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 Location: Easter Island, Pacific Ocean.  Grid Reference: 27� 8' 24" S, 109� 20' W

 

      Easter Island: ('Big Island', 'The navel of the Earth', 'The eye turned to the sky').

  easter island ahu

Easter Island is situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and was one of the primary islands of the Polynesian Island group. Hundreds of stone statues or 'Maoi' lie scattered around the island, and encircle it on long raised platforms. The island poses several questions in regards pre-Columbian contact with the Americas.

The small, isolated nature of the island led many to suggest that this may have led to the eventual implosion of tribal activity on the island, which culminated only shortly before its discovery by the Dutch in 1772. Recent studies however suggest that the islanders were masters of their environment and the collapse actually occurred 'following' European contact. (7)

There have been several suggestions of an origin and contact from both sides of the Atlantic.

(Click here for Map of Island)

 

   Easter Island: (Rapa Nui).

The island was 'discovered' on Easter sunday (April 5th), and was therefore named Easter island. Before this, it had been called 'Rapa Nui' - (Big Island), 'Matakiterani' (Eye turned to the sky), and 'Te Pito No Te Henua' (The Navel of the Earth). (1)

A Brief History. The reigning consensus is that Easter Island was colonized around 300-400 AD as part of an eastward migratory trend that originated in Southeast Asia around 2000 BC. The settlers are thought to have been Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands, 3600 km northwest, or the Mangareva (Gambier) Islands, 2500 km west. (4) The large separation of Easter Island from any other inhabited island has led historians to believe that their arrival was an accidental and once only event. This view is strongly contested, in light of other known examples of Polynesian feats of navigation, and the several various cultural influences seen in the iconography of the island.

The earliest Radio-carbon date so far from the island is 380 AD, from Thor Hyerdahl's expedition. (1)

The island was officially discovered in 1722 by a Dutch expedition under Admiral Jacob Roggeveen.

Like subsequent European visitors, the Dutch reported seeing not only fair-skinned Polynesians, but people of darker skin, others who were white like Europeans, and a few with reddish skin.(4)

In 1770 a Spanish party from Peru claimed the island for Spain. A conflict seems to have raged on the island before the arrival of the British navigator Captain James Cook four years later. He found a decimated, poverty-stricken population, and observed that the statue cult seemed to have ended, as most of the statues had been pulled down. It�s possible that some of the statues were toppled even before the Dutch and Spanish visits but that those sailors did not visit the same sites as Cook.

The Frenchman La P�rouse visited Easter Island in 1786 and found the population calm and prosperous, suggesting a quick recovery from any catastrophe. In 1804 a Russian visitor reported that at least 20 statues were still standing. Accounts from subsequent years suggest another period of destruction so that perhaps only a handful of statues were still standing a decade later. Some of the statues still upright at the beginning of the 19th century were knocked down by western expeditions.

 

Chronology:

380 AD - Thor Hyerdahl's earliest uncorrected C-14 date from Easter Island. (1)

690 AD (+/- 130) - William Mulloy's earliest uncorrected C-14 date from Easter Island. (1)

907-957 AD (+/1 200) - Earliest Ahu with Solar orientation according to William Mulloy. (1)

1772 - Island first 'officially' discovered on Easter Sunday by Dutch.

1862 - Peruvian slavers took 1,000 men (Most of the male population), to work the Guano Islands of Lima. 100 survivors were later returned, of which 15 reached their homes (carrying smallpox), which almost finished the population of the island. (1)

1864 - Total remaining island population - 111. (originally estimated at 5,000).

 

Article: New Scientist. 'Early Americans Helped Colonise Easter Island'. (2011).

South Americans helped colonise Easter Island centuries before Europeans reached it. Clear genetic evidence has, for the first time, given support to elements of this controversial theory showing that while the remote island was mostly colonised from the west, there was also some influx of people from the Americas.

Easter Island is the easternmost island of Polynesia, the scattering of islands that stretches across the Pacific. It is also one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world.

So how did it come to be inhabited in the first place? Genetics, archaeology and linguistics all show that as a whole, Polynesia was colonised from Asia, probably from around Taiwan. The various lines of evidence suggest people began migrating east around 5500 years ago, reached Polynesia 2500 years later, before finally gaining Easter Island after another 1500 years.

