Easter Island statues walk, rock & roll

By Amanda Shore

Two scientists Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt think that the mysterious Easter Island statues were walked to their locations. They demonstrated that with only 18 people and same rope, the five ton statues could have been “walked” around the island to their current locations.

Other theories state that extra-terrestrials built them, Peruvian Incas carved them or that Polynesians had something to do with it, but the fact remains that how all 887 heads got in their current positions remains a mystery.

The National Geographic Society funded research last year when Lipo and Hunt discovered that, with some practice, they could maneuver a moai replica with just some rope.

Thor Heyerdahl had the same idea in 1982, but there are little records of his experiments. He did move an original statue with a similar rope technique but left no reminders of his accomplishment. Pavel Pavel, who accompanied Heyerdahl and tracked experiments since 1981, traveled back to Easter Island in January of 2003 to put up plaques commemorating Heyerdahl’s success. While Heyerdahl need about 180 people to move one statue, Pavel was able to repeat the experiment with only 17.