Bodies of Excavated Eastern Island Statues Contain Ancient Petroglyphs
Posted on May 16, 2012
The EISP (Easter Island Statue Project) has been excavating some of the buried statues on Easter Island in an effort to understand more about the unusual statues. Some people think the Easter Island statues are just heads, probably because it is often just the heads that are shown in the magazines or on television. However, the monolithic human figures, known as Moai, do have bodies. Some also wear red hats.
The large Moai statues the EISP has been excavating have bodies, which appear to be better preserved than the bodies of the unburied statues. The excavated statues also contain ancient petroglyphs, which could help determine more about the people who built them. You can see some photographs of the excavated sculptures on ThinkBox.ca. The fascinating images are from the EISP organization's website, eisp.org.
This National Geographic video explains a theory that the people of Easter Island died out because they used up all the trees on the island. Take a look: