Article: Theorising

The 400 or so enormous stone statues, or moai, that dot the landscape of Easter Island have puzzled visitors ever since the arrival of the first Europeans. Weighing up to 150 tonnes, and some of them as tall as a five-storey building, they were first carved in a volcanic crater and then transported and erected on huge stone platforms all over the island. Yet Easter Island’s Polynesian population had possessed no cranes, wheels, machines, metal tools, draft animals or any means other than human muscle power to move the statues. How had the islanders managed to transport and erect them?

Many theories have been proposed as to the origins of the moai. Thor Heyerdahl’s famous Kon-Tiki expedition attempted to prove that visitors from South America’s Inca empire were responsible. Others have argued that the statues were constructed by extra-terrestrials who were stranded on Easter Island and later rescued. Now, based on evidence from the oral traditions of the islanders, and experiments using different transport methods, a clearer idea is emerging of how this amazing engineering feat was achieved. One of the most plausible theories is that parallel wooden rails were constructed, and that the statues were dragged along these rails on wooden sledges. This is the way that, in other Pacific islands, heavy wooden canoes used to be transported. Another theory suggests that the islanders used a complicated system of ropes to rock the upright statues, making them “walk” to their final destination.

But whatever means they used for transporting and erecting the moai, at the very least they would have needed heavy logs and strong ropes. Yet, when the first Europeans arrived, there was not a single tree on the island. In fact, apart from a few low bushes, it is the most treeless island in Polynesia. Where were all the trees that provided the rope and timber that would have been needed?