When we talk about Easter Island —that small Chilean territory in the middle of the Pacific— the first thing that comes to mind are its enigmatic sculptures: the Moai. But who really built them?
Today, we know that the current inhabitants, known as Rapa Nui, arrived around 1200 AD, coming from Polynesia. However, local legends speak of a previous, older and more mysterious civilization that had already erected these imposing statues long before.
The origin of the Rapa Nui: a thousand-year-old migration
A genetic study in the journal Plos One suggests that the ancestors of the Rapa Nui began their migration from China or Taiwan around 1500 BC, mixing with Malay peoples and expanding throughout Polynesia. It wasn’t until the 8th century AD that they arrived on Easter Island.
There they developed a unique culture, with their own language and ancestral legends that mention the Moai as a legacy of gods or lost civilizations.
The curious thing is that many of these legends do not coincide chronologically with the official date of construction of the Moai, which archaeologists place around 1000 AD.
The Moai: a stone enigma
The explorer James Cook, upon arriving on the island in the 18th century, was amazed:
“We can hardly conceive how these islanders were able to erect such statues and later place the enormous cylindrical blocks of stone on top of their heads.”
And the Moai are not simple sculptures. These are some of its most impressive features:
- There are more than 800 Moai scattered across the island.
- Some weigh up to 20 tons, including the stone “caps” called pukao, which can weigh over 10 tons.
- Many Moai were toppled by the Rapa Nui themselves around the 15th century. By then, no one remembered how they were built or transported.
Unsolved Mysteries: Technology, Roads, and Writing
@margaritaarnalmoscardo RAPA-NUI y la isla de Pascua #crecimientopersonal #book #quiromancia #paranormal #meditacionespiritual #ovnis #santjordi #clarividente #reencarnacion #meditaciones #felicidad #booktoker #ufo #mufon #psiquico #telepata #astrología #astrologiamoderna #tarotegipcio #zen #historia #Bioenergia #margaritaarnal
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What most baffles researchers and archaeologists are the technical and symbolic details of these constructions:
- The Moai were carved in the quarry of the Rano Raraku volcano, using basalt and obsidian tools.
- Many of the statues are still half-buried or unfinished in the quarry.
- They are aligned on platforms called ahu, always near sources of drinking water, which is unusual on a volcanic island.
- The “roads” on which the Moai moved are V-shaped and built on solid rock.
- Some passages and bases of statues feature indecipherable engravings, similar to hieroglyphic writing that has not been deciphered until today. deciphered.
The ancient islanders used what we would now call advanced technology to move these colossal structures. Rapa Nui legends themselves speak of “complex machines” and gods who helped erect the Moai, before mysteriously disappearing.
Bibliography and links of interest
Gochile.cl (2025) “Easter Island”, in https://www.gochile.cl/en/easter-island/
Imaginarapanui.com (2025) “The Rapa Nui culture and the Moai”, in https://imaginarapanui.com/en/
Robert J. DiNapoli ,Carl P. Lipo,Tanya Brosnan,Terry L. Hunt,Sean Hixon,Alex E. Morrison,Matthew Becker (2019) “Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument (ahu) locations explained by freshwater sources”, in Journals.plos.orgn, source:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210409
