Easter Island’s ‘Walking’ Stone Heads Stir Debate


An idea suggesting massive stone statues that encircle Easter Island may have been “walked” into place has run into controversy.

In October 2012, researchers came up with the “walking” theory by creating a 5-ton replica of one of the statues (or “moai”), and actually moving it in an upright position, and have published a more thorough justification in the June issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. If the statues were walked into place, then the islanders didn’t need to cut down the island’s palm trees to make way for moving the massive carvings, the researchers argue.

The findings may help dismantle the traditional storyline of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui: that a “crazed maniacal group destroyed their environment,” by cutting down trees to transport gigantic statues, said study co-author Carl Lipo, an anthropologist at California State University, Long Beach.

http://www.livescience.com/37277-eas...ked-there.html