Geographically, Easter Island is located in the eastern Pacific Ocean and is the most distant from the coast of Chile. There is not a single tree on the island, it is covered only with sparse grass. There are also no rivers or lakes; rainwater accumulates in the craters of volcanoes. But once upon a time it was covered with jungle, in which life was in full swing. Where did the trees go, and with them the little “jungle people”, flora and fauna? Everything was sacrificed by local residents on the altar of their pride and rivalry. And it is directly related to the main mystery of the island - huge stone idols.

The name of the island itself is already unusual. The island was first discovered in 1722 by Dutch sailors on the first day of Easter week. By the way, the residents themselves call their island much more majestic: Te-Pito-o-Te-Whenua, which means “Navel of the Universe”. There are also more modest names: Big Oar and Skygazers. The first thing that amazed the Dutch sailors who set foot on the island was their meeting with a completely white man, clearly of a European type. In addition, tattoos were widespread among the natives. They painted their bodies with great skill with various images of animals and birds. And this despite the fact that no living creatures could be found on the island, except for rats and lizards.

In addition to rock inscriptions, “kohau” have reached us - special tablets made of shiny wood, covered with hieroglyphic writing. The engraving was made with a piece of obsidian or a sharp shark tooth. From them you can reconstruct the course of events and find out what really happened on Easter Island.

The island was settled around 1200 by American Indians who arrived there by canoe. According to legend, there were only two canoes, but each could accommodate a large family. This type is known as "short-eared". Then came the second wave of settlement of the island - it is unknown how (most likely as a result of a shipwreck), a group of people with European facial features ended up there: fair skin, red or blond hair, narrow noses. Because of their habit of wearing massive earrings that pull down their earlobes, the local tribe nicknamed them “long-eared.” They brought with them their own culture, religion, as well as a lot of useful knowledge on construction, gardening, and agriculture. Realizing their privileged position, the whites seized power on the island, effectively enslaving the local population.

At first, both tribes coexisted peacefully. There was plenty of food, the jungle provided wood and palm leaves for building huts, and tropical fruits for food. The ocean provided fish, shellfish and shells. But under such favorable conditions, the population of the island began to grow, and soon a war broke out for resources and territory. The island was too small, it could accommodate and feed only a few thousand people, and at that time the population was already about 15 thousand.

The “long-eared” tribe mastered the art of carving stone idols and jealously guarded their secret from the main population of the island. Because of this, the statues were surrounded by mystical horror and superstition. The statues were hewn out with stone hammers and then moved to the installation site by dragging them in a lying position with the help of a large number of people. In order to lift the statue onto the pedestal, an ingenious device of stones and logs was used, which acted as levers.

In the native language, the statues are called moai. All of them are monolithic, that is, carved from solid stone, or more precisely, from compressed volcanic ash. The largest of them reaches a weight of 270 tons and a height of 20 meters. However, it is unfinished and is located in abandoned quarries. There are just under 1,000 statues on the island. All of them look inland, and only seven of them are installed on the coast, looking out to the sea. They are believed to symbolize the first white-skinned settlers who arrived and became the ancestors of the tribe. There are also about 400 more moai left unfinished at the foot of the Rano Raraku volcano.

Almost all legends tell that the statues themselves came to the installation site. This led researchers to believe that the statues were still transported in a vertical position. In 1986, Czech scientists conducted a corresponding experiment, which showed that a group of 17 people, using ropes, could freely move a statue weighing 20 tons in a standing position.

The main reason for the disruption of the ecosystem on Easter Island is considered to be deforestation. The wood was used to make canoes and simply burned as fuel. But mainly the logs were used as sleds to transport stone moai to their installation site. As a result, by 1600 the forests were completely destroyed. When there was nothing left to build houses from, people moved to live in caves or tried to build precarious reed huts. Fishing has almost disappeared: there are no canoes or nets that were previously woven from vines. The uncovered soil was subject to severe erosion - washed away by rain and weathered - resulting in severely reduced yields. All animals and birds disappeared. The only source of meat remained chickens, which began to be highly valued and protected around the clock from thieves.

When food supplies began to run low and the threat of starvation arose, the “long-ears” decided to clear the island of stones to make more room for sowing grain. The “children of the gods” did not want to carry the stones themselves, and, as usual, they tried to force the “short-eared” ones to work. However, exhausted by hunger and despair, the people refused, and an uprising broke out.

