Easter Island is the most remote inhabited piece of land in the world. Its area is only 165.6 square kilometers. Belongs to the island of Chile. But to the nearest mainland city of this country, Valparaiso, 3703 kilometers. And there are no other islands nearby, in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. The nearest inhabited land is located at 1819 kilometers. This is Pitcairn Island. It is known for the fact that the rebellious crew of the Bounty ship wished to stay on it. Lost in the vastness of Easter keeps many secrets. First, it is not clear where the first people came from. They could not explain anything to the Europeans about this. But the most mysterious mysteries of Easter Island are its stone idols. They are installed along the entire coastline. The natives called them moai, but they could not clearly explain who they were. In this article, we have tried to summarize the results of all recent scientific discoveries in order to unravel the mysteries that have enveloped the most remote land area from civilization.

History of Easter Island

On April 5, 1722, the sailors of a squadron of three ships under the command of the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen saw land on the horizon that had not yet been marked on the map. When they approached the east coast of the island, they saw that it was inhabited. The natives sailed to them, and their ethnic composition struck the Dutch. Among them were Caucasians, Negroids and representatives of the Polynesian race. The Dutch were immediately struck by the primitive technical equipment of the islanders. Their boats were riveted from bits of wood and so let the water through that half of the people in the canoe bailed it out, while the rest rowed. The landscape of the island was more than bleak. Not a single tree towered on it - only rare bushes. Roggeven wrote in his diary: "The desolated appearance of the island and the exhaustion of the natives suggest the barrenness of the land and extreme poverty." But most of all, the captain was shocked by the stone idols. How, with such a primitive civilization and scarce resources, did the natives have the strength to carve out of stone and deliver so many heavy statues to the shore? The captain had no answer to that question. Since the island was discovered on the day of the Resurrection of Christ, it received the name Easter. But the natives themselves called it Rapa Nui.

Where did the first inhabitants of Easter Island come from?

This is the first riddle. Now more than five thousand people live on the island with a length of 24 kilometers. But when the first Europeans landed on the shore, there were much fewer natives. And in 1774, the navigator Cook counted only seven hundred islanders on the island, emaciated from hunger. But at the same time, among the natives there were representatives of all three human races. Many theories have been put forward about the origin of the population of Rapa Nui: Egyptian, Mesoamerican and even completely mythical, that the islanders are survivors of the collapse of Atlantis. But modern DNA analysis shows that the first Rapanui landed around the year 400 and most likely came from East Polynesia. This is evidenced by their language, which is close to the dialects of the inhabitants of the Marquesas and Hawaiian Islands.

The rise and fall of civilization

The first thing that caught the eye of the discoverers were the stone idols of Easter Island. But the earliest sculpture dates back to 1250, and the latest (unfinished, left in the quarry) - to 1500. It is unclear how the civilization of the natives developed from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries. Perhaps, at a certain stage, the islanders moved from a tribal society to clan military unions. Legends (very contradictory and fragmentary) tell of the leader Hotu Matu'a, who was the first to set foot on Rapa Nui and brought all the inhabitants with him. He had six sons who divided the island after his death. Thus, the clans began to have their ancestor, whose statue they tried to make larger, more massive and more representative than that of the neighboring tribe. But what caused the Rapa Nui people to stop carving and erecting their monuments in the early sixteenth century? This has only been discovered by modern research. And this story can be instructive for all mankind.

