We all know that the easter island heads have bodies – that’s not a mystery at all. But how did the easter island population build hundreds of statues? Scientists have recently solved this mystery and discovered where these people disappeared to and why.
For many decades, people's minds have been occupied with the mystery of Easter Island. A remote piece of volcanic soil, far away in the Pacific Ocean... But our planet hosts thousands of such lonely islands, what is so particular about this one?
The mystery is concealed not in the island itself but giant stone statues covering it. Who created the world-famous huge stone heads? Did they serve any specific purpose? Where did their creators arrive from and where did they disappear?
Well, it seems the answer is finally just around the corner!
#easterisland #mystery #easterislandheads
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For many decades, people's minds have been occupied with the mystery of Easter Island. A remote piece of volcanic soil, far away in the Pacific Ocean... But our planet hosts thousands of such lonely islands, what is so particular about this one?
The mystery is concealed not in the island itself but giant stone statues covering it. Who created the world-famous huge stone heads? Did they serve any specific purpose? Where did their creators arrive from and where did they disappear?
Well, it seems the answer is finally just around the corner!
#easterisland #mystery #easterislandheads
Subscribe to Bright Side : https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightgram/
SMART Youtube: https://goo.gl/JTfP6L
5-Minute Crafts Youtube: https://www.goo.gl/8JVmuC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (rock music)
00:02 Scientists finally discovered the truth about Easter Island.
00:10 For many decades, people's minds have been occupied
00:17 with the mystery of Easter Island,
00:20 a remote piece of volcanic soil
00:22 far away in the Pacific Ocean.
00:24 But our planet hosts thousands of such lonely islands.
00:28 What is so particular about this one?
00:30 The mystery is concealed not on the island itself,
00:34 but the giant stone statues covering it.
00:36 Who created the world-famous huge stone heads?
00:40 Did they serve any specific purpose?
00:43 Where did their creators arrive from?
00:46 And where did they disappear?
00:48 Well, it seems the answer is finally just around the corner.
00:52 Watch this video and satisfy your curiosity,
00:55 learning all the truth about Easter Island.
00:58 Remember to give us thumbs up.
01:00 We work to make your life brighter.
01:02 What do we know about the island itself?
01:09 Rapa Nui, which is the name given to Easter Island
01:20 by its first inhabitants, is the territory of Chile
01:24 and is situated in the Southern Pacific Ocean.
01:27 And it is so, so far that you can easily consider it
01:30 one of the most distant places on the world's map.
01:33 It lies 1,200 miles away from Pitcairn,
01:38 which is its closest neighbor.
01:39 Chile itself is 2,300 miles away to the west.
01:45 The only transport that can take you there is a plane.
01:49 If you want to get to this destination point,
01:51 you will need to spend five hours on board
01:54 flying from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island.
01:57 The area of the island is just 63 square miles,
02:03 and such, let's admit, a tiny territory,
02:06 is home to 887 huge stone statues.
02:10 Here are some interesting facts
02:17 you might not know about them.
02:22 The statues carry the name Moai.
02:24 They started to be carved at some point
02:26 between the 13th and 15th centuries.
02:29 Rapa Nui statues are easily recognized
02:34 thanks to their peculiar faces.
02:36 They have long noses, wide chins, rectangular ears,
02:41 heavy brows, and deeply set eyes.
02:44 It is quite curious that the nostrils
02:48 curl in the way fish hooks do.
02:50 (gentle music)
02:53 Firstly, people thought that the statues
02:57 were made up only by their heads,
02:59 but surprisingly, it turned out that there are full bodies
03:02 that are attached to the heads.
03:04 It was discovered during excavations in May 2012.
03:10 The bodies were just hidden underground.
03:12 In fact, the statues are very tall.
03:18 The biggest one is 33 feet tall and weighs 90 US tons.
03:23 But that's not the record.
03:25 One statue unearthed on the island was incomplete,
03:28 but according to scientific calculations,
03:30 it had to reach 70 feet in height
03:32 and weigh about 297 US tons.
03:36 Still, the heads of the statues,
03:41 visible from the first sight,
03:43 make up 3/8 of each statue's size.
03:46 As for the arms, they were carved against the bodies,
03:49 resting in different positions.
03:50 Most statues, 834 out of 887,
03:59 were carved from the material called tuff,
04:01 which is, in fact, compressed volcanic ash.
04:05 Curiously, all the statues, except one group, face inland.
04:11 It means their backs are turned to the ocean.