After a quick and bloody massacre, the only “white” was left alive, and the rest were killed and burned. Naturally, after this skirmish, the aborigines wanted to destroy the gods of the hated whiteskins. They knocked down all the moai they could. Eyes made from coral were knocked out of the statues, and stones were specially placed at the supposed place where the neck would fall so that the head would be separated from the body. The most massive moai still remained standing in their places.

However, it was no longer possible to save the island. The population was overcome by despair and gradually began to degenerate. Brutal internecine wars began - after all, what else could people do who have lost their culture and have limited food supply? Slavery appeared on the island and cannibalism began to flourish.

The entire population of the island was divided into a dozen tribes, which were in a state of continuous war. When the leader declared the beginning of war, the natives painted their bodies black at night, secretly prepared weapons, and attacked their enemy in the morning. In case of victory, a large feast was held, at which the main treat was the meat of the vanquished. Cannibalism existed there for a long time and was gradually eradicated with the arrival of Christian missionaries.

However, "guests from big land"brought with them not only good. Since the slave trade flourished in those days, the inhabitants of the island were stolen and taken away for sale. Information has been preserved that in 1808 the Americans forcibly brought natives onto their ship and put them in chains. It was planned to use them to hunt seals. A few days later, the captured men were brought onto the deck and freed from their chains. Many of them immediately jumped overboard, not realizing that they were far from their native land. Since they had been excellent swimmers and divers since childhood, after some time the Americans left attempts to catch them and sailed away, leaving the natives to certain death on the open sea.

European governments managed to ban the slave trade and oblige the inhabitants of Easter Island to be returned to their homeland. However, in doing so, they contracted the smallpox virus, and soon the epidemic claimed the lives of most people, especially the priests. With them died hopes for the restoration of the culture and religion of the island. All together, this led to the fact that by 1877 only 111 people remained on the island. What sharp changes in the course of one century - from extreme overpopulation to the threat of complete extinction!

Today the population of Easter Island is about 2,000 people, but only a handful of them actually belong to the indigenous tribe. Researchers have restored about 50 moai and returned them to their original ceremonial sites. Attempts are being made to restore green spaces, but so far no significant results have been achieved. In general, the history of Easter Island can be called a history of thoughtless consumption of resources, a history of human pride and greed. It makes sense to wonder if we're making the mistake of Easter Islanders right now by cutting down forests and increasing the ozone hole. The population is still growing, its needs are still increasing - will our entire planet suffer the fate of a small island in the Pacific Ocean?

Easter Island
(historical excursion)

(from the series "On the outskirts of the planet")

Easter Island(or Rapa Nui) is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, and thanks largely to its isolation, Rapa Nui's history is unique. It is part of Polynesia(Oceania subregion). There are many scientific hypotheses and guesses regarding the time of settlement of Rapa Nui, race local residents, the reasons for the death of a unique civilization, whose representatives built huge stone sculptures ( moai) and knew writing ( rongorongo), which has not yet been deciphered by linguists. With the discovery of the island in 1722 by the Dutch traveler Jacob Roggeveen and the appearance of the first Catholic missionaries, fundamental changes took place in the life of the Rapanui people: the hierarchical relationships that existed in the past were forgotten, and the practice of cannibalism was stopped. In the mid-19th century, local residents became the target of the slave trade, which resulted in the death of most of Rapanui people, and with them many elements of the unique local culture were lost. On September 9, 1888, the island was annexed by Chile. In the 20th century, Rapa Nui became an object of great interest for researchers trying to unravel the secrets of the disappeared Rapa Nui civilization (among them was the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl). During this time, there were some improvements in the island's infrastructure and the quality of life of the Rapa Nui people. In 1995 national park"Rapa Nui" became an object World Heritage UNESCO. In the 21st century, the island continues to attract tourists from all over the world, and tourism has become the main source of income for the local population.

Rongo-rongo, a writing system that
has not yet been deciphered by linguists.
Fragment of a small table from Santiago

Time of settlement of Easter Island
Radiocarbon dating data obtained by scientists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo from the University of California (USA) during the study of eight samples of charcoal from the bay Anakens, indicate that the island of Rapa Nui was inhabited around 1200 AD. BC, which is 400-800 years later than previously thought, and only 100 years before trees began to disappear on the island. Previously, it was believed that the colonization of Rapa Nui occurred in 800-1200. n. e., and the environmental disaster, which was characterized by the disappearance of palm trees on the island, began at least 400 years after settlement. However, the issue of colonization of the island has not yet been reached, and it is likely that this figure can be refuted.