Ecological catastrophe on a small scale

Let's leave aside the idols of Easter Island for now. They were carved by the distant ancestors of those wild natives who were caught by the expeditions of Roggeven and Cook. But what influenced the decline of the once rich civilization? After all, the ancient Rapa Nuans even had a written language. By the way, the texts of the found tablets have not yet been deciphered. Scientists have only recently given an answer to what happened to this civilization. Her death was not quick due to a volcanic eruption, as Cook assumed. She agonized for centuries. Modern studies of the soil layers have shown that the island was once covered with lush vegetation. The forests abounded with game. The ancient Rapa Nui were engaged in agriculture, growing yams, taro, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and bananas. They went out to sea in good boats made from the hollowed out trunk of a palm tree and hunted dolphins. The fact that the ancient islanders ate well is indicated by DNA analysis of food found on pottery shards. And this idyll was destroyed by the people themselves. Forests were gradually cut down. The islanders were left without their fleet, and consequently, without the meat of ocean fish and dolphins. They have already eaten all the animals and birds. The only food of the Rapa Nui people was crabs and shellfish, which they collected in shallow water.

Easter Island: moai statues

The natives could not really say anything about how they were made and, most importantly, how stone idols weighing several tons were brought to the shore. They called them "moai" and believed that they contained "mana" - the spirit of the ancestors of a certain clan. The more idols, the stronger the concentration of supernatural power. And this leads to the prosperity of the clan. So when the French removed one of Easter Island's moai statues in 1875 to take it to a Paris museum, the Rapa Nui had to be held back with guns. But, as studies have shown, about 55% of all idols were not transported to special platforms - "ahu", but remained standing (many in the primary processing stage) in a quarry on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano.

Art style

In total, there are more than 900 statues on the island. They are classified by scholars chronologically and by style. The early period is characterized by stone heads without a body, with a face turned upwards, as well as pillars, where the torso is made in a very stylized way. But there are exceptions. So, a very realistic figure of a kneeling moai was found. But she remained standing in the ancient quarry. In the Middle Age, the idols of Easter Island became giants. Most likely, the clans competed with each other, trying to show that their mana is more powerful. Artistic decoration in the Middle period is more sophisticated. The bodies of the idols are covered with carvings depicting clothes and wings, and huge cylindrical hats of red tuff are often hoisted on the head of the moai.

Transportation

No less a mystery than the idols of Easter Island remained the secret of their transfer to the "ahu" platforms. The natives claimed that the moai themselves came there. The truth turned out to be more prosaic. In the lowest (more ancient) soil layers, scientists have found the remains of an endemic tree that is related to the wine palm. It grew up to 26 meters, and its smooth trunks without branches reached a diameter of 1.8 m. The tree served as an excellent material for rolling sculptures from the quarries to the shore, where they were installed on platforms. To erect idols, ropes were used, which were woven from the bast of the hauha tree. The environmental catastrophe also explains the fact why more than half of the sculptures are “stuck” in quarries.

Short-eared and long-eared

Modern residents of Rapa Nui no longer have religious reverence for moai, but consider them their cultural heritage. In the mid-50s of the last century, the researcher uncovered the secret of who created the idols of Easter Island. He noticed that Rapa Nui is inhabited by two types of tribes. In one, the earlobes were lengthened from childhood by wearing heavy jewelry. The leader of this clan, Pedro Atana, told Thor Heirdal that in their family, the ancestors passed on to their descendants the art of creating the status of moai and transporting them by drag to the installation site. This craft was kept secret from the "short-eared" and was passed down orally. At the request of Heyerdahl, Athan, with numerous assistants from his clan, carved a 12-ton statue into a quarry and delivered it upright to the platform.

Moai statues on Easter Island- the secret of the island, a mystery that has not yet been solved. These huge stone idols that filled the territory of the island appeared from nowhere. Not a single scientist in the world can still answer who and when created these statues, and most importantly, why. Science only suggests that the authors of the stone idols were the people of Rapa Nui, who once inhabited the island. It remains unknown to historians where people came from on Easter Island, which is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The distance to the nearest mainland (South America) is almost 4,000 km, and to the nearest island inhabited by people - about 2,500 km.

Easter Island was first discovered by European sailors in 1722, it was the team of the Dutch captain Jacob Roggeveen. The sailors anchored near the island just on the day of Christian Easter, hence the name of the island. The first thing that caught the eye of the Europeans was the poses in which they discovered the Moai statues. Absolutely all of them lay face down. How they ended up in such poses and why is unknown. If we assume that this happened as a result of a natural cataclysm, then an objection immediately arises: in this case, they would lie randomly, in different positions, and most likely, not all of them would be thrown off.

