The Moai statues of Easter Island present one of the world ’s outstanding technical mysteries . The stone head ( actuallyfull bodies ) that dot the island in the South Pacific are monolithic and act in the 100 , prompting archaeologists to wonder how they start out there in the first spot . Now , asNewsweekreports , a group of researchers believe they ’re closer to find an answer .
European skimmer first arrived on Easter Island in 1722 and were greeted by a native population of 1500 to 3000 . Along with the residents were 900 - odd statue carved from upstanding stone , mean there were fewer than four people for every massive monolith .
How was such a thin population able root for off such an telling feat of architecture ? According to researchers from Chile , New Zealand , and the U.S. , it ’s potential they had help . Their novel study published in the journalFrontiers in Ecology and Evolutionsuggests that the statue were cut up and erect at a fourth dimension when Easter Island patronize a much larger population . Using data from the island , they estimated just how high the island ’s numbers may have accomplish .
Easter Island has the agriculture potential to keep a maximal universe of 17,500 , research worker say . This estimation is based on the atmospheric condition and ground quality of the island , 19 percentage of which is capable of growing the angelical white potato that feed inhabitants . " Despite its almost complete isolation , the habitant of Easter Island created a complicated social structure and these amazing works of graphics before a striking change occur , " lead author Cedric Puleston order in astatement .
If the Moai were constructed by a much turgid radical than the Europeans encountered , that would sort out up some of the mystery border the island . But it would also set up more question . How , for instance , did the universe fall so quickly in the few century between the statue ' construction and first middleman with Europeans ? One theory is ecocide , which happens when an area is worn out of its imagination faster than it can replenish them .
The secret of how the loom monoliths were transported across the island after they were built still stay on . The indigenous people recite Dutch IE that the Moai walk themselves , an explanation an MIT prof put to the test when he design a2000 - pound sculpturethat could be shimmied long distance . But despite the numerous theories , intemperate grounds related to the figures ' origins remains scarce .
[ h / tNewsweek ]
