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Easter Island Heads

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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Easter Island Heads
    Posted: 13-Dec-2011 at 19:08

This small island is dotted with carved stone heads half-buried in the ground. These are supposed to represent deceased ancestors. Each statue looks unique and some of them even have tattoos
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  Quote Arab Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Dec-2011 at 08:12
The Polynesians are a pretty interesting people. It's amazing what they were able to achieve with what little technology they had available.
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  Quote medenaywe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Dec-2011 at 08:29
...and a lot of free time until resources existed on island.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Dec-2011 at 19:25
I think the statues were the cause of war and famine. The islanders cut down all the trees to use as rollers to move the statues, resulting in the irreversible erosion of the fertile soil
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Dec-2011 at 18:27
I think I heard that the heads are meant to represent ancient chiefs. Those ancient chiefs must have been big heads then.LOL
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  Quote Baal Melqart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Dec-2011 at 18:33
Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

I think I heard that the heads are meant to represent ancient chiefs. Those ancient chiefs must have been big heads then.LOL


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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Dec-2011 at 19:02

Here's a reconstruction of the heads as they originally looked. The eyes were made of coral and the hats were made of a type of red stone
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Dec-2011 at 19:07
Originally posted by Nick1986


Here's a reconstruction of the heads as they originally looked. The eyes were made of coral and the hats were made of a type of red stone

Ah, Nick, what's that old saying again? If you want to get ahead get a hat. LOL
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Dec-2011 at 19:16
Thor Heyerdahl experimented with these statues in the 1950s. Using only logs and ropes he successfully moved a fallen statue and re-erected it in a pre-dug pit
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Dec-2011 at 12:41
Originally posted by Nick1986

Thor Heyerdahl experimented with these statues in the 1950s. Using only logs and ropes he successfully moved a fallen statue and re-erected it in a pre-dug pit
Is there any evidence of pits being used when the heads were erected?
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Dec-2011 at 19:02
I believe so. While some statues are on plinths (and would have been put in place using earth ramps), others are half-buried in the ground
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Dec-2011 at 05:31
Originally posted by Nick1986

I believe so. While some statues are on plinths (and would have been put in place using earth ramps), others are half-buried in the ground
Only with the use of earth ramps or was there a possibility of "A" flames being in use too?
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  Quote balochii Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Dec-2011 at 11:07
did Polynesians discover america?
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  Quote Cryptic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Dec-2011 at 11:26
Originally posted by balochii

did Polynesians discover america?
 
There is indirect evidence (Chicken DNA comparisons) which supports that the Polynesians might have made landings in Peru.  I do not think, however, that anybody has found actual artifacts that conclusivley demonstrate that the polynesians made it to Peru.
 
Though the "glory day" Polynesians clearly had the skills to sail to Peru, polynesian expansion across the pacific was not continous.  Some groups lost the skills and recesources needed to make precision deep ocean voyages, especially the exceptionaly long ones.  This resulted in islands being stranded. 
 
The most famous stranded island was Easter Island.  Even large groups such as the Hawaiian islands got stranded after about 1200 AD.  They, however, large enough to avoid a social collapse.  Other stranded islands include Henderson island (population got stranded and died out) and other islands where the stranded population was in a state of near total social collapse when the Europeans arrived. 
 
I guess the mystery is:  Did they make it to Peru before some groups (or many) started to run out of gas...
 
 
  
 
 
 
 


Edited by Cryptic - 20-Dec-2011 at 11:40
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Dec-2011 at 19:15
It's highly likely the Polynesians at least set foot in America. Rafts like the Kon-Tiki were more than capable of making long-distance ocean voyages
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  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Jan-2012 at 22:31

Some of the ( standing) statues on Easter Island are 10 metres (ca 33 feet) high or more. That makes them probably the largest ancient statues in the whole southern hemisphere.  That is.... I haven't found larger/taller ancient statues in South America, Africa,  Asia or anywhere else below the equator .

 
 
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Jan-2012 at 21:41

There's an even larger monolith in the quarry at Easter Island. It was never finished, but "El gigante" is over 20 meters long
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  Quote lirelou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Jan-2012 at 23:53

in re:  "It's highly likely the Polynesians at least set foot in America. Rafts like the Kon-Tiki were more than capable of making long-distance ocean voyages"

Since the Polynesians were not known for making long sea voyages in rafts, I fail to see the connection. If central and southern coastal Peru lacks large forests with trees susceptible to being fashioned into ocean canoes, that is not the case with northern Peru and Ecuador, both of which wre within within the nothern limits of the Inca empire. As for the Kon Tiki, note that it was towed fifty miles out to sea to begin its voyage, due to currents off Peru's coast, something that pre-Colombian Peruvians would have had to contend with. So, while such rafts were theoretically capable of making long distance ocean voyages, it is far more likely they stayed in close to the coast and did not venture over the open sea.

I too believe that some Polynesians set foot in the Americas, but if they survived first contact with the locals, they were likely absorbed into those populations. Perhaps some future genetic study will establish a link with some central and northern south american Pacific coast areas.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Jan-2012 at 22:01
How similar are Indian and Polynesian DNA? Perhaps the Olmec civilisation was founded by these Aboriginals who may have had darker skin and more negroid features in the past?
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  Quote lirelou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jan-2012 at 15:01
What makes the Olmec heads negroid?  Take a look at some of the sculptured heads of Angor wat.
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