But the Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl thought otherwise. In the mid-20th century, he claimed that the famous Easter Island statues were similar to those at Tiahuanaco at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, so people from South America must have travelled west across the Pacific to Polynesia. His famous Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed a balsa wood raft from Peru to the Tuamotu islands of French Polynesia, showed that the trip could have been made. But if it was made, no trace remained.

Now Erik Thorsby of the University of Oslo in Norway has found clear evidence to support elements of Heyerdahl�s hypothesis. In 1971 and 2008 he collected blood samples from Easter Islanders whose ancestors had not interbred with Europeans and other visitors to the island.

Thorsby looked at the HLA genes, which vary greatly from person to person. Most of the islanders� HLA genes were Polynesian, but a few of them also carried HLA genes only previously found in Native American populations.

Genetic shuffling: Because most of Thorsby�s volunteers came from one extended family, he was able to work out when the HLA genes entered their lineage. The most probable first known carrier was a woman named Maria Aquala, born in 1846. Crucially, that was before the slave traders arrived in the 1860s and began interbreeding with the islanders.

But the genes may have been around for longer than that. Thorsby found that in some cases the Polynesian and American HLA genes were shuffled together, the result of a process known �recombination�. This is rare in HLA genes, meaning the American genes would need to be around for a certain amount of time for it to happen. Thorsby can�t put a precise date on it, but says it is likely that Americans reached Easter Island before it was �discovered� by Europeans in 1722.

Thorsby says there may have been a Kon-Tiki-style voyage from South America to Polynesia. Alternatively, Polynesians may have travelled east to South America, and then returned. There is already evidence for that: chicken bones found in Chile turned out to be Polynesian, so we know that the eastward journey did happen at some stage.

However, Thorsby�s findings don�t mean that Heyerdahl�s ideas have been vindicated. The first settlers to Polynesia came from Asia, and they made the biggest contribution to the population. �Heyerdahl was wrong,� Thorsby says, �but not completely.�

(Article:  New Scientist)

Tradition and Myth:

The French ethnologist, Francis Maziere, went to Easter Island in 1963, a few years after Thor Hyerdahl. The emphasis of his research focused on the almost-lost traditions of the islanders concerning their origins. According to Maziere, the legends of settlement of the islands by Polynesians contained allusions to catastrophism. For example, one legend says "King Hotu-Matua's country was called Maori, and it was on the continent of Hiva...The king saw that the land was slowly sinking in the sea", as a result he put all his people into two giant canoes and sailed East to Easter Island. Another legend says that Easter Island was once 'part of a larger country broken up by Uoke because of the sins of its people'. (1)

 

 

   The Monuments of Easter Island:

The principal stone monuments on Easter Island are ceremonial paths with paved borders, tumuli, pakeopa (or ahu), and, finally, the great stone statues or 'Maoi'.

The 'Maoi' - (The Stone Statues).

Easter Island is perhaps best known for its immense stone statues 'Moai', of which there are approximately 900 scattered across the island. Some of the Maoi were placed, facing towards the centre of the island, on platforms called 'Ahu', built along the coasts. Captain Cook was told in 1774 that they were monuments to earlier 'ariki's', or royalty. The 'Maoi' are also described in local tradition as having once possessed 'mana' or a beneficial power.

All Easter Island�s giant statues were supposedly made within the space of a few hundred years. Different phases are clearly discernible, and may be separated by far longer periods than orthodox opinion allows. It is significant that the statues do not bear the slightest resemblance to the Polynesians, and in terms of size, appearance, and number are unique in the Pacific.

All the giant statues on Easter Island have long ears, and some islanders still practised ear elongation at the time the first Europeans arrived. The custom was also practised in the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia, and in Peru; the Incas said they had inherited the custom from their divine ancestors. The oldest known practice of ear extension was among the mariners in the prehistoric Indus Valley harbour-city of Lothal, where large numbers of big earplugs of the type used in ancient Mexico, Peru, and Easter Island have been found. Hindu rulers subsequently adopted the custom, but it was restricted to members of the royal families and images of the Hindu gods. Buddha images with long ears are found all over Asia, and long-eared stone statues have also been dug up in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

 

Hundreds of Maoi are still to be found scattered lying around the island, raising the question of why there are just so many, with more on the way..

Numerous half-finished heads also lie abandoned in the Rano Raraki quarry - as if left suddenly, mid-work.

     easter island hands

The huge heads were discovered to have bodies beneath the ground which are controversially argued to have become naturally buried over time. This argument is contested by the fact that they were made with more pointed bottom parts and were placed upright in groups, all facing away from the volcanic quarry (in contrast to the way they all once faced inwards on the Ahu platforms).