The slope of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku, strewn with stone moai sculptures

Theories of the settlement of Easter Island
There are even more hypotheses regarding where the first (and subsequent) settlers to the island came from. So, for example, a follower American settlement theories of the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl believes that the islands of Polynesia were inhabited by American Indians in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. immigrants from Peru, who were subsequently almost completely destroyed by a new wave of emigrants who sailed from the northwestern coast of North America by 1000-1300. n. e. There are also adherents among scientists Melanesian theory according to which the island was inhabited by Melanesians - a group of peoples from the islands Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Australia and New Guinea. Among specialists studying Easter Island, there are other hypotheses (settlement from the islands of Polynesia, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, etc.). Thus, throughout the 20th century, many scientific hypotheses have been proposed that identify several centers from where Rapa Nui was settled, but the final point has not been set.

Activities of the ancient Rapanui people
Easter Island is a treeless island with infertile volcanic soil. In the past, as now, the slopes of volcanoes were used for planting gardens and growing bananas. According to Rapa Nui legends, some plant species were introduced by the king Hotu Matu'a, who sailed to the island from the mysterious homeland of Marae-renga. This could really happen, since the Polynesians, settling new lands, brought with them the seeds of plants that had important practical significance.

The ancient Rapanui people were very knowledgeable about agriculture. Therefore, the island could easily feed several thousand people. One of the island's problems has always been the shortage of fresh water. There are no deep rivers on Rapa Nui, and water after rains easily seeps through the soil and flows towards the ocean. The Rapanui people built small wells, mixed fresh water with salt water, and sometimes they drank just salt water.

There are no deep rivers on Rapa Nui, and water after rains
easily seeps through the soil and flows towards the ocean

In the past, Polynesians, when setting out in search of new islands, always took with them three animals: a pig, a dog and a chicken. Only chicken was brought to Easter Island - later a symbol of well-being among the ancient Rapanui people. The Polynesian rat is not a domestic animal, but it was also introduced by the first settlers of Easter Island, who considered it a delicacy. Subsequently, gray rats, brought by Europeans, appeared on the island.

The waters surrounding Easter Island are teeming with fish, especially off the rocks of Motu Nui (a small islet southwest of Rapa Nui), where seabirds breed in large numbers. Fish was the favorite food of the ancient Rapanui people, and during the winter months there was a taboo on catching it. On Easter Island, a huge number of fish hooks were used in the past. Some of them were made from human bones, they were called mangai-iwi, others are made of stone, they were called mangai-kahi and was mainly used for tuna fishing. Only privileged residents had hooks made of polished stone. After the death of the owner, they were placed in his grave. The very existence of fishhooks indicates the development of the ancient Rapanui civilization, since the technique of polishing stone is quite complex, as is the achievement of such smooth forms. Fishhooks were often made from enemy bones. According to the beliefs of the Rapanui people, this is how it was transmitted to the fisherman mana dead person, that is, his strength. The Rapanui also hunted turtles, which are often mentioned in local legends.

An ancient fishhook made from a human femur,
or mangai-iwi, from Easter Island.
Consists of two parts connected by a rope

The ancient Rapanui people did not have as many canoes (the Rapanui name is vaka rap. vaka), as, for example, other peoples of Polynesia plowed the waves of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, there was a clear shortage of tall and large trees.

Very little is known about the structure of ancient Rapanui society that existed before the 19th century. Due to the export of the local population to Peru, where they were used as slaves, epidemics of diseases brought to the island by Europeans, and the adoption of Christianity, Rapanui society forgot about the previously existing hierarchical relationships, family and tribal ties. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were ten tribes, or mata, on Rapa Nui, whose members considered themselves descendants of eponymous ancestors, who, in turn, were descendants of the first king of the island Hotu Matu'a. According to Rapa Nui legend, after the death of Hotu Matu'a the island was divided between his sons, who gave names to all the Rapa Nui tribes. The ancient Rapanui people were extremely warlike. As soon as hostility began between the tribes, their warriors painted their bodies black and prepared their weapons for battle at night. After the victory, a feast was held at which the victorious warriors ate the meat of the defeated warriors. The cannibals themselves on the island were called kai-tangata. Cannibalism existed on the island until the Christianization of all the inhabitants of the island.

