Easter Island statues: study reveals how they ‘walked’

How did the experiment prove that the statues “walked”?

Researchers made a five-ton replica of a Moai and used three ropes tied to it. A small group of people, pulling the side ropes alternately, made the statue swing and move forward on its own, driven by its own gravity. In less than an hour, they moved the statue 100 meters, proving that the technique was efficient and did not require the use of wooden logs, as previously thought.

What made this method of transportation possible?

The very shape of the statues was the key to the movement. The Moai were carved with a slight forward tilt and a curved base, features that were previously seen as merely artistic. The study revealed that this design was intentional to facilitate standing transportation. The combination of shape, weight and center of gravity allowed the statue to “walk” with a coordinated swing, using physics to its advantage.

How does the discovery connect to the legends of the Rapa Nui people?

The discovery scientifically confirms the oral traditions of the Rapa Nui, the island’s original inhabitants. Local legends have always described that the statues “walked” alone from the quarries to the ceremonial platforms. What seemed like a myth was, in fact, an accurate description of the ingenious method of transportation that their ancestors developed and mastered.

What does this change in the history of Easter Island?

The discovery challenges the popular theory that the Rapa Nui people caused their own collapse by deforesting the island to use logs to transport the Moai. The evidence that the statues “walked” suggests that the natives did not need to devastate their natural resources. On the contrary, they demonstrate a sophisticated society, with deep knowledge of physics and capable of great feats through cooperation and intelligence, not brute force.

How important is this technique beyond Easter Island?

This transportation technique reveals a degree of ingenuity rarely attributed to pre-industrial peoples. This suggests that other giant stone monuments around the world, like Stonehenge in England, may have been moved with similarly clever, physics-based methods rather than just force. The discovery forces us to reevaluate the technological capabilities of ancient civilizations and the way we interpret their great feats.