ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND SOMETHING STRANGE ON THE EASTER ISLAND, A PLACE ALREADY BRIMMING WITH MYSTERIES

Location

It should not come as a surprise to you that Easter Island is one of the most secluded places on earth. The nearest place to the island is Pitcairn, 1,200 miles away. Chile is the closest mainland and is 2,300 miles away. So the question is: is it worth the effort to travel all the way to Easter Island? Well, if you are a history fanatic then it is definitely worth it.

So Why Is It Called Easter Island?

The Island is named after its discoverer and the time he discovered it. Jacob Roggeveen was the Dutch explorer who is believed to have found this location on  April 5, 1722, which was the Easter Sunday. The Island is part of Chile and is officially called  Isla de Pascua.

The Original Settlers

The popular theory in the 20th century was that the original settlers of the island were the Indians from the South American coast. After much deliberation and research historians debunked this theory. The theory agreed on these days is that the first discoverers of the land were of Polynesian descent who arrived here around 318 AD.

More To The Name

Before being known as how it is known today the place had a lot of names. The oldest name recorded is- Te Pito o Te Henua which translates to “The Center of the World.” Mata-Ki-Te-Rani is another name islanders gave this place which in English translates to “Eyes Looking at Heaven.” Tahitian sailors named it Rapa Nui in the 1860s and the history is well known from there.

Moai Have Bodies

The Moai are not just “heads”, they have whole bodies. These are not visible because they are buried in the ground. When these bodies were excavated by archeologists it was found that they were heavily tattooed. It was the discovery of these that bodies that led archeologists to believe that there is a lot more hidden on the island than what meets the eye. 

The Director

The director of the Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) is Jo Anne Van Tilburg. After the success of their recent excavation project, she released this statement online-  “Our EISP excavations recently exposed the torsos of two 7m tall statues. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of visitors to the island have been astonished to see that, indeed, Easter Island statues have bodies! More important, however, we discovered a great deal about the Rapa Nui techniques of ancient engineering.”