I tend to think I know a lot of stuff. (Note: this makes me neither rich nor handsome, I could be wrong, YMMV, etc…) Apparently I’m a fool. From the middle of nowhere comes a bit of trivia about which I’d been woefully misinformed.
Consider Easter Island Heads: the damn things have bodies. No shit!
There’s a body underneath it. WTF?!?
It sounds hoax like to me but Wikipedia backs up the story.
“Though moai are whole-body statues, they are commonly referred to as ‘Easter Island heads’. This is partly because of the disproportionate size of most moai heads and partly because, from the invention of photography until the 1950s, the only moai standing on the island were the statues on the slopes of Rano Raraku, many of which are buried to their shoulders.”
Hmm… It could still be a hoax. Anyone want to toss me some cash so I can fly to Easter Island with a shovel and a tape measure?
Hat tip to Sharp as a Marble. Who, like me, had no clue.
A.C.
P.S. This, for some reason, is exciting news to me. Like discovering the Sphinx is really a robotic dinosaur. Mrs. Curmudgeon is shaking her head at my childlike fascination. What can I say? I like surprises.
I recently discovered this fact too, from the same picture within the last couple of months.
Likewise I excited too, like revisiting a bit of the wonder when I was first introduced to the heads as a child.
Makes the question of how they moved them there even more perplexing.
Makes the question of *why* they moved them there more perplexing. Burying half your work is the economic equivalent of digging two holes so you can fill in one.
– Max
It was shovel ready?
Rope, rollers, lots of guys with time on their hands.
That’s just amazing – I had absolutely no idea until you told me. Huh! Who’d have thought?
Exactly! Who knew this stuff?!?
How fortunate that the internet has so much trivia to enjoy.
Meh. I read Thor Heyerdahl’s (sp?) “Aku Aku” back in high school and would still recommend it today. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s been a bunch of later work that eclipses what he did on the island.
youtube has a vid of them walking
I’ll bet they’re buried halfway as a symbolic representation of resurrection or life after death. Seriously.