In addition, the Dutch were also surprised by the unusual climate of Easter Island. The flora here is quite scarce, there are practically no trees, and in the center of the island there is even a small desert, around which there are about 70 currently extinct volcanoes.

In total, there are 997 stone statues on the island, called moai. They were carved from volcanic rocks and mounted on stone pedestals (ahu). The height of the tallest Moai statue is 20 meters, and the lowest is 3 meters. The average weight is from 10 to 20 tons, the largest idol weighs 90 tons! It is still unknown how they were brought to the stone platforms. According to the legends, the Moai themselves "walked" to their places. Historians suggest that they were created on the slopes of the Rano-Roraku volcano, not far from the quarries. The people who are credited with creating stone idols are called Rapa Nui. Secrets of Easter Island are also connected with this people: to this day, no one has been able to explain not only where they came from here, but also where they eventually disappeared. Today, among the few local residents, there are only a few
more than 100 people are purebred Rapanui, the rest are mostly immigrants from Chile.

Thousands of tourists come here every year, because Easter Island is one of the most exotic vacation spots. The water temperature here never drops below +25. Vacationers can not only try to unravel the mystery of ancient civilizations, but also soak up the pink beaches. They are called pink because of the unusual color of the sand on the island, it really has a pink tint. Thanks to such popularity among tourists, Easter Island began to develop, and now it has many hotels, bars and other entertainment venues. Locals try to keep the spirit of the "desert island", while providing minimal amenities. Tourists coming to the island can observe with their own eyes unique sculptures, which have no analogues anywhere in the whole world. The inhabitants of the island set the "fallen" giants back on their ahu pedestals, and now the stone moai statues keep looking at the ocean, keeping the secret of Easter Island.

Easter Island has a unique landscape with volcanic craters, lava formations, glowing blue water, beaches, low hills, livestock farms and many archaeological sites, most of which are devoted to the study of moai figures. They reach a height of 10 m. One of the figures, on the Anakena beach, was installed almost in its original position, and a memorial plaque was placed next to it in memory of the arrival of Thor Heyerdahl in 1955.

The rest of the figures are scattered around the island. Each of them has its own name. Poike is a statue with an open mouth, which is very loved by the locals. Ahu Tahai is another notable statue, with beautifully shaped eyes and a hairdo on top of her head. From here you can reach two of the many caves on the island - one of them seems to have been the center of religious ceremonies.

History of Easter Island

Sailors, when they first saw the island, were amazed by these colossal stone statues that lined the coast of the island. What kind of people were they capable of installing multi-ton stone giants? Why did they settle in such a secluded place? Where did the stone from which the sculptures are made come from?

The first settlers on the island were Polynesians in the 5th century BC. Their culture has survived to this day in the form of giant stone figures. (moai). The bearers of this culture were also called "long-eared", because it was customary for them to stretch their earlobes to the shoulders. In the XIV century. under the leadership of Hotu-Matu "and" short-eared ", adherents of the culture of" bird-men "landed on the island." By the end of the 17th century, they managed to destroy the "long-eared" natives, and their culture was lost. Only fragmentary information has been preserved about the ancient culture of Easter Island.

It is generally accepted that the leader of the tribe, on the eve of death, ordered to carve a moai in the tuff rock of the Rana-Raraku volcano - his own portrait in the form of a bird-man. After the death of the leader, moai were placed on ahu, i.e. in the sanctuary, and his gaze was fixed on the dwellings of the tribe. It was believed that in this way he was able to transfer strength and wisdom to the heirs, and at the same time protect them in a moment of trouble. Today, many moai (height 12 m, weighing several tons) restored and can be viewed. These are Tahai, Tongariki, Akivi, Hekii and Anakena - the place where Hotu-Matu landed.

