Mystery solved.
Look at other sites around the world whereas buildings and relics (Gobekli Tepe) remained in place, covered with ash, soil, sand, water, mud etc, after natural disasters. Depending on the make-up of the flow, velocity, weight and direction of mud, soil, etc., heavy objects can remain upright and set in place. Looking at the above picture, many of the statues look a bit scattered, whereas other pictures taken on other parts of the island show the statues in uniform alignment. Who knows, but there could be more statues unseen that were toppled over and completely buried…
That’s how they were erected. They dug holes, and teetered the statue over the hole until it dropped in and stood up..The statues were not quarried on the island, they were quarried in South America and shipped in huge boats to the island. These boats will soon be discovered.
they remind me Gobekli Tepe, same kind of art… It’s highly possible that there was a global advanced prehistoric civilisation with a cosmic connection, Why isn’t this on the NEWS? It’s about our origins and it’s VERY important!!
Why isn’t this on the news?
Seriously?
They were advanced and, low detail, rock carving was the best they could do? Okay.
they were advanced….no question. the problem was they built all these graven images of themselves all over the friggin’ universe…..I sometimes surmise that had something to do with their disappearance.
Yes question: where else in the universe have they been found and how come this is the first i’ve heard of them?
Perhaps ‘radiocarbon dating’ and examining the soil as they dig deeper below the ground and/or using a ‘ground-penetrating radar’ to see what else could possibly be hiding down below on the island or out in surrounding waters…
That is disappointing. I was betting they found Easter Eggs.
One of the archaeologists nearly laid an egg when the stature he unearthed breathed a sign of relief – “relief” – get it? Thought not.
Ha, Ha, SorryGuy,
because a Easter Bunny would be a rare find on the island. 
History is always buried we think the island is an actual island coming from that location but what if it’s part of a mountain top hurled there from another location or simply rode a wave to it’s resting spot, not knowing always comes first
I suppose that could be it, MandM, or it could be the result of the three large volcanoes (and dozens of smaller vents) that both formed the Island and buried the Statues.
Well people keep on about Planet X and the pole shift, what’s to say this wasn’t from a previous ‘pole shift’, when the earths water relocates and exposes what was below and covers previously exposed land.
This would answer the questions of the ‘Pyramids’ found below the sea in the Azores.
You guys need to read a book. We know who did this, when it was done and how it was done. OMFG I knew this when I was 8 years old and that was in 1974. Really. No mystery.
It actually quite tragic and a useful metaphor for what we are all. They Deforested the island to make rollers for moving those dumb statues and had to resort to cannibalism before finally resorting to ritualized warfare.
I was taught this in American public school in 1974. This is nothing new.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/rethinking-the-fall-of-easter-island
Let’s go! We’ll need a few months planning/training time.
All we need is a two grand a piece and a few weeks vacay.
If time permits, we can drive over the Canal to an eastern Argentine port and sail from there.
It’ll be summer in Antarctica in a few months, we can make a stop-over.
Reptilians started excavating them from the back side of the flat earth. That’s why they sank. FACT
So much knowledge being poured out in these last days!. Sound familiar???