The buried parts of the statues, uncovered for the first time by S. Routledge, are of great interest not only because they add to the dimensions of these already huge statues but also because they reveal unsuspected but particularly detailed decorative carving (having been protected from the corrosive effects of the air and the rain).

easter island boat

This buried Maoi was found to have a 'sailing' vessel carved onto it.

There is said to be a distinct difference between the statues at Rano Raraku and those on the Ahu which is that the statues at the crater have a pointed base, destined to be buried in the ground, while those on the ahu have a flat base, so that they can stand on these monuments. This finding is disputed by Heyerdahl (6), who states categorically that following an examination of hundreds of statues, only one has ever been found with a pointed bottom, and that he believes, was because it was faulty. his contention is that they were all destined to eventually encircle the whole island on Ahu.

The statues at the crater are scattered around in a random manner, whereas the statues at the ahu, when they were still standing, were perfectly aligned and in a group. Although the giant statues appear scattered haphazardly, they actually form three major groups on the inner slope of the crater, facing north, such that they all have their backs to the face of the volcanic rock from which they were carved.

 

Moai Statistics.

The following statistics on Easter Island's moai are the results of Van Tilburg's survey in 1989. She reported, "A total of 887 monolithic statues has been located by the survey to date on Easter Island...397 are still in situ in quarries at the Rano Raraku central production centre.....Fully 288 statues (32% of 887) were successfully transported to a variety of image ahu locations....Another 92 are recorded as "in transport," 47 of these lying in various positions on prepared roads or tracks outside the Rano Raraku zone."


  • Total number of moai on Easter Island: 887
     
  • Total number of maoi that were successfully transported to their final ahu locations: 288 (32% of 887)
     
  • Total number of moai still in the Rano Raraku quarry: 397 (45%)
     
  • Total number of moai lying 'in transit' outside of the Rano Raraku quarry: 92 (10%)

     

Less than one third of all carved moai actually made it to a final ceremonial ahu site. Was this due to the inherent difficulties in transporting them? Were the ones that remain in the quarry (45%) deemed culturally unworthy of transport? Were they originally intended to remain in place on the quarry slopes? Or had the islanders run out of the resources necessary to complete the Herculean task of carving and moving the moai?


The Size and Weight of Moai.


Measuring the size, weight, and shape of the 887 moai on Easter Island has been a 15-year process for Van Tilburg. The most notable statues are listed below:

  • Largest moai:
    Location: Rano Raraku Quarry, named "El Gigante"
    Height: 71.93 feet, (21.60 meters)
    Weight: approximately 145-165 tons (160-182 metric tons)

     
  • Largest moai once erect:
    Location: Ahu Te Pito Kura, Named "Paro"
    Height: 32.63 feet (9.80 meters)
    Weight: approximately 82 tons (74.39 metric tons)

     
  • Largest moai fallen while being erected:
    Location: Ahu Hanga Te Tenga
    Height: 33.10 feet (9.94 meters)

(Ref: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter)

There were clearly some very large stones carved on this island, and although Charles Berlitz estimates the largest carved stone (still unfinished), at approximately 400 tonnes (3), this figure is greatly reduced by D. Zink (1), who estimates the largest 'Moai' on the island at 90 tons (length 90ft, still in quarry). Whether the two are talking about the same object or not is difficult to say, assuming they are however, this disparity illustrates how much estimates can vary from one source to another.

(The Top-50 Megaliths of all Time)

Detailed information about the Maoi: (The Easter Island Statue Project)

 

The 'Eye turned to the sky'.

When proof was found in 1978 that some of the Easter Island statues once had inlaid eyes, it came as a shock to many researchers, who had opposed the idea on the grounds that this was not a Polynesian custom. Inlaid eyes were a common feature of many of the oldest images of the Middle East, from Egypt to the Indus Valley. The seafaring Hittites, for example, adopted the practice from the Sumerians. Many prehistoric American stone statues also had inlaid eyes.

easter island top-knot        

Stone top-knots or 'Pukao', and eyes made from obsidian and cowry shells bring the statues placed on the 'Ahu' alive. The top-knot (Right), comes from the Isla Zapatera in Nicaragua.

 

The Ahu Platforms.