In Orongo (Orongo), a place at the foot of the Ranu-Kau volcano, the first settlers built a sanctuary for the supreme deity Makemake and annually sacrificed to the bird-man. To do this, from the island of Motu Nui, located at a distance of 1 km, the first tern egg was delivered here, which was considered the incarnation of a deity. All local tribes participated in competitions for swimming speed, and the leader of the victorious tribe took the place of the bird-man.

His head and eyebrows were shaved, and his face was covered with black and red paint and settled in a special ritual dwelling. Thus, for a year he became the spiritual leader of all the tribes inhabiting the island. The warrior who won the competition, who brought victory to his leader, was not forgotten either - he was awarded with all kinds of gifts.

The inhabitants of Easter Island owned a script that is not fully deciphered. Small wooden tablets are covered with carved inscriptions. (gopdo gopdo) that have survived to this day. These tablets are in every house on the island, but none of the residents could really explain their meaning and purpose. Rongo-rongo no larger than 30-50 cm in size, the drawings on them depict animals, birds, plants and astronomical signs. Conventionally, the images can be divided into three themes: the first depict local gods, the second depict the actions of the islanders, including the crimes they committed, and the third are dedicated to the history of internecine wars. The islanders were also excellent portrait carvers, as the small church at Hanga Roa testifies. Here, ancient pagan beliefs merge with Christianity: a bird is certainly depicted above the heads of the saints.

According to legend, in 1400, a small handful of Polynesians, led by the leader Hotu Matua, reached a desert island in the vast Pacific Ocean in their canoes. They named it Te-Pito-te-Khenua, "the navel of the earth." And Hotu Matua established several holy places along the coast. On the islands where he came from - perhaps the Marquesas, there was a custom to install moai, monuments to the leaders of the tribe in the form of monumental stone statues.

The idols - numbering 900 in their completed form - have a height of more than 10 m and a girth of 4.5 m, and unfinished statues lie in the quarry, whose height should have been 22 m! Perhaps they were moved from place to place with the help of thick wooden rollers made from tree trunks that grew in the jungle.

The grandiose figures first plunged onto tree trunks, which served either as rollers or sledges. They were then slowly pushed through miles of dense jungle. To cope with such work, the efforts of more than one hundred people would be required.

In 1722, the first European landed on the island - the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen. On this day, the Christian world celebrated Easter, which is why the European name Rapa Nui comes from.

Captain James Cook visited Easter Island in 1774 and found that most of the idols were down, and some were completely broken or showed signs of abuse. The island was practically uninhabited, and the miserable remnants of the once numerous tribe huddled in fear in some terrible caves. What's happened? The islanders' explanations were jerky and contradictory. Archeology gave scientists more coherent information: soon after the departure of the Dutch expedition, a demographic catastrophe occurred on the island - overpopulation and famine. The cult of stone idols led to the fact that the forest on the island was reduced, respectively, reducing the sources of food. Several lean years in a row made the situation catastrophic. Bloody civil strife and cannibalism began. When Captain Cook arrived on the island, he counted only 4,000 inhabitants instead of the 20,000 reported by Roggeveen in 1722. But the worst was yet to come. In 1862, Peruvian soldiers landed on the island and took away 900 people as slaves. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest also did not stay long on the island. By 1877, only 111 people remained on Easter Island. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest also did not stay long on the island. In 1888, Chile annexed it to its territory. There was no self-government until 1966, when the islanders first elected their own president.

The eastern part of Easter Island, called Poike, was formed 2.5 million years ago as a result of a powerful volcanic eruption. After 1 million years, the southern part of the island, Ranu Kau, appeared, and 240 thousand years ago, Maunga Terevaka in the northeast, the highest island mountain (509 m).

On Easter Island there is a settlement of Hanga Roa, where most of the population lives. Their existence is provided mainly by tourism. There are various hotels and restaurants here, and the extremely friendly locals will make sure that your stay here is comfortable and unforgettable.

