Approximately 650 years ago on one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands, the early Rapanui people of Rapa Nui, now commonly known as Easter Island, were in the middle of an amazing feat: constructing huge monolithic human figures called moai. Built almost entirely from a type of compressed volcanic ash at a quarry called Rano Raraku, the 887 moai on Easter Island have fascinated researchers for centuries and have raised a number of questions, including– how did these early people manage to move these monoliths from one end of the island to the other?
Archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo joined National Geographic Live to discuss a radical theory on how the moai “walked” across on Easter Island. They also discussed the ecological conditions that might have caused the decline and fall of the Rapanui people.
Walking With Giants: How the Easter Island Moai Moved from on FORA.tv