There  are over 300 stone platforms or Ahu on the island (4), many of them built from huge cyclopean blocks, with similarities to south American structures.

The finest platform masonry, such as that found at Ahu Tahiri (one of the two ahu at Vinapu), consists of �enormous squared and tooled stones, that turn the edge of the toughest modern steel�. The best facade slabs commonly weigh 2 or 3 tons. At Vinapu one of the polished basalt slabs measures 2.5 by 1.7 m (8 by 5.5 ft) and weighs 6 or 7 tons, while one at Ahu Vai Mata is 3 by 2 m (10 by 6 ft), and weighs 9 or 10 tons.

The cyclopean masonry of Ahu Vinapu and certain other platforms is reminiscent of that of �Incan� (or rather pre-Incan) monuments to be found at Cuzco, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, and Sillustani - All in Peru. John Macmillan Brown writes:

The colossal blocks are tooled and cut so as to fit each other. In the Ahu Vinapu and in the fragment of the ahu near Hangaroa beach the stones are as colossal as in the old Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, they are as carefully tooled, and the irregularities of their sides that have to come together are so cut that the two faces exactly fit into each other. These blocks are too huge to have been shifted frequently to let the mason find out whether they fitted or not. They must have been cut and tooled to exact measurement or plan. There is no evidence of chipping after they have been laid. Every angle and projection must have been measured with scientific precision before the stones were nearing their finish.

 

Archaeo-Astronomy:

'A hint of the existence of a solar cult on Easter Island was found by Hyerdahl in the local name of a cave in which local maidens were once isolated to bleach their skin for certain sacred festivals. This cave, the cave of the white virgin, was also known as "An o keke", or "cave of the sun's inclination". Later, a system of holes bored in the rock at the Orongo ruins was found to indicate the summer solstice (Dec. 21st in the southern hemisphere)...Later, Dr. William Mulloy found that the Vinapu platform was orientated at right angles to the summer solstice sunrise. Dr. Mulloy published a corrected C-14 date of 907-957 AD (+/1 200 years), for the earliest ahu (or temple platform) with a solar orientation'. (1)

Around 20 Ahu appear to have been oriented astronomically, so that the moai faced the rising or setting sun at the solstices or equinoxes. The inland ahu with astronomical orientation are generally linked with the solstices, especially the winter solstice, though the moai of Ahu Akivi face the setting sun at the equinoxes. Astronomically oriented ahu along the coast tend to be positioned so that the moai look straight east or west. This is true of Ahu Tahiri (Vinapu 1), whereas Ahu Vinapu 2 marks the summer solstice. (5)

 

 

The Navel of the Navel: Easter Island.

It is an interesting fact that the islanders of Easter Island worship a mysterious site with 5 stone spheres; in the centre of a round stone-enclosure is a bigger stone sphere with 4 smaller stone spheres surrounding it. The site, "Te pito kura" must have been a ritual centre for the earliest islanders to pray and divine for something. The stone sphere on Easter Isle is at the northern coastal area of the island, just north of the statue quarry at the volcanic crater of Rano Raraku.

The islanders have a legend that the statues were moved to the platforms and raised upright by the use of mana, or mind power. Either the god Makemake, or priests or chiefs commanded them to walk or to float through the air, and according to one legend, use was made of a finely crafted stone sphere, 75 cm (2.5 ft) in diameter, called te pito kura (�the golden navel� or �the navel of light�), to focus the mana.

The Rapa Nui term "Te Pito Kura" translates to "Golden Navel", or "Navel of Light", while "Te Pito Te Henua" translates to "Navel of the World"; which is what Rapa Nui is often referred to by its residents, referencing its place in Polynesian mythology. This specific site is the navel of the navel, as it were, located on the island's shore near Anakena, the spot where Rapa Nui's legendary founding figure, Hotu Matura, is said to have landed. Stone barriers surround a worked stone sphere (the "navel" itself) measuring some 75 centimetres in diameter, reputedly brought by Hotu Matura from overseas. Geological sourcing, however, indicates the sphere is actually of local origin.

(The Costa Rica Stone Balls - Petrospheres)

 

Kohua Rongo-Rongo: (Easter Island Script).

Easter island is diametrically opposite the Indus-Valley city of Mohenjo-Dharo (Pakistan). It's name proclaims it as an earth Navel, which some authors have suggested is because of this very fact.

It has been noted in the past that the Indus valley script shares many similar symbols to 'Rongo-Rongo'.