Since 1964, an airport has been operating on Easter Island, which has strengthened ties with the outside world. Every year, this mysterious piece of land is visited by at least 20,000 tourists. For the 3,800 people now living on the island, sheep farming, modeled after the end of the 19th century. is an important part of the economy.

When to come

The most suitable period to visit Easter Island is from October to April, during this period the air temperature warms up to 22-30 ° C, and the water in the ocean - up to 20-23 ° C. It often rains from May to September, the weather is windy and cloudy, but it is still warm and the temperature fluctuates between 17 and 20 °C.

Easter Island beaches

The beaches of Easter Island are some of the best in Chile; in the summer, the water warms up well, so families with children often come here. Anakena Beach deserves special recommendation: a quiet bay, tall palm trees, sand that, when wet, takes on a pink hue, silent statues of formidable moai - all this conquers at first sight and makes you forget about time.

Tapati Rapa Nui Festival

If you find yourself on Easter Island at the end of January, be sure to visit the Tapati Rapa Nui folklore festival, which is a competition of dance and music ensembles. Both island teams and teams from Tahiti participate in the competition.

In addition, a Queen will be elected during the festival. Moreover, not only the contenders themselves, but also their relatives will fight for the title. The girl who will be the most pretty and whose relatives will be able to catch the most fish and weave the longest cloth will win.

Visiting attractions

Since 2011, Easter Island has introduced a new payment system for visiting attractions. Arriving on the island, each tourist will purchase a bracelet on his hand, which will give him the right to multiple visits to all the sights of the island. The exceptions are the Orongo ceremonial center and the Rano Raraku volcano, which can be viewed once. The authorities were forced to take such a non-standard step, since so far a large number of tourists have tried to evade paying for a visit. Now the situation with the "hares" must be resolved radically.

Wristbands can be purchased at Mataveri Airport, they are valid for five days and cost $21 for Chilean residents and $50 for foreign tourists. The bracelet can be transferred to another person.

Mysterious moai

With the phrase "Easter Island", the first thing that appears before your eyes is the rows of huge moai statues, their stern gazes turned into the distance. The creation and history of these frozen statues for a long time remained a mystery to scientists, even today many aspects continue to remain not fully clarified or controversial.

It is believed that the inhabitants of Easter Island made moai statues in honor of deceased relatives. (in another version - dead leaders) and installed on a special platform, which was called ahu and was nothing more than a burial place. Each clan had its own ahu. The islanders worshiped moai, and they gave them strength and protected their descendants from various disasters. The rite of worship of the moai looked like this: opposite the ahu, a fire was made, next to which the worshipers were placed on their haunches, with their faces down, they rhythmically raised and lowered their palms folded together.

To date, it is known that the statues were made in the quarry of the extinct volcano Ranu Raraku, unfinished moai were also found there, including the largest 21-meter El Gigante. On average, the height of the statues ranges from 3 to 5 m, statues of 10-12 m are less common. On the heads of some statues, you can see "caps" made of red rocks of the Puno Pao volcano - pukao. They were supposed to symbolize the typical hairstyle of the islanders.

Most of the scientific debate revolves around how the locals managed to transport these huge statues from the quarry to the ahu platforms. There are currently two main versions. According to one, the statues were brought to their destination by portage using various wooden rails, stops and other devices. As an argument in favor of this version, its defenders cite the fact that there are virtually no forest areas left on the island, all of which were used to roll statues. In the mid 50s. 20th century Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, together with the descendants of the native tribe of the "long-eared", carried out an experiment on carving, transporting and installing a moai statue. The last "long-eared" showed scientists how their ancestors carved statues with stone hammers, then dragged the statue with a drag in the prone position, and, finally, using a simple mechanism consisting of stones and three levers, installed it on the platform. When scientists asked why they had not told about this before, the natives replied that no one had asked them about it before. According to another version (it was put forward by the Czech researcher Pavel Pavel) the statues were moved in a vertical position with the help of cables. With this method of transportation, the impression was created that the statues were “walking”. In 2012, a group of anthropologists during the experiment successfully proved the legitimacy of this version.