Anakena Bay, where, according to Rapa Nui legend, King Hotu Matu landed

Disappearance of the Rapa Nui civilization
When Europeans first landed on the island in the 18th century, Rapa Nui was a treeless area. However, recent research work on the island, including the study of pollen samples, suggests that in the distant past, during the settlement of Rapa Nui, Easter Island was covered with dense vegetation, including extensive forested areas. As the population increased, these forests were cut down, and the liberated lands were immediately sown with agricultural plants. In addition, the wood was used as fuel, material for the construction of houses, canoes for fishing, and also for carrying the huge statues of the island, or moai. As a result, by about 1600 the forests on the island were completely destroyed. The construction of the moai ceased at this time.

Sketch by Ludwig Lewis Choris (1816) from the book "Atlas in Pictures of the Voyage around the World of the frigate Venus, 1830-1839",
showing two types of Rapanui canoes. One of them is with an outrigger, the other is without.
Oars are also depicted.

The loss of forest cover has led to severe soil erosion and, as a result, crop yields have declined. The only source of meat on the island was chickens, which began to be highly revered and protected from thieves. Due to catastrophic changes, the population began to decline on Rapa Nui. After 1600, Rapa Nui society gradually began to degrade, slavery appeared, and cannibalism began to flourish.

However, this theory of the disappearance of the Rapa Nui civilization is not the only one. According to the research of scientist Terry Hunt, deforestation on Rapa Nui occurred largely not due to local residents, but as a result of eating the seeds of local plants by Polynesian rats, which were brought to the island by the first settlers. And the sharp decline in population (according to the same theory) only dates back to the European Rapa Nui period, when most of the islanders were enslaved and sent to South American or Pacific plantations.

Europeans on the island
Europeans discovered Easter Island only in 1722. On July 16, 1721, the Dutch explorer, Admiral Jacob Roggeveen, sailed from Amsterdam on the ships Thienhoven, Arend and Afrikaanse Galley in search of Davis Land. On the evening of April 5, 1722, the crew of the main ship Afrikaanse Galley noticed land on the horizon. On the same day, Admiral Roggeveen named the island in honor of the Christian holiday of Easter.

Dutch traveler, Admiral Jacob Roggeveen

The next morning, a canoe with a bearded local man, clearly surprised by the large sea vessel, approached the Dutch ship. Only on April 10 did the Dutch land on land. Roggeveen described in detail the Rapanui people and the coordinates of Easter Island. Having seen unusual statues of enormous size, the traveler was greatly surprised that “naked savages” could build such colossi. It has also been suggested that the statues were made of clay. However, the first meeting of the Rapanui people with the Europeans was not without bloodshed: 9-10 local residents were killed by Dutch sailors. At the time of the discovery of the island by Roggeveen, about two to three thousand local residents lived on it, however archaeological research showed that a hundred years earlier 10-15 thousand people lived on the island.

In 1816, the Russian ship “Rurik” sailed to the island under the command of Otto Evstafievich Kotzebue, who led the round-the-world sea voyage.
However, the Russians failed to land on Rapa Nui due to the hostility of the Rapa Nui.

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, many sailors visited the island. Often the purpose of expeditions to the island was to capture Rapanui people as slaves. The manifestation of violence by foreigners towards the local inhabitants of the island led to the fact that the Rapanui people began to greet the ships with hostility. The year 1862 was a turning point in the history of Rapa Nui. At this time, the Peruvian economy was booming and was increasingly in need of labor. One of its sources was Easter Island, whose inhabitants became the object of the slave trade in the second half of the 19th century. On December 12, 1862, 8 Peruvian ships landed in Hanga Roa Bay. Several islanders, unsuspectingly, boarded the ship and were immediately captured and thrown into prison cells. In total, about 1,407 Rapa Nui were captured, who were defenseless at the sight of firearms. Among the prisoners were King Kamakoi of Rapa Nui and his son. In Callao and the Chincha Islands, the Peruvians sold captives to the owners of guano mining companies. Due to humiliating conditions, hunger and disease, out of more than 1,000 islanders, about a hundred remained alive. Only thanks to the intervention of the French Government, Bishop Tepano Jossano, as well as the Governor of Tahiti, supported by Britain, was it possible to stop the Rapanui slave trade. After negotiations with the Peruvian government, an agreement was reached according to which the surviving Rapanui were to be repatriated back to their homeland. But due to illness, mainly tuberculosis and smallpox, only 15 islanders returned home. The smallpox virus brought with them eventually led to a sharp drop in the population on Easter Island - to about 600 people. Most of the priests of the island died, who buried with them all the secrets of Rapa Nui. The following year, missionaries landing on the island found no signs of the recently existing Rapa Nui civilization.

