Easter Island mystery is SOLVED: Scientists finally pinpoint exactly how ancient people moved the iconic head statues 900 years ago

The origin of Easter^[1] Island’s iconic head statues is one of the world’s greatest archaeological puzzles.

Now, scientists claim to have solved one important part of the mystery.

Weighing between 12 and 80 tonnes, scientists have long wondered how the island’s ancient civilisation could have moved the huge stone statues^[2] into place.

Using a combination of 3D modelling and real–life experiments, scientists have confirmed that the statues actually ‘walked’ to their final destinations.

After studying nearly 1,000 of the heads – known as moai – anthropologists found that the people of Rapa Nui likely used ropes to rock the statues in a zig–zag pattern.

This technique would have allowed small teams of people to move the enormous moai over long distances with relatively little effort.

Co–author of the study Professor Carl Lipo, of Binghamton University, says: ‘Once you get it moving, it isn’t hard at all—people are pulling with one arm.

‘It conserves energy, and it moves really quickly, the hard part is getting it rocking in the first place.’

Scientists say that they have solved the mystery of how Rapa Nui’s stone heads reached their destinations. According to a new study, the stone heads ‘walked’ to their destinations 

The origin of Easter Island’s iconic head statues is one of the world’s greatest archaeological puzzles

Previously, anthropologists had thought that the moai must have been laid flat and pulled all the way to their destinations.

This would have been an enormously strenuous task requiring a large number of people, and would have been almost impossible for some of the larger heads.

However, there is now mounting evidence to suggest that the people of Rapa Nui had come up with a more elegant solution.^[3]

By attaching ropes to either side of the head and pulling back and forth, the moai can be rocked side to side and shuffled forward in a ‘walking’ motion.

Professor Lipo and his collaborator Professor Terry Hunt, of the University of Arizona, previously tested their walking theory on smaller models, but wanted to see how it would work for larger moai.

First, the researchers created a detailed 3D model of a moai head to investigate which features helped them walk.

They discovered that the moai appear to have been carefully designed with walking in mind.

Their large D–shaped base and forward–leaning position make them more likely to move forward in a zig–zag pattern when rocked side to side.

Scientists used computer modelling to investigate how the moai heads might have moved, and found that they were perfectly shaped to rock forwards in a zig–zag pattern

With a D–shaped base and forward–leaning position, the heads are made more likely to shuffle forward when rocked from side to side. This suggests they were walked rather than pulled 

To test this theory in the real world, Professor Lipo and Professor Hunt constructed a 4.35–tonne replica moai head based on their 3D model.

Just like the real things, this model had a D–shaped base and the distinctive forward–leaning centre of gravity.

With a team of just 18 people, the researchers were able to move the moai 100 metres in just 40 minutes – much faster than previous attempts.

The researchers argue that this is extremely strong evidence that the largest of the moai heads must have been moved by walking.

Professor Lipo says: ‘The physics makes sense. What we saw experimentally actually works.

‘And as it gets bigger, it still works. All the attributes that we see about moving gigantic ones only get more and more consistent the bigger and bigger they get, because it becomes the only way you could move it.’

This new scientific evidence even aligns with surviving oral traditions on the island, which describe the heads ‘walking’ from the quarry where they were made^[4] to their final positions.

To add even more support for the theory, the study also looked at the network of ‘moai roads’ which criss–cross the island.

Some moai heads found by the side of transport routes show evidence of attempts to right them by digging under their feet (pictured). The researchers believe these ‘moai roads’ were also shaped specifically to help support a rocking motion. 

‘Every time they’re moving a statue, it looks like they’re making a road. The road is part of moving the statue,’ says Professor Lipo.

These specially prepared paths are believed to have been made specifically to enable the moai heads to be moved over long distances, and their shape is perfect for ‘walking’.

Made to be around 4.5 metres wide with a concave profile, the researchers found that the specific shape of these roads helped to stabilise the heads and made them more likely to shuffle forwards.

Moai fallen by the side of the road during transport even have signs that people attempted to right them by digging underneath their ‘feet’.  

According to the researchers, this is another strong indication that the people of Rapa Nui knew that walking was the best way to move their large statues.

Professor Lipo says: ‘It shows that the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out.

‘So it really gives honour to those people, saying, look at what they were able to achieve, and we have a lot to learn from them in these principles.’