Heads and Tails: Easter Island

Data

• Name and Dimensions: Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui. Its area is about 162.5 sq. km.
• Location: The island lies at 27°S, 109°W. Politically, it is considered a territory of Chile. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, more than 2,000 km to the west. To Chile 3700 km, to Tahiti - 4000 km.
• Uniqueness: Fame for Easter Island brought its stone idols made from local volcanic tuff. More than 10 m high, they weigh more than 150 tons.
• UNESCO World Heritage List: The island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.

Location: Chile, Easter Island
Made by: between 1250 - 1500 years
Coordinates: 27°07"33.7"S 109°16"37.2"W

Easter Island is lost in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of 4000 km from Chile. The nearest neighbors - the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island - live 2000 km from here.

Easter Island got its unusual name for a reason: it was discovered by a Dutch navigator on Easter Sunday morning, April 5, 1722. The landscapes of the island are extinct volcanoes, mountains, hills and meadows. There are no rivers here, the main source of fresh water is rainwater that accumulates in the craters of volcanoes. The Paschalians call their island "The Navel of the Earth" (Te-Pito-te-henua). This secluded and isolated corner from the rest of the world attracts scientists, mystics, lovers of secrets and mysteries.

First of all, Easter Island is famous for its giant stone statues in the form of a human head, they are called "moai". Silent idols weighing up to 200 tons and up to 12 meters high stand with their backs to the ocean. A total of 997 statues have been discovered on Easter Island. All moai are monolithic. The craftsmen carved them from soft volcanic tuff (pumice) in a quarry on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano. Some of the statues have been moved to the ritual platform (“ahu”) and added with a red stone cap (pukau). According to scientists, moai once had eyes: squirrels were laid out from coral, and pupils from sparkling pieces of volcanic glass.

Obviously, the installation of statues required a huge amount of labor. According to legend, the idols walked by themselves. However, the hypotheses, confirmed by scientific experiments, prove that the inhabitants of the island and no one else moved the moai, but it has not yet been determined exactly how they did it. In 1956, the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl experimented with moving a moai statue by hiring a team of Easter Island natives who successfully reproduced all the stages of making and installing a moai.

Armed with stone axes, the natives carved a 12-ton statue, and, grabbing onto the ropes, began to pull it along the ground. And in order not to damage the fragile giant, the islanders made a wooden sled to prevent it from rubbing against the ground. With the help of wooden levers and stones placed under the base of the statue, it was hoisted onto a platform-pedestal.

In 1986, the Czech explorer P. Pavel, together with Thor Heyerdahl, organized an additional test in which a group of 17 natives set the 20-ton statue upright fairly quickly using ropes.

"A petrified world with its petrified inhabitants"

The settlement of Easter Island began in 300-400 years by immigrants from East Polynesia. According to another version, proposed by Thor Heyerdahl, the first inhabitants of the island were settlers from Ancient Peru. Crossing the Pacific Ocean from the coast of South America to Polynesia on a wooden raft "Kon-Tiki", the Norwegian scientist proved that even in the conditions of an ancient civilization, the American Indians could overcome large expanses of water.

The indigenous population of Easter Island belonged to two tribes - "long-eared", which created the moai, and "short-eared". The "long-ears" got their name because they wore heavy jewelry in their ears, sometimes so large that the earlobes were pulled down to their shoulders. Paschalians believed that the supernatural power of their clan, called "mana", was contained in stone statues. In the beginning, the long-eared and short-eared lived in peace and harmony with each other, but their later history was marked by a series of brutal wars caused by food shortages.

