People around the world are fascinated by how ancient civilizations managed to move massive weights for their iconic monuments without the modern technologies at our disposal today. One of them are the Rapa Nui people and how they transported their enormous moai statues (some weighing more than 80 tons) across the island.
Now, using physics, 3D modeling, and hands-on experimentation, researchers have solidified what locals and legends have long said: the statues actually walked.
A team led by Binghamton University anthropologist Carl Lipo and University of Arizona’s Terry Hunt continue to explore the clever rocking motion to “walk” the moai along specially designed roads.
“It shows that the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out,” said Lipo in a news statement.
Moving Easter Island Statues
(Image Courtesy of Professor Carl Lipo, Binghamton University)
The team has been testing the walking theory for years, challenging the old idea that the statues were hauled flat on wooden sleds or rollers. Earlier experiments showed that once a moai started rocking, it could be moved upright with minimal effort with people on each side tugging with one arm to keep it swaying. “Once you get it moving, it isn’t hard at all,” said Lipo. “The hard part is getting it rocking in the first place.”
To solidify their theory, they wanted to see if this method could also work on the massive moai found on the island. They built high-resolution 3D models and discovered that a key design features of wide D-shaped bases and a slight forward lean of the moai’s would have made the statues easier to rock.
To confirm their findings in real life, they built a 4.35-ton replica moai with those same features. Only 18 people were necessary to walk it 100 meters in 40 minutes, significantly easier than attempting to roll statues vertically on wood.
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The Landscape and Walking Theory
The landscape of Rapa Nui itself supports the walking theory. The island’s ancient roads are about 15-feet wide with a curved cross-section, instead of being flat, and therefore seem perfectly suited for stabilizing rocking statues.
“Every time they’re moving a statue, it looks like they’re making a road,” explained Lipo. “The road is part of moving the statue.”
Many of these roads overlap and run parallel, suggesting the Rapa Nui cleared new paths as they moved statues toward their final destinations.
Walking Theory Stands Alone
So far, no other explanation fits the evidence. “The physics makes sense,” said Lipo. “What we saw experimentally actually works.”
Especially as the statues get bigger, the walking method becomes the only realistic way to move them.
He challenges skeptics to prove otherwise. “Find some evidence that shows it couldn’t be walking. Because nothing we’ve seen anywhere disproves that. In fact, everything we ever see and ever thought of keeps strengthening the argument.”
Beyond solving an ancient puzzle, Lipo says the findings celebrate the ingenuity of the Rapa Nui people, who gained incredible achievements with limited tools and resources.
“They’re doing it the way that’s consistent with the resources they have,” he said. “We have a lot to learn from them in these principles.”
Read More: Unraveling the Story Behind Easter Island's Resilient Statues
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- Journal of Archaeological Science. The walking moai hypothesis: Archaeological evidence, experimental validation, and response to critics