04:14 Perhaps the reason for that was the belief
04:16 that the statues were the protectors of the villagers.
04:19 That's why they overlooked the settlement.
04:22 The only statues not fitting into this pattern
04:25 can be found at Ahuakivi,
04:27 a sacred place for the people of Rapa Nui.
04:29 There is a unique statue on the island.
04:36 It is the only statue which was found in a kneeling position.
04:39 Its name is Tukuturi.
04:44 Scientists believe that the statue depicts an ancient singer.
04:48 His position resembles the one people took at the festival of Rui.
04:52 The head of the statue is lifted quite high,
04:54 and you can even notice a beard.
04:57 Tukuturi looks much more human-like than the other statues.
05:00 Its smaller size and the unusual material the statue is made of,
05:05 red punapua stone,
05:06 are the things that make it stand out among the rest.
05:13 All these facts are quite intriguing, right?
05:15 Keep watching. There are several mysteries to unravel.
05:19 People keep wondering how the statues of such huge weight
05:26 have been distributed all around the island.
05:29 What is more, when Europeans first arrived at the island in 1722,
05:34 they found a small local population,
05:37 just between one and a half and three thousand people.
05:40 How could it correlate with the hundreds of statues on the island?
05:44 Surely, there had been numerous theories about how the statues had been moved.
05:48 One of the most popular ones among the lovers of mysteries
05:52 was the belief that the statues had been created and moved by aliens.
05:56 But even if you like this theory, we are sorry to debunk it.
06:00 The stone the statues were built from originates from the island itself.
06:04 The birthplace of most of the material was an extinct volcano
06:08 situated in the northeast of Easter Island and not another planet.
06:13 The mystery surrounding the way Rapa Nui people could move the statues
06:18 challenged the researchers, not letting them back off.
06:22 In the 80s, some of them decided to recreate a statue
06:25 and check the possibility of moving it around.
06:29 They were to use only the tools that could be available for the Aborigines.
06:33 It seemed impossible to do.
06:36 But a bit later, an American archaeologist succeeded in moving a 10 US ton copy.
06:44 Several decades passed, and another group of American scientists
06:48 proved that the islanders could tie ropes encircling the huge statues
06:52 and move them with a walking motion.
06:55 They backed up their theory with practice,
06:57 moving a full-sized replica for 330 feet using this method.
07:06 Actually, their idea can explain why Rapa Nui folklore
07:10 states that the statues were walking with the help of magic.
07:13 It explains the way the statues were transported to their designated places.
07:19 But what about the remaining question?
07:21 How could a handful of inhabitants create such magnificent and numerous monuments?
07:27 A new study has been conducted recently to specify the maximum number of the inhabitants
07:32 in the heyday of the island's civilization.
07:35 The results arrived, and they were quite unexpected.
07:38 It turned out that as many as 17,500 people could comfortably live on the island.
07:45 At least 19% of the land could be covered with the fields of sweet potatoes
07:50 that used to be the main source of food for the population.
07:54 What is more, the islanders consumed quite a lot of seafood and fish.
07:59 So, knowing these numbers,
08:01 you can see that there were enough people to create the stone masterpieces.
08:06 But what happened to them?
08:07 Why did they disappear?
08:10 At first, it was believed that the reason for such a decrease of the population was an ecocide.
08:16 The natives cut out large forests and palm trees,
08:20 making spare room for moving the statues around as well as agriculture.
08:25 They thought the trees were going to grow back fast enough.
08:28 It was a misleading concept.
08:30 The deterioration of the environment resulted in hunger,
08:34 and this, in turn, led to wars and cannibalism.
08:38 Nowadays, however, such a theory has been proven wrong.
08:42 First of all, Rapa Nui inhabitants seem to be very talented agricultural engineers.
08:48 They deliberately fertilized the fields with the volcanic rock.
08:52 In fact, another research has shown that people had been living on the island for many centuries,
08:57 and the population only started to decrease when Europeans began visiting.
09:03 So, a much more realistic explanation is also very tragic.
09:08 South American raids in the pursuit of slaves frequented the island throughout the 19th century.
09:14 Half of the aborigines were taken away.
09:17 What is more, European traders brought to the island new diseases,
09:21 which the locals hadn't been protected from, and introduced enforced migration.
09:27 It led to the fatal decline of the nation that presented the world
09:31 with such a miracle as the mystery of Easter Island.
09:34 Have you heard these facts before?
09:39 Share your opinion and ideas in the comments below.
09:42 Hit the like button below the video and click subscribe to join us on the bright side.
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