Because of the drought, crops were declining, there were not enough trees to make boats from which it was possible to fish. Now moai were identified with the image of the enemy, and the statues were destroyed by rival tribes. There are many theories regarding the purpose of the moai. Perhaps these were island gods etched in stone, or portraits of the leaders who ruled the island. According to Thor Heyerdahl, the statues depict white Indians who arrived on the island from Latin America.. In the era of cultural flourishing (XVI-XVII centuries), up to 20 thousand people lived on Easter Island.

After the arrival of Europeans, the population declined, many Easterlings were taken to Peru for hard labor. Today the island is inhabited by about 4,000 people. The living conditions of the islanders have improved significantly, an airport has been built, and tourists bring a small income. But Easter Island still seems deserted, as in the days of Thor Heyerdahl's research, when the Norwegian saw "some kind of petrified world with its petrified inhabitants."

The small Easter Island in the South Pacific, owned by Chile, is one of the most mysterious corners of our planet. Hearing this name, you immediately remember the cult of birds, the mysterious writings of kohau rongo-rongo and the cyclopean stone platforms ahu. But the main attraction of the island can be called moai or statues of Easter Island- Giant stone heads.

Moai - statues-idols of Easter Island

In total, there are 997 statues on Easter Island. Most of them are placed quite chaotically, but some are lined up in rows. The appearance of stone idols is peculiar, and statues of Easter Island cannot be confused with anything else.

Huge heads on frail bodies, faces with characteristic powerful chins and features as if carved with an ax - all these are moai statues.

Moai reach a height of five to seven meters. There are individual specimens ten meters high, but there are only a few of them on the island. Despite these dimensions, the weight statues on easter island on average does not exceed 5 tons. Such a low weight is due to the source material.

To create the statue, they used volcanic tuff, which is much lighter than basalt or some other heavy stone. This material is closest in structure to pumice, somewhat reminiscent of a sponge and crumbles quite easily.

Easter Island idols and the first Europeans

In general, there are many secrets in the history of Easter Island. Its discoverer, Captain Juan Fernandez, fearing competitors, decided to keep his discovery, made in 1578, a secret, and after some time he accidentally died under mysterious circumstances. Although whether what the Spaniard found was Easter Island is still unclear.

After 144 years, in 1722, the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen stumbled on Easter Island, and this event took place on the day of Christian Easter. So, quite by accident, the island of Te Pito o te Henua, which in the local dialect means the Center of the World, turned into Easter Island.

In his notes, the admiral indicated that the natives held ceremonies in front of stone heads, kindled fires and fell into a trance-like state, swaying back and forth.

What the moai were for the islanders was never found out, but most likely the stone sculptures served as idols. The researchers also suggest that the stone statues could be statues of deceased ancestors.

It is interesting that Admiral Roggeven with his squadron not only sailed in this area, he tried in vain to find the elusive land of Davis, an English pirate, which, according to his descriptions, was discovered 35 years before the Dutch expedition. True, no one, except Davis and his team, has ever seen the newly discovered archipelago.

In subsequent years, interest in the island declined. In 1774, James Cook arrived on the island and discovered that over the years some statues of Easter Island were overturned. Most likely this was due to the war between the tribes of the aborigines, but it was not possible to obtain official confirmation.

Standing idols were last seen in 1830. A French squadron then arrived on Easter Island. After that, the statues, installed by the islanders themselves, were never seen again. All of them were either overturned or destroyed.

How the statues appeared on Easter Island

Distant craftsmen carved "" on the slopes of the Rano-Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, at a distance of more than 10 km.

The height of most idols is from five to seven meters, while later statues reached up to 10 and up to 12 meters. Tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, resembles a sponge in structure and crumbles easily even with a light impact on it. so that the average weight of "moai" does not exceed 5 tons.

Stone ahu - platforms-pedestals: reached 150 m in length and 3 m in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons.

All the moai that are currently on the island were restored in the 20th century. The last restoration work took place relatively recently - in the period from 1992 to 1995.

