Easter Island: The Secrets of the Moai and the Decline of the Rapa Nui

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Thank you for providing the metric measurements for those of us who don't have three elephants available.

As a New Zealander, I noticed a lot of Easter Islands place names are very similar to Maori names. Tangata means people in Maori, and man in the language of the Rapa Nui. Not too surprising since they probably share common ancestors from Polynesia.

We need a new poltical party devoted to solving problems by building bigger and bigger heads.

I did a paper about eight years ago about evidence of Polynesian chicken bones that have been found in Chile. So it's possible that Polynesians came to Easter Island, then South America, then back again. That theory would cover alot of the discrepancies between different theories.

I just realized something....I've spent a lot of my life watching a bearded bald man talk about things in front of a green screen.

RIP Lil' Nui. He was among the finest to drop rhymes.

When Simon mentioned that more moai heads were basically their answer to everything, all problems can be solved through more moai heads, all it reminded me of was the old StarCraft "you must construct additional pylons" meme, since the Protoss seem to have the same attitude when it comes to their problems: anything is possible and any problems you have can be solved if you just have enough pylons.

Daphne: ...he thinks his forehead looks a touch too big. Frasier: A touch? I look like a fugitive from Easter Island! 🗿🗿🗿

For anyone interested in the Rapa Nui in more depth, there's a fantastic podcast called The Fall of Civilizations which has a whole episode dedicated to the topic. Amazing to say the least. And tragic. Give it a listen.

They have one in the British museum. The little plaque is freaking amazing. I’ll have to paraphrase a little because my memory is less that photographic. “This artefact was acquired from Easter Island by Captain Tarquin Thievington-B’stard in the Reign of Queen Victoria. The event of the acquisition was witnessed by native Oi’dats M’sta’choo, who arrived to see the relic being rowed off from the beach back to the 48-gun HMS Fuq-u-gunna-do. It was presented to the queen, who dumped it on the British museum where it has been displayed ever since. In 2018 a deputation of Rapanui islanders arrived to politely ask for it back, but we feel it really brings the room together. Negotiations continue, but no.”

"Bionicle: Each sold separately."

@15:00, thank you Simon, I'm so sick of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and others attributing everything our ancestors did that was smart or creative to aliens. Instead of thinking maybe they were smarter then we thought. As if ancient man was sitting around sitting around with a microwave in their hands going "Where do we plug it in?"

It would be cool with a Tristan da Cunha (a.k.a the most isolated settlement inte the world)episode. Perhaps it could be combined with Bouvet Island (the world's most isolated island.

Simon, we need to see you doing a biographic on these places while actually being there.

As a New Zealander of European descent, even I have learned enough of the language of my fellow NZ residents, the Maori people, to immediately recognise words from the Rapa Nui language quoted in this item. In my mind, there can be no question that they were Polynesians. Chicken bones, kumara and yams have proven there must have been some two-way exchanges with S. America, but it seems with no great cultural influences either way. Genetically, there is the problem of distinguishing the Asians who went North via Alaska and South, from the Asians who sailed South from Taiwan via Indonesia and East. Maori word Ika, and Indonesian word ikan both mean "fish". Maori and Rapanui both say "Manu" for bird.

Personally, I think that ecocide was the start of their decline, while the rats came and fuelled said ecocide. The slavery I think was the final nail in the coffin that doomed them, forcing the Rapa Nui into near-extinction.

I love that the Moai are made of compressed ash and improve the soil around them from nutrients leaching out. You carve a Moai, move it, and then the soil improves and crop yield improves. Thank the ancestors, rinse and repeat.

When you mentioned the term for the crown of the statue: Pukao {sp?) - what comes to mind are the 'Pukel' statues in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. And I am confident that these 'Pukel-men' statues leading up the Mountain of Starkhorn are inspired by the Easter Island statues. And these statues resemble the image of Ghan buri Ghani, the leader of the primitive tribe escorting the Rohirrim via secret ways to Gondor. It makes sense given the history: coercion and slavery of those people. [refer to the chapters: 'The Muster of Rohan'; and 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' in Book 3 - The Return of the King.

Thanks to liking Bionicle as a kid the names of everything in this video really rolls off the tongue for me.