Antique wooden Easter Island figurines depicting (from left to right): the seal man (tangata-iku), height 32 cm; two figures in the middle of the aku-aku, rear and side views; emaciated ancestor (Moai kawa-kava), height about half a meter, you should pay attention to the image of the spine and ribs. On the far right is a bird-man with a beak (tangata-manu). Photo from the book by Francis Mazières

Since 1862, the active conversion of the Rapanui people to Christianity began. The leaders were not very keen to change their faith. This is due to the fact that they did not want to give up a polygamous family. The leaders believed that if they had one wife each, they would lose influence in the tribe. However, gradually the leaders and all the Rapanui people adopted Christianity. Since the 1830s, Chile has become increasingly interested in the island. And, having defeated Bolivia and Peru in the Pacific War of 1879-1883, this country began active colonization of the lands. On September 9, 1888, Captain Policarpo Toro Hurtado landed on the island and announced annexation Rapa Nui Chile. The local church came under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, and in 1896 the island became part of the Valparaiso region. Even in the 20th century, the rights of the Rapanui people were quite limited for a long time.

Changes began to be observed in the mid-60s. In 1967, the construction of the Mataveri airstrip was completed on the island. Since that time, regular flights to Santiago and Tahiti appeared, and the life of the Rapa Nui people began to change for the better: in 1967, regular water supply to homes appeared, and in 1970, electricity. Tourism began to develop, which is currently the most important source of income for the local population. Since 1966, local administration elections began to be held on the island.

The natives who greeted the Dutch sailors on Easter Sunday 1722 seemed to have nothing in common with the giant statues of their island. Detailed geological analysis and new archaeological finds have made it possible solve the mystery these sculptures and learn about tragic fate stonemasons.

The island fell into disrepair, his stone sentries fell, and many of them drowned in the ocean. Only the pitiful remnants of the mysterious army managed to rise with outside help.

Briefly about Easter Island

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui in local parlance, is a tiny (165.5 sq. km) piece of land lost in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Tahiti and Chile. It is the most isolated inhabited (about 2000 people) place in the world - the nearest Town (about 50 people) is 1900 km away, on Pitcairn Island, where the rebels found refuge in 1790 Bounty team.

The coastline of Rapa Nui is decorated hundreds of scowling native idols they call them "moai". Each is hewn from a single piece of volcanic rock; the height of some is almost 10 m. All the statues are made according to the same model: a long nose, drawn-out earlobes, a gloomily compressed mouth and a protruding chin over a stocky torso with arms pressed to the sides and palms resting on the stomach.

Many "moai" installed with astronomical precision. For example, in one group, all seven statues look at the point (photo on the left) where the sun sets on the evening of the equinox. More than a hundred idols lie in the quarry, not completely hewn or almost finished and, apparently, waiting to be sent to their destination.

For more than 250 years, historians and archaeologists could not understand how and why, with a shortage of local resources, primitive islanders, completely cut off from the rest of the world, managed to process giant monoliths, drag them for kilometers over rough terrain and place them vertically. A variety of more or less scientific theories, and many experts believed that Rapa Nui was at one time inhabited by a highly developed people, possibly a carrier of the American people, who died as a result of some catastrophe.

Uncover the secret of the island allowed detailed analysis of its soil samples. The truth about what happened here can serve as a sobering lesson for people around the world.

Born sailors. Rapanui people once hunted dolphins from canoes dug out of palm trunks. However, the Dutch who discovered the island saw boats made of many planks fastened together - there were no large trees left.

History of the discovery of the island

On April 5, Easter Day 1722, three Dutch ships under the command of Captain Jacob Roggeveen stumbled upon an island in the Pacific Ocean that was not shown on any map. When they dropped anchor off its eastern shore, a few natives sailed up to them in their boats. Roggeveen was disappointed, The islanders' boats, he wrote: “poor and fragile... with a light frame covered with many small planks”. The boats were leaking so much that the rowers had to bail out water every now and then. The landscape of the island also did not warm the captain’s soul: “Its desolate appearance suggests extreme poverty and barrenness.”.

Conflict of civilizations. Easter Island idols now adorn museums in Paris and London, but obtaining these exhibits was not easy. The islanders knew each “moai” by name and did not want to part with any of them. When the French removed one of these statues in 1875, a crowd of natives had to be held back with rifle shots.

