Science

Hat trick: How the Easter Islanders capped off their huge statues

Hat trick: How the Easter Islanders capped off their huge statues
A row of moai statues on Easter Island, with the second from the right wearing a pukao (red stone hat)
A row of moai statues on Easter Island, with the second from the right  wearing a pukao (red stone hat)
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A map of Easter Island, including the locations of pukao (green spots) and the two quarries – Puna Pau, where the red scoria for the hats came from, and Rano Raraku, where the volcanic tuff for the statues was sourced
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A map of Easter Island, including the locations of pukao (green spots) and the two quarries – Puna Pau, where the red scoria for the hats came from, and Rano Raraku, where the volcanic tuff for the statues was sourced
A diagram of how the Rapa Nui people might have used the parbuckling technique to raise the huge stone hats onto the heads of the statues
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A diagram of how the Rapa Nui people might have used the parbuckling technique to raise the huge stone hats onto the heads of the statues
Study authors Carl Lipo (left) and Terry Hunt (right) examining a pukao on the ground
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Study authors Carl Lipo (left) and Terry Hunt (right) examining a pukao on the ground
One of the moai statues, capped off with a pukao hat
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One of the moai statues, capped off with a pukao hat
A row of moai statues on Easter Island, with the second from the right wearing a pukao (red stone hat)
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A row of moai statues on Easter Island, with the second from the right  wearing a pukao (red stone hat)
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It's easy to look at the pyramids or the giant stone statues of Easter Island and wonder how ancient civilizations built them. But while conspiracy theorists are quick to credit aliens and call it a day, that really doesn't do justice to the engineering ingenuity of ancient people. Now, anthropologists have put forward a new theory of how the Rapa Nui people pulled off their impressive hat trick.

Almost 900 imposing moai dot the incredibly-isolated island of Rapa Nui, better known to most of the world as Easter Island. Carved between 300 and 900 years ago, these giant stone statues can stand up to 10 m (33 ft) tall and weigh up to 81 tons, making them marvels of engineering for their time.

To cap it all off, some of the moai are wearing hats known as pukao. But these hats aren't just part of the statue – they're separate pieces made out of a different type of rock. The moai are mostly carved out of volcanic tuff, while the pukao are made of red scoria, which is found in another quarry some 7.5 miles (12 km) away from the one where the volcanic tuff was sourced.

One of the moai statues, capped off with a pukao hat
One of the moai statues, capped off with a pukao hat

It's not known just how the Rapa Nui people transported the hats across the island, before raising them – given they can weigh up to 13 tons each – to the top of the tall statues. Researchers from Penn State set out to determine the most likely method, based on the shape and features of both the hats and the statues.

"We were interested in figuring out the method of hat transport and placement of the hats that best agrees with the archaeological record," says Sean Hixon, co-author of the study. "We assumed they were all transported and placed in the same way. So we looked for features that were the same on all the hats and all the statues."

Using surveying photography techniques and 3D imaging, the team found that all the hats had indentations in their bases that were designed to fit neatly over the moai's heads like gigantic Lego pieces. But there was no damage to the soft stone along the edges of these indentations, indicating that they hadn't been slid into place.

It has previously been suggested that the hats met heads before the statues were erected, but there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. Due to their sheer size, when a statue toppled over during transport the Rapa Nui tended to just leave it where it fell, and there are no pukao or traces of red scoria around any of these fallen moai.

Study authors Carl Lipo (left) and Terry Hunt (right) examining a pukao on the ground
Study authors Carl Lipo (left) and Terry Hunt (right) examining a pukao on the ground

Where there are traces of scoria, however, are around the bases of the standing statues with pukao, which indicates that further carving work was done near the site. The Penn State researchers believe that the Rapa Nui people rolled cylindrical blocks of the rocks to the foot of the moai, then carved the hats and raised them. This is backed up by the observation of larger blocks of red scoria around the island, suggesting abandoned pukao.

"The best explanation for the transport of the pukao from the quarry is by rolling the raw material to the location of the moai," says Carl Lipo, co-author of the study. "Once at the moai, the pukao were rolled up large ramps to the top of a standing statue using a parbuckling technique."

Parbuckling, the researchers explain, is an ancient method of moving round objects up ramps. If the Rapa Nui used this technique, they would have built a wooden ramp from the ground to the top of the moai's head. The middle of a long rope is attached to the higher end of the ramp, so the two ends run the length of the ramp and reach the bottom. The rope ends pass underneath the pukao and back over the top, where groups of people can then pull it up the ramp.

A diagram of how the Rapa Nui people might have used the parbuckling technique to raise the huge stone hats onto the heads of the statues
A diagram of how the Rapa Nui people might have used the parbuckling technique to raise the huge stone hats onto the heads of the statues

That makes the job much easier and safer, since there's less risk of people being crushed by pushing it up the ramp from behind. Although it sounds like a lot of work, the researchers estimate that it would take less than 15 people to get the pukao in place.

Once at the right height, the cylinders were carved into the hat shape, rotated 90 degrees and tilted into place on the head using wooden levers.

"This is the first time anyone has systematically explored the evidence for how the giant hats were placed on the top of the heads of the massive statues of Easter Island," says Lipo. "Our work combines cutting-edge 3D modeling with artifact analysis and models drawn from physics to arrive at the best answer."

The research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Source: Penn State

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4 comments
4 comments
Paul Anthony
Where is the evidence of the Rope the levers and the ramp?
EZ
I assume these speculators are going to do a "live" demonstration to prove their theory?
Gregg Eshelman
Has anyone really pondered why so many depictions of these statues show them facing the ocean, when reality is they all face inland?
SimonClarke
while I am not quite in the 'Aliens did it' camp I, like one of the previous commenters, have questions about the ramp. To us in the western world a ramp is a simple thing to build, but to these people was this the sort of thing that they made for anything else? being suck an isolated community I would think that their skills were mainly limited to fishing, farming and canoe building.
Remember also that a lot of the Moai are not just heads, there are entire bodies underground up to 30 feet tall. These were made by technologically advanced techniques.
Also, never discredit the assistance from Aliens