(Comparison Between the Indus Valley - Easter island Script)

The incised written tablets termed 'rongo-rongo' were found suspended from the roof in every hut on the arrival of the first missionary (6). On his order, the majority were burnt, while others were hidden away in secret family caves where they deteriorated and perished. Very few have survived today.

It was clearly documented by early missionaries that even the most intelligent and well informed islanders could provide the meaning for any of the signs or provide ideograms for the simplest of words. The following quotes come from Hyerdahl's excellent treaty on 'Early Man and The Ocean' (6):

'They knew each tablet to represent a specific text, but disagreed about which text belonged to which tablet. If one tablet was substituted for another in the middle of their recital, the continued the original text uninterruptedly. The text was recited with singing rather than speaking voice. They piously copied the original old tablets on new boards, and regarded them as magic objects of the greatest value'

Although there were several claims that the script had been deciphered, none have proven worthy of scrutiny. Script itself is a non-Polynesian characteristic and the search for its origin was eventually rewarded through one of its paricular characteristics, which is that it is 'arranged in boustrophedon, i.e. in a continuous serpentine band where every second line is turned upside-down. Europeans, Chinese and the Indus Valley people never wrote in boustrophedon, and the language had been forgotten by the time of the Europeans first arrival. In fact, the only place in the world where this particular style of writing can be found is in South America; Peru to be precise (6). Heine-Geldern also noted a south American provenance, said of it:

'The Cunas (of the modern Republic of Panama) today generally write on paper. But beside this, written wooden tablets also exist, and the Cuna's say that these were the original writing material. The tablets seen by Nordenskiold were intended to be hung up in the houses during celebrations. The ideograms are painted on with colours...Also the writing is in boustrophedon, and with the succession of lines running upwards from the bottom' (6)

The Cuna signs however, although continued in boustrophedon, are not upside-down on each alternate line, and are individually dissimilar to the Easter island signs. The Easter islanders themselves are specific in their tradition of the first immigrant king, Hotu Matua, having brought with him sixty-seven written tablets when he came from his home in the far-east. Heyerdahl mentions that on the arrival of the Europeans, the Indians of Lake Titicaca area still 'continued a primitive form of picture writing' (6). This conforms with the observation by Russian rongo-rongo expert J. V. Knorozov, that the only two places where 'reversed boustrophedon' occur in the world are Easter Island and ancient Peru.

Sariemento Gamboa, upon consulting as assembly of forty-two learned Inca historians recorded the following in reference to the ninth Inca 'Patchacuti Inca Yupanqui':

'...after he had well ascertained the most notable of their ancient histories he had it all painted after its order on large boards, and he placed them in the house of the sun, where the said boards, which were garnished with gold, would be like our libraries, and he appointed learned men who could understand and explain them...' (6)

(List and Description of all known Rongorongo Texts)

 

 

   The 'Cult of the Bird-Man': (Tangatu Mana).

 

The entire social life of the Easter islanders used to revolve around the Bird Cult (manutara: the good-luck bird). Moreover, of all the traditions and customs this cult was the last to disappear. The main ceremony every year was organized with the goal of choosing the chief (the chief warrior, in particular), who was called the tangata manu (literally, Man Bird). The man who became tangata manu was the first one to find an egg laid by a migrating sea bird with a long beak, the sooty tern or sea swallow.

 

Tangatu Mana; The Bird-Man.

 

The islanders had chosen, for this competition and the accompanying ceremony, the southernmost promontory on the island, where the Kau or Kao volcano (Rano Kau) is located. This crater is 1,300 meters high and approximately three-quarters of a mile in diameter, 198 and there is a small lake, surrounded by grasses and bushes, at the bottom of the crater. On the side of the crater that faces the interior of the island, the slope is quite gentle while, on the other side, the crater forms steep cliffs of more than 400 feet in height 199 that are battered by ocean waves. It is the most impressive site on the island both because of its beauty and because of the silence that reigns there, broken only by the noise of the crashing waves and the strident cries of the sea birds as they hover near their nests on the cliffs.

 

The owner of the egg, henceforth protected by the gods, became tangata manu or man-bird 210. Unlike the kings, who were not allowed to cut their hair, he had to shave his head and dye his pate red. Then he had to put on a wig-like crown made of human hair, called a hau oho, and paint his face red and black. He had to hang a bird on his back 211 and, finally, he had to change his name, with his new name designating the year that would follow 212.