Despite the friendly behavior of the brightly colored natives, the Dutch came ashore, prepared for the worst, and lined up in a combat square under the amazed gaze of the owners, who had never seen other people, not to mention firearms.

The visit soon turned dark tragedy. One of the sailors fired. Then he claimed that he allegedly saw the islanders lifting stones and making threatening gestures. The “guests,” on Roggeveen’s orders, opened fire, killing 10-12 hosts on the spot and wounding as many more. The islanders fled in horror, but then returned to the shore with fruits, vegetables and poultry - to appease the ferocious newcomers. Roggeveen noted in his diary an almost bare landscape with rare bushes no higher than 3 m. On the island, which he named in honor of Easter, interest was aroused only unusual statues (heads), standing along the shore on massive stone platforms (“ahu”).

At first these idols shocked us. We could not understand how the islanders, who did not have strong ropes and a lot of construction wood for making mechanisms, were nevertheless able to erect statues (idols) at least 9 m high, and quite voluminous ones at that.

Scientific approach. French traveler Jean Francois La Perouse landed on Easter Island in 1786, accompanied by a chronicler, three naturalists, an astronomer and a physicist. As a result of 10 hours of research, he suggested that in the past the area was wooded.

Who were the Rapanui people?

People settled Easter Island only around the year 400. It is generally accepted that they sailed on huge boats from Eastern Polynesia. Their language is close to the dialects of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. Ancient fishing hooks and stone adzes of the Rapanui people found during excavations are similar to the tools used by the Marquesanes.

At first, European sailors encountered naked islanders, but by 19th century they wove their own clothes. However, family heirlooms were more valued than ancient crafts. Men sometimes wore headdresses made from the feathers of birds long extinct on the island. Women wove straw hats. Both of them pierced their ears and wore bone and wooden jewelry in them. As a result, the earlobes were pulled back and hung almost to the shoulders.

Lost Generations - Answers Found

In March 1774, an English captain James Cook discovered about 700 on Easter Island emaciated from the malnutrition of the natives. He suggested that the local economy had been badly damaged by the recent volcanic eruption: this was evidenced by the many stone idols that collapsed from their platforms. Cook was convinced: they were hewn out and placed along the coast by the distant ancestors of the current Rapanui people.

“This work, which took an enormous amount of time, clearly demonstrates the ingenuity and tenacity of those who lived here during the era of the statues’ creation. Today’s islanders almost certainly have no time for this, because they do not even repair the foundations of those that are about to collapse.”

Scientists only recently found the answers to some moai riddles. Analysis of pollen from sediments accumulated in the island's swamps shows that it was once covered with dense forests, thickets of ferns and shrubs. All this was teeming with a variety of game.

Exploring the stratigraphic (and chronological) distribution of finds, scientists discovered in the lower, most ancient layers the pollen of an endemic tree close to the wine palm, up to 26 m high and up to 1.8 m in diameter. Its long, straight, unbranched trunks could serve as excellent rollers for transportation of blocks weighing tens of tons. Pollen of the plant “hauhau” (triumphetta semi-three-lobed) was also found, from the bast of which in Polynesia (and not only) make ropes.

The fact that the ancient Rapanui people had enough food follows from DNA analysis of food remains on excavated dishes. The islanders grew bananas, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, taro, and yams.

The same botanical data demonstrates slow but sure destruction of this idyll. Judging by the contents of swamp sediments, by 800 the forest area was declining. Tree pollen and fern spores are displaced from later layers by charcoal - evidence of forest fires. At the same time, woodcutters worked more and more actively.

Wood shortages began to seriously affect the islanders' way of life, especially their menus. A study of fossilized garbage heaps shows that at one time the Rapa Nui people regularly ate dolphin meat. Obviously, they caught these animals swimming in the open sea from large boats hollowed out from thick palm trunks.

When there was no ship timber left, the Rapanui lost their " ocean fleet", and along with it dolphin meat and ocean fish. In 1786, the chronicler of the French expedition La Perouse wrote that in the sea the islanders only caught shellfish and crabs that lived in shallow waters.

The end of the moai

Stone statues began to appear around the 10th century. They probably personify Polynesian gods or deified local leaders. According to Rapa Nui legends, the supernatural power of “mana” raised the hewn idols, led them to a designated place and allowed them to wander at night, protecting the peace of the makers. Perhaps the clans competed with each other, trying to carve the “moai” larger and more beautiful, and also to place it on a more massive platform than its competitors.

