From the beaches of Easter Island, there is nothing to see but empty ocean. This island is not surrounded by other islands, as i
t would be if it were part of an archipelago. No other island inhabited by people is as far away from other human civilization. Easter Island is so remote, it can be considered the ultimate island.
Easter Island is even more famous for its enormous stone sculptures or “Moai.” The largest is called “El Gigante,” or "The Giant." It was never moved from the Rano Raraku Quarry, where it was carved. At almost 72 feet (71.93 to be exact), it is about seven stories tall. At an astonishing 176-201 tons, it weighs more than two full 737 airplanes. However, El Gigante was a big project, even for the master movers of Easter Island. Experts are not sure they intended to finish this Moai, and it's unlikely that the islanders could have moved it. In comparison, the largest Moai ever moved and erected is Paro, which is about half the size of El Gigante. Paro stands 33 feet high, and weighs 83 tons.
More about the Moai
The giant statues have been the subject of many conspiracies and myths, but their mysteries have mostly been solved. We know the builders were Polynesian colonizers of the island, the early Rapanui people. We know they were made using volcanic rocks. They were carved mostly from a light-weight rock called tuff and rubbed smooth with a rougher rock called pumice. We know they were likely transported using wooden sledges, log rollers, and ropes. We know they were built between A.D. 1250 and 1500. We also have a good idea why the islanders built them.
These sculptures are often called heads, but their heads are simply over-sized. They also have a full body, which may be half-buried in the dirt. Each Moai represents a specific ancestor, which was placed between the village and the ocean as a protector. The Moais stood guard between home and the chaos of the outer world.
The two major tribes of Easter Island lived in a tropical rain forest, a paradise of food and fishing. This left the islanders plenty of time to devote to building the statues.
Island history
According to resident archaeologist Edmundo Edwards, the Polynesians sailed back and forth across great distances between the Pacific islands. However, they eventually used up all the large trees on their island and could no longer make large canoes. At this point they became trapped. The old middens, or trash heaps, contain smaller and smaller fish bones, showing that the Polynesians could no longer sail out to deep fisheries.
Easter Island is only 45 square miles total, which is about 2/3 the size of Washington, D.C. In the 1500s and 1600s more and more statues were built, and the population grew to around 40,000 people. But around the year 1860, life began to change on the island.
Now, only about 2,000 people live on the island. No trees grow here now except for a few non-native and problematic eucalyptus groves.
A cautionary tale
How could such a smart people come to this end? These islanders navigated vast ocean distances to find tiny islands and engineered complicated projects like the Moai statues. Why were they unable to avoid the foreseeable doom of their tiny island?
It may be easier than we imagine. A few years ago, locals on Easter Island discovered they could catch and sell lobsters from around the island. They caught and sold lobsters until there were no more. Humans ancient and modern can make their own bad luck.
Much is known about the Moai, but there is more to explore on Easter Island. Archaeologists are just starting to study the villages, to learn more about one of the most compelling stories on Earth. As the Easter Islanders discovered, larger and larger statues were not sufficient protection.
Question: In today's society, it is not uncommon for people to connect to information in the form of charts, pictures, or videos. How would you adapt an argument or an explanation presented in this article to use outside of the classroom to reach an audience? Use information from the article to support your answer.
