Mystery of Easter Island and the Moai

Mystery of Easter Island and the Moai
On the day of Passover in 1722, Dutch explorers landed on Easter Island or Easter Island. A civilization that isolated by the Pacific ocean area of ​​4,000 km will soon meet with the outside culture for the first time. But the Dutch explorers who arrived on the scene found something strange, an island which is decorated by hundreds of giant stone statues and a culture that was not as primitive as they think. Where are these people? Why and how do they make the giant stone statues that? Modern science is still trying to arrange the puzzle pieces.


History 
Easter Island is currently located in the territory of Chile country, precisely in the south Pacific Ocean. The first encounter between the inhabitants of the island Rapa Nui or Easter, as the locals call it, the Dutch explorer was a tremendous culture shock. Some of the sailors killed 10 indigenous people in just a few minutes after they landed. Not to mention natural disasters that followed. Island's population shrank from 12,000 people to 111 people in just a few centuries. Until now, the people who inhabit the island of Easter is known to have lineage Chile - that it raises a new puzzle. Nothing could be asked about the origins of the islanders. Only Knowledge of science is the only hope to dismantle the mystery of this mysterious rise and fall of civilizations.

Where did they come?

The science of genetics has been successfully answered the first question: Where did the islanders come from? where did they sail? In the 1950s, a world famous explorer named Thor Heyerdahl showed that it is possible to sail from South America to Easter Island via the ocean. Thor later theorized that the Easter Island natives are descendants of the explorers of South America.
However, the technology provides another conclusion. Research on DNA from a skull excavated from the island indicate that the DNA it contains a "fingerprint" called "Polynesian Motif". This indicates that native Easter Island is a Polynesian people. The Polynesian sailors sailed from west to east, a journey that marks the beginning of the Polynesian adventure. Thor Hayerdahl theory irrefutable.
Other research on Easter Island artifacts using carbon indicate that Polynesian sailors arrived on Easter Island around 700 AD. And the evidence shows that 1,000 years later, still live in an isolated Polynesian island measuring 22 X 11 Km's.
The Easter islanders live from fishing and farming. Initially estimated its population numbered 12,000 people. The success of building a culture where it is manifested by a monumental work, a work that remains a mystery to this day, the moai statues.
 

How do they make the sculpture?

Moai has raised curiosity the first time since its discovery in 1722. None of the statue that stands when scientists arrived on the scene. The statues that stand today are the result of repairs and preparation undertaken by scientists. The question is, how can a stone-age societies create, carve statues and move it into place? and for what?
Nowadays we can find the 900 moai on Easter Island with all stages of construction are different. Some of the statues weigh up to 80 tons each, twice that of a stone Stonehenge in England. And outside the usual, where the establishment of the statue is about 16 miles from the place of origin of the stone was taken. How do they move the heavy stone, and that far? This question is not answered until today. 

 
Then, for what they make of the statue? Scientists today can only trust the legend local residents about the purpose of making statues. An archaeologist Sergio Rapu called moai found that the name means "the face of our ancestors alive" and he also found that at first the statues that have eyes. He believes that the inhabitants built the statue as the worship of their ancestors. The face of the statue that overlooks the ocean and back to the township is believed to be the way their ancestors to protect and maintain the island's inhabitants.


Periods of violent

But the protection of our forefathers fell apart in the 1600s. Moai demolished. Legend tells of hard times, terror and cannibalism. Archaeological evidence suggests this is such skulls were found buried on the island. Looks like the residents to kill each other. This incident occurred at the same time with reduced populations of birds and animals commonly eaten.
An ancient woodcut engravings showing the emaciated people on it, referring to the events of starvation. Starvation events may have brought the Easter islanders eat each other friends. Island's population has exceeded the growth of natural resources.
Other evidence supporting a study conducted by John Flenley. He found evidence that at one time, the island was filled with palm trees. But the Dutch explorers who arrived on the island in 1722 said that the island has very few trees. Once again, the events of the disappearance of these trees are believed to precede civil war among the population. Limitations of the tree cause they can not make a boat to catch fish. Because of that famine struck. Soil erosion hit the island several times and no ships to escape. Flenley believe that Easter Island is an example of a systematic ecological destruction.
 

Resource recovery

In the event of famine and the destruction of society, why the Dutch explorer who landed in 1722 said that they found a population of healthy and fertile wheat field? The answer lies in a place on the island named Orongo, a cliff located between a volcano and the small island in the sea. There was found an ancient woodcut that shows the "Birdman" or "bird man".
Historical records indicate the presence of a contest between the tribes on the island. Each tribe sent one person to compete with each other about 1 mile swim toward the ocean and then climb a cliff there to take a bird's nest. Which tribe won, then the head of his tribe would be the leader of the island for a year and he had the right to allocate the limited food sources. In the period of violence and underdevelopment, democracy enforced until prosperity returned to the island. Yes, they managed to overcome the natural challenges with the "Birdman", however the island was not ready to face their biggest disaster that will soon come.



End of story

Hunger is not the greatest disaster for the inhabitants of the island. The biggest disaster for them is called human beings, namely the Dutch explorers who arrived there in 1722. Is a custom for the past few centuries explorers to seek new territories in the world. And with them, also brought new diseases are immediately transmitted to the local population. Of a bone that was found buried on the island, found the remains of the disease Syphilis.
 

And the destruction of the island's population were finalized by the arrival of slave traders from Peru in 1862. They arrested and carried off 1500 inhabitants, one third of the island's population at that time. They were taken to South America, and within one year, from around 1,500 people, only the remaining 15 people who are still alive. 15 people were then brought back to Easter Island. Damn, from among the 15 people that there is a contagious disease so smallpox disease endemic to the other inhabitants of the island and leave only 111 people living on the island in 1877.
 

So, what can we get when we look at the life of the islanders leaden Passover? Mystery of Easter Island has a lot of successful disclosed, but there is an important lesson from the history of this island. In times of rise and fall of violent culture, there is a victory that earned the residents. They survive the difficult times, and it is reflected in the philosophy of 'Birdman', and this philosophy is more valuable to mankind than was studied by Moai and Easter Island itself.