![\"Carl](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14269e-Walking-Moai.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCarl P. Lipo & Terry L. Hunt confirmed via 3D modeling and field experiments that the ancient people of Rapa Nui \u2018walked\u2019 the moai statues. Image credit: Carl Lipo.<\/p>\n
Professor Lipo and his colleagues had previously demonstrated via experimental evidence that the large statues \u2018walked\u2019 from their quarry to ceremonial platforms using an upright, rocking motion, challenging a theory that the statues were moved lying prone on wooden devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get it moving, it isn\u2019t hard at all \u2014 people are pulling with one arm. It conserves energy, and it moves really quickly,\u201d Professor Lipo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard part is getting it rocking in the first place. The question is, if it\u2019s really large, what would it take?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre the things that we saw experimentally consistent with what we would expect from a physics perspective?\u201d<\/p>\n
To explore how a larger statue might move, Professor Lipo and Dr. Hunt created high-resolution 3D models of the moai and identified distinctive design features \u2014 wide D-shaped bases and a forward lean \u2014 that would make them more likely to be moved in a rocking, zig-zagging motion.<\/p>\n
Putting their theory to the test, they built a 4.35-ton replica moai with the distinct \u2018forward-lean\u2019 design.<\/p>\n
With just 18 people, they were able to transport the moai 100 m in just 40 minutes, a marked improvement over previous vertical transport attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe physics makes sense,\u201d Professor Lipo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we saw experimentally actually works. And as it gets bigger, it still works.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the attributes that we see about moving gigantic ones only get more and more consistent the bigger and bigger they get, because it becomes the only way you could move it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Adding to the support for this theory are the roads of Rapa Nui.<\/p>\n
Measuring 4.5 m wide with a concave cross-section, the roads were ideal for stabilizing the statues as they moved forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time they\u2019re moving a statue, it looks like they\u2019re making a road. The road is part of moving the statue,\u201d Professor Lipo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually see them overlapping each other, and many parallel versions of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are probably doing is clearing a path, moving it, clearing another, clearing it further, and moving it right in certain sequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they\u2019re spending a lot of time on the road part.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else currently explains how the moai were moved. The challenge to anyone else is to prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFind some evidence that shows it couldn\u2019t be walking. Because nothing we\u2019ve seen anywhere disproves that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, everything we ever see and ever thought of keeps strengthening the argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur research also honors the people of Rapa Nui, who achieved a monumental engineering feat with limited resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing it the way that\u2019s consistent with the resources they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it really gives honor to those people, saying, look at what they were able to achieve, and we have a lot to learn from them in these principles.\u201d<\/p>\n