Paskalya Adası

sophisticated artworks, whose relations with world are known as weak or nearly none; also remained as an unanswered question.

Even though a Norweigan  explorer/archeoogist Thor Heyerdahl claimed that the island culture was related to the South America he lacked proofs that would provide serious base for his thesis. Anyhow,the later researches revealed that Polynesian effect in archeologic, linguistic, ethnographic even genetic structures were dominant.

 

The most ancient date in the island  that can be acquired through carbon tests is AD 318. Even though conventional archeologists think that the culture in the island dates back to 318 AD; the mysteries surrounding the island may provide probability to other options such as the use of the island for a thousand of years. In fact, it is known that canoeing cruises between Pacific Islands date back to BC 5000. Maybe the island is a leftover piece of a more enormous island or a huge piece of land.

 

The centre of the world (or stomach)  idiom may probably put emphasis on the importance of the island; it is probable that the idiom is deeper than just a poetic expression. And another idiom that was mentioned in the legend ; “the eyes that stare at the sky” may prove that the island was once an astronomic observation centre.

 

Another question that occupies the minds of the researchers is how the transportation of these huge statues’  from stone quarries to open areas are managed and located vertically. Researchers naturally come into notion that the artists might use some equipments and levers, especially palm trees which were so frequently encountered in the Pacific Islands.Use of palm trees was the strongest possibility but the suitable trees with adequate thickness for transportation were not existent in the island that time.

 

In the late 18th century, European visitors stated that living conditions were good in the island.Captain Roggeveen noted that there were little fruit trees in the island, but no thick trees. Later, archeological facts, carbon tests resulted in the notion that even palm trees were used it can’t date back to 14th century.There could not been an agreement on vanishing of palm trees in the island and several dates were discussed , even dating back to Ice Age. 

 

Culture of the island is not limited with stone craft. Rongo Rongo tablets; which one could call them the only written work in the Pacific Ocean are discovered in Easter Island. There are conflicting opinions about the age of these tablets but according to the legend, “Hoto Matua” arrived the island with 67 Rongo Rongo tablets. The meanings of the signs that were used in Rongo Rongo tablets are forgotten today. In compliance with the records, the last person who was able to read the Rongo Rongo tablets died in 1862. Even though it is known there were many Rongo Rongo tablets only 25 of them survived, located in various collections and museums.