The Moais of Easter Island, 1

Vocabulary

Video

Transcript

 
Andrew Collins, Author, The Cygnus Key: Easter Island is in eastern Polynesia within the Pacific Ocean. And what it’s most famous for is the many hundreds of huge stone statues of these human forms, oversized human heads with bodies that are almost always partially buried beneath the ground.

The local name of these statues is Moai. And these statues would seem to represent deified ancestors. They’re manufactured from local volcanic rock. In size, they can be as much as 30 or more feet in height. And they can weigh anything up to 80 tons apiece.

Paul Bahn, Author, Geoglyphs: Mysteries of the Ancient World: The Moai are enormous blocks of stone. And they moved several hundred of them from the quarry quite some distance to the platforms around the edge of the island and there have been many theories over the years as to how they were moved.

The first theory is thought that they must have been dragged horizontally on sledges or rollers or something of that kind.

On the her hand, many people including myself would say we think it’s more likely they were moved vertically. It would be very dangerous to lower a standing statue down to the ground, then drag it for how many miles and then have to raise it again at the other end.

Giorgio Tsoukalos, Publisher, Legendary Times Magazine: The idea that the trees were cut down at some point falls by the wayside because wooden rollers would not be able to support the weight of some of these statues. So you have to wonder, how were these Moai transported back in the day

Hugh Newman, Author, Megalith: Studies in Stone: So there were traditions of something called mana on Easter Island, which is a spiritual power … (thunder crashes) … which was supposed to be imbued, actually, into the stone Moai themselves and some of the traditions, uh, describe them walking from the quarry to their platforms.

Giorgio Tsoukalos, Publisher, Legendary Times Magazine: So one has to wonder if mana was some type of extraterrestrial technology that allowed these stones to be levitated into place.

Questions

Easter Island. Easter Island is in the Caribbean Sea. True or false?

Galapagos Islands. Is Easter Island very famous as a holiday and tourist destination?

Hawaii. The Moais or statues are about the size of a person. Is this right or wrong? Is the total height of the Moais what you see above the ground?

Tahiti. Are they made of marble or bronze? Were the Moais quarried, carved and positioned all at the same place?

Samoa. Everyone knows exactly how the Easter Islanders made and moved the Moais. Is this correct or incorrect? Does everyone agree on how the statues where moved?

Tonga. What are some theories of how the statues were made and moved?

Fiji. Does mana have something to do with high-tech machinery or artificial intelligence?

New Zealand. Is there a simple explanation as to how the Moais were constructed and moved?
 
 
 
Madagascar. I have visited Easter Island. Yes or no? Have you or your friends ever visited any islands? What islands have you visited?

Papua New Guinea. Have you heard or Easter Island? Have you seen documentaries about Easter Island?

Polynesia. How do you think the stone head statues of Easter Island were made and moved?

Australia. Would you like to visit Easter Island? What islands would you like to visit?

Solomon Islands. What might happen in the future?

Vanuatu. Would you like to be a scientist or writer of megaliths and other mysteries?