After 1500, practically no statues were made. Apparently, there were no trees left on the devastated island necessary to transport and raise them. Since about the same time, palm pollen has not been found in swamp sediments, and dolphin bones are no longer thrown into garbage dumps. The local fauna is also changing. Disappear all native land birds and half sea birds.

The food supply is getting worse, and the population, which once numbered about 7,000 people, is declining. Since 1805, the island has suffered from raids by South American slave traders: they take away some of the natives, many of the remaining ones suffer from smallpox contracted from strangers. Only a few hundred Rapa Nui survive.

Residents of Easter Island erected "moai", hoping for the protection of the spirits embodied in the stone. Ironically, it was this monumental program that brought their land to an environmental disaster. And the idols rise as eerie monuments to thoughtless management and human recklessness.

Based on the name of the island. But the island was created long before the concept of Easter arose, and there are much more anomalies in it, so we learn new knowledge immediately after the end of the world :)

Easter Island is an island in Pacific Ocean, the most distant from land of all famous islands(as a result, tourism to this island is expensive). The island is of volcanic origin and is located at the intersection of several lithospheric plates (underneath it there is a fault boundary of giant tectonic plates that seem to divide the ocean floor; the Nazca and Pacifica oceanic plates and the axial zones of underwater ocean ridges converge on the island). Well, the most famous attraction is stone statues:

The island has the shape of a right triangle, the hypotenuse of which is the southeastern shore. The sides of this “triangle” have lengths of 16, 18 and 24 km. Inactive volcanoes rise in the corners of the island:

1. Rano Kao (324 m)
2. Pua Katiki (377 m)
3. Terevaka (539 m - highest point islands)

Let's start our exploration of Easter Island with stone statues. All stone statues are monolithic, meaning they are carved from a single piece of stone rather than glued or fastened together. Ancient craftsmen carved “moai” - stone statues on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, over a distance of more than 10 km. The height of most idols ranges from five to seven meters, while later sculptures reached 10 and 12 meters.

The statues had caps made of red pumice on their heads, and their eyes were painted:

The tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, has a sponge-like structure and easily crumbles even with a slight impact on it. so the average weight of a “moai” does not exceed 5 tons.

Stone statues were installed on stone “ahu” - pedestal platforms that reached 150 meters in length and 3 meters in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons from the same pumice.

According to another version, the stone statues of Easter Island are estimated to be much heavier: they say that their weight sometimes reaches more than 20 tons, and their height is more than 6 meters. An unfinished sculpture was found, about 20 meters tall and weighing 270 tons.

There are a total of 997,397 stone moai statues on Easter Island. All moai, except for seven statues, “look” into the interior of the island. These seven statues are also different in that they are located inside the island, and not on the coast. A detailed map of the location of stone statues, as well as other attractions, can be seen in this picture (click to enlarge):

It is also said that there are two types of statues on the island:

1. The first type, without "caps" (45% of total number) are 10-meter giants weighing 80 tons. All of them stand on the slopes of the Ranu Raraku crater chest-deep in sedimentary rocks - this is for the reason that they are much older than the other statues, those with “hats”. The fact that these statues are much older than the second type of moai is also indicated by the fact that traces of erosion on them appeared much more clearly than on the “dwarf” 4-meter statues. In addition, the 10-meter-high giant moai do not have “hat” and their appearance is slightly different from the second type. For example, their faces are narrower.
2. The second type are small 3-4 meter statues (32 percent of the total), which were placed on pedestals (ahu). All ahus stand near the seashore. These moai have oddly shaped “caps”. This type of moai is very well preserved. Their faces are more oval than the narrow-faced statues of the first type.

The erection of statues on Easter Island is a stumbling block among “rationalists” and “otherworlders.” The first claim that all the statues could have been installed on the island ordinary people using ordinary earthly means. Whereas the “otherworlders” cite anything from magic-mana to aliens as the forces behind installing statues.

The Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl in his book “Aku-Aku” gives a description of one of these methods, which was tested in action by local residents. According to the book, information about this method was obtained from one of the few remaining direct descendants of the Moai builders. Thus, one of the Moai, overturned from the pedestal, was put back by using logs slipped under the statue as levers, by swinging which it was possible to achieve small movements of the statue along the vertical axis. The movements were recorded by placing stones of various sizes under the top of the statue and alternating them. The actual transportation of the statues could be carried out using wooden sleds.