At one time, Admiral Roggeven, recalling his journey to the island, claimed that the natives made fires in front of the moai idols and squatted next to them, bowing their heads. After that, they folded their arms and swung them up and down. Of course, this observation is not able to explain who the idols really were for the islanders.

Roggeven and his companions could not understand how, without the use of thick wooden rollers and strong ropes, it was possible to move and install such blocks. The islanders had no wheels, no draft animals, and no other source of energy than their own muscles.

Ancient legends say that the statues walked by themselves. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is still no documentary evidence left.

There are many hypotheses for the movement of "moai", some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the inhabitants of the island moved the statues and no one else. That's what they did it for? This is where the divergences begin.

It still remains a mystery who and why created all these stone faces, is there any sense in the chaotic placement of statues on the island, why some of the statues were overturned. There are many theories that answer these questions, but none of them has been officially confirmed.

Everything that exists on the island today was restored in the 20th century.

The last restoration of fifteen "moai", located between the Rano-Roraku volcano and the Poike Peninsula, took place relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were engaged in restoration work.

The local aborigines could clarify the situation if they survived to this day. The fact is that in the middle of the 19th century, an epidemic of smallpox broke out on the island, which was brought from the continent. The disease and mowed down the islanders under the root ...

In the second half of the 19th century, the cult of the bird-man also died. This strange ritual, unique for all Polynesia, was dedicated to Makemake, the supreme deity of the islanders. The Chosen One became his earthly incarnation. Moreover, interestingly, the elections were held regularly, once a year.

At the same time, servants or warriors took the most active part in them. It depended on them whether their master, the head of the family clan, Tangata-manu, or a bird-man would become. It is this ritual that owes its origin to the main cult center - the rocky village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the Tangata-manu cult.

Traditions say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader who arrived on the island, was born here. In turn, hundreds of years later, his descendants themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.

Easter Island was and remains a truly "white" spot on the map of the globe. It is difficult to find a piece of land like it that would keep so many secrets that most likely will never be solved.

In the spring, messengers of the god Makemake, black sea swallows, flew to the small islands of Motu-Kao-Kao, Motu-Iti and Motu-Nui, located not far from the coast. The warrior who first found the first egg of these birds and delivered it by swimming to his master received seven beautiful women as a reward. Well, the owner became a leader, or rather, a bird-man, receiving universal respect, honor and privileges.

The last Tangata-manu ceremony took place in the 60s of the 19th century. After the disastrous pirate raid of the Peruvians in 1862, when the pirates enslaved the entire male population of the island, there was no one and no one to choose a bird-man.

Why did the natives of Easter Island carve moai statues in a quarry? Why did they stop doing this? The society that created the statues must have been significantly different from the 2,000 people that Roggeveen saw. It had to be well organized. What happened to him?

For more than two and a half centuries, the mystery of Easter Island remained unsolved. Most theories about the history and development of Easter Island are based on oral tradition.

This happens because no one still can understand what is inscribed in written sources - the famous tablets "ko hau motu mo rongorongo", which roughly means - a manuscript for recitation.

Most of them were destroyed by Christian missionaries, but even those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has been agitated more than once by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, when carefully checked, all this turned out to be not a very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends.

Easter Island idols: history

A few years ago, palaeontologist David Steadman and several other researchers completed the first systematic study of Easter Island in order to find out what its plant and animal life was like before. As a result, data appeared for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.

Easter Island was inhabited around 400 AD. e. The period of manufacture of statues refers to 1200-1500 years. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people are enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees that were available at that time in sufficient numbers.

Paradise, opened to the first settlers, 1600 years later became almost lifeless. Fertile soils, abundance of food, plenty of building materials, sufficient living space, all the possibilities for a comfortable existence were destroyed. By the time Heyerdahl visited the island, there was a single toromiro tree on the island; now it is no more.

And it all started with the fact that a few centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger and larger; their heads began to adorn red 10-ton crowns.