Thus, Mrs. Routledge was able to establish a list of 86 years of different birdmen (and the names of the victorious hopu). Immediately after the transfer of power, via the egg, the news was announced by lighting a fire on the summit of Rano Kau on the east or west side, depending on the region of the island from which the victor had come. It is possible, as suggested by S. Routledge, that the next thing that happened was the carving on one of the rocks at Orongo of an image of the birdman who had just been chosen and that this practice explains the more than 111 representations of tangata manu that are found there (as well as many that have been erased; see Addendum). The fact that three of these sculptures represent a tangata manu holding an egg in his hand seems to support this hypothesis.

 

On the side of the volcanic crater that faces the sea, there is a little village called Orongo, which consists of about fifty dwellings. These dwellings were located among the rocks, many of which were carved. The carvings most often represented a man with the head of a bird and Mrs. Routledge reported 111 such images. It is interesting that she also noticed that some of the carvings were partly hidden by the walls of houses and she suggested that the carvings had been made before the houses had been built.

 

The most beautiful and the most venerated idol of the ancient islanders, known as Hoa hakanana ia or the �Breaker of Waves", was located in one of these houses. This statue is very finely carved and its back is decorated with beautifully carved motifs (Click here for larger image). These motifs were not only carved but were also accented by red paint the statue�s white background. On each side of this statue, at its feet, there was originally a large stone, with a hole similar to those carved in the stones in which house supports were inserted. One of these stones was also decorated with a crude carving. (Extract From Chavin) 

The Breaker of Waves: Easter Island.

The most venerated 'Breaker of Waves'.

In addition to all the sailors from the ship Topaze, 300 natives had been needed to uproot this statue and take it down to the dock at Cook Bay.

The 'bird-men' petroglyphs, which how strong similarities to S. American Olmec rock-art.

 

   A Case for South American Contact:
 

Some plants on Easter Island clearly come from South America, such as the islanders� staple food the sweet potato (which is known by its Quechua name kumara), and also manioc and gourd. Similarly, two species of freshwater plants, found in Easter Island�s crater lakes but nowhere else in the Pacific, and both useful to man, come from South America. One of them was the totora reed, which dominated the banks of South America�s Lake Titicaca and was cultivated in vast irrigated fields in the desert valleys on the coast below; it was used for making mats, houses, and boats. The other was known to the islanders as tavari, and was used as a medicinal plant. Like the totora, it grew in Lake Titicaca. This last information supports the case for contact with Tiahuanaco.

 

 

 

Balfour proposed that the stone statues on Easter Island were directly related (in terms of style) to the statuary on the Solomon Islands (above), but other similarities in tribal art have been noticed in certain punum�r� masks from New Caledonia and certain statues on Treasury Island (2).

 

A photo of the cyclopean platforms 'Ahu' upon which finished figures were placed. The extreme reminiscence with south America masonry in particular the superb multi-facetted work with 'Basalt' rock, and the insertion of perfectly made 'filler' stones (see centre), make a strong case for contact.

(Similar Examples of Masonry Techniques from South America)

 

easter island kneeling figure  la paz kneeling figure 

This kneeling figure from Easter Island (left) bears a strong resemblance to others found at La Paz, (centre), San Lorenzo (right), and also at Tiahuanaco in Bolivia.

Similar figures can be seen on other Polynesian islands: Raivavia (left) and Hiv Oa (Right).

(Other examples of Prehistoric Cross-Culturality)

 

(List and Description of Known Rongorongo Texts)

(Easter Island - Indus Valley Scripts: A Comparison)

(The Prehistoric Pacific Islanders)

(More about pre-Columbian America)

(Other examples of Prehistoric Cross-Culturality)

 

References:

1). D. Zink. The Ancient Stones Speak. 1979. Musson Publ.
2). Stephen Chauvet, "The Art of Treasury Island", in Cahiers d�art, nos. 1 and 2, Paris, 1929
3). C. Berlitz. Atlantis. 1984. Guild Publishing.
4). http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/easter1.htm#e2.
5). Ram�rez and Huber, Easter Island, pp. 53, 110.
6). Thor Hyerdahl. Early Man and the Ocean. 1978. George Allen and Unwin.
7). http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/12/archaeologist-suggests-new-evidence-on-collapse-of-easter-island-culture/100502

Further Research:

Detailed information about the Maoi: (The Easter Island Statue Project)

 

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