Whoever is right, one thing is true: all the statues were made on this very island, in quarries. And from there they were transported to the installation site. How did they find out? It’s very simple: many unfinished idols are in quarries. When looking at them, one gets the impression of a sudden cessation of work on the statues.

The photo shows one of the unfinished stone statues:

And here are a few more unfinished statues on the slope of the volcano:

Let’s dwell on another yet unexplained phenomenon, which, of course, is inferior in scale, but is neck and neck in mystery.

This is the mysterious script of Easter Island. We can say that this is the most mysterious writing in the world. The latter is a fact all the more significant because it is still Polynesian islands writing could not be found.

On Easter Island, writing was discovered on relatively well-preserved wooden tablets, called kohau rongo-rongo in the local dialect. The fact that the wooden planks have survived the darkness of centuries is explained by many scientists by the complete absence of insects on the island. Yet most of them were eventually destroyed. But the culprit for this turned out to be not tree bugs, accidentally introduced by a white man, but the religious fervor of a certain missionary. The story goes that the missionary Eugene Eyraud, who converted the inhabitants of the island to Christianity, forced these writings to be burned as pagan.

Nevertheless, a certain number of tablets have survived. Today, there are no more than two dozen kohau rongorongo in museums and private collections around the world. Many attempts have been made to decipher the contents of the ideogram tablets, but they all ended in failure. By the way, research in recent years has once again confirmed that on the Kohau Rongorongo tablets, each sign conveys only one word, and not the entire text is written on them, but only keywords, the rest were read by the Rapanui people from memory.

There is another interesting fact on the island. So, the first picture in the article shows the heads of statues with underground torsos. So, this image is not far from the truth. So, if you take a good dig around some of the statues, you can dig up some very interesting things:

That is, some of the statues are much larger than they seem. Moreover, it is unknown how they ended up underground: either by themselves, or they were initially buried.

Another mystery of the island is the purpose of the paved roads, the creation of which is lost in the mists of time. On the Island of Silence - another name for the island - there are three of them. And all three end up in the ocean. Based on this, some researchers conclude that the island was once much larger than it is now.

And finally, a trump card that destroys the arguments of the “rationalists”. So, next to Rapanui there is a tiny island of Motunui. This is several hundred meters of steep cliff, dotted with numerous grottoes. Island on the map:

So, a stone platform has been preserved on it, on which statues were once installed, which were later thrown into the sea for some reason. And the question arises - how? How rationally can stone statues be delivered there? No way. Only with the help of unknown forces.

Which, by the way, begs the question: why? If rationalists justify the construction of stone statues at least acceptable - for protection from flooding, or for protection from something else, or as objects of worship, etc., then supporters of the “otherworldly” hypothesis of installing statues simply have nothing to say. Think for yourself: why would people who have supernatural abilities and can carry multi-ton boulders over vast distances do this? After all, they did not worship them: real power and superstition do not go hand in hand...

So the “otherworldly” hypothesis also goes in vain. What remains? The facts remain:

• Easter Island, remote from populated lands for many hundreds of kilometers
• huge multi-ton statues (some are more than half buried in the ground)
• undeciphered script
• roads of unknown purpose
• lack of clear theories of how it was all done.

And it turns out that Easter Island is a mystery that has not yet been solved.

And it won’t be possible if the world ends tomorrow :)

Based on materials from http://agniart.ru/rus/showfile.fcgi?fsmode=articles&filename=16-3/16-3.html and http://www.ufo.obninsk.ru/pashi.htm

No South American traces were found in the genes of the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island.

Moai are the name given to the monolithic stone statues for which Easter Island is primarily known. (Photo: Terry Hunt)

Who doesn’t know the stone statues from Easter Island - giant, nosed sculptures made from compressed volcanic ash? According to local beliefs, they contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island. There are about 900 known statues; They are believed to have been built between 1250 and 1500 AD. e.

But who were these people who created the statues, and how did they populate the island? The nearest continental coast (Chile) is about 3.5 thousand km, the nearest inhabited island is more than 2 thousand km. Thanks to Thor Heyerdahl, we know that you can sail across the ocean between Polynesia and America on a homemade raft. It is likely that populations from Polynesia and America could have mixed on Easter Island at one time, and Polynesian travelers could have populated America. “But probability is not proof,” says Lars Fehren-Schmitz ( Lars Fehren-Schmitz), professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.