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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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NARRATOR: Dawn breaks over
the giants of Easter Island.

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This is the most
mysterious place on earth,

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adrift in the Pacific 2 and 1/2
thousand miles from the coast

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of South America.

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For 250 years, these
huge stone statues

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have challenged explorers.

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Who are these giants?

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Where did they come from?

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Some weigh 80 tons.

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Was this how they were moved?

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Why did the statue builders
suddenly down tools

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and abandon their work forever?

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Mysteries from the files
of Arthur C. Clarke,

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author of "2001" and inventor
of the communication satellite.

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Now in retreat in Sri Lanka,
he ponders the riddles

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of this and other world's.

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There can hardly
be a place on earth

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that's been as extensively
studied as Easter Island.

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Archaeologists have sketched,
measured, and mapped

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more than 19,000
sites, but they had

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to jostle for space
with anthropologists,

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agriculturalists, historians,
seismologists, and plenty

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of other experts, not
to mention TV crews.

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But no one can hope to
answer the central riddle

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of this mysterious island.

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No written history from the age
of giants has ever been found.

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So we'll never
know the purpose of

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these extraordinary sculptures.

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NARRATOR: The statues
on their rock platforms

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are called moai by the
islanders, the Rapa Nui people.

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no one knows why they
were built in the hundreds

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across the island, but
250 years of investigation

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have pried some of
their secrets from them.

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Some wear head gear,
some are half buried,

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some look to the heavens,
some stand in groups.

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For anthropologist,
Jo Anne Van Tilburg,

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this is a place of pilgrimage.

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The giants were
hone from the rock

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of the Rano Raraku volcano.

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It's one of the wonders
of the mysterious world.

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This amazing place is
the place of creation.

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This is the quarry on
Easter Island, Rano

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Raraku, where nearly all of
the statues on the island

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were made.

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The Rapa Nui people
made these statues

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using a Stone Age technology.

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They used stone tools and hacked
into the stone with those stone

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tools in a prescribed manner,
so that it was very clear what

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each individual was doing.

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It was a very well
organized work effort.

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They first sort of hacked out,
cut out, a rectangular block,

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shaped it slightly,
and then undercut it,

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moved it out, and
began to finish

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some of the details later.

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The Rapa Nui people believe
the moai are the living

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face of their ancestors.

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I think that these moai
represent family units

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and the effort of family
units to move forward,

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to get a position,
in their culture,

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to push themselves upward
with this huge status symbol

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that they carved and moved.

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The longer I work
here, the less I know.

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That much I'm certain about.

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The more answers
I think I've got,

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the more questions develop.

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It just seems to me like
this is a place of never

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ending, enigmatic thinking.

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This is the place of-- it's
been called a place of mystery.

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It is.

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I think there are questions we
will never know how to form.

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There are answers we'll
never be able to get

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out of these silent sentinels.

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NARRATOR: Freed from
their volcanic bedrock,

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the statues went from here
to every part of the island.

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The ancient track from
the quarry at Rano Raraku

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was known as the Sacred Way.

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What's not known is just how
the giants traveled along it.

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There are statues in
the parks and streets

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near my home in Colombo.

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Most of them are much smaller
than the Easter Island giants,

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yet erecting them
was far from easy.

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Not long ago, the
government restored

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a huge statute, which had
fallen down centuries before.

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Even with modern
technologies, it

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proved to be what one newspaper
called a feat that even

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engineers shudder to touch.

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So how on earth did the Easter
Islanders transport and raise

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their giants?

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NARRATOR: Even the most
modern Japanese crane

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and mechanical diggers find
raising the moai tough going.

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In 1934, this French
and Belgian expedition

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had no such technology.

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They made off with
their moai the hard way.

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It took 100 islanders and
all the ship's crew to drag

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a six ton statute by sledge.

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Only after a struggle did
they winch it on board

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for show in a Belgium museum.

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Prague, capital of
the Czech Republic,

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home of a man who devotes
every waking moment

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to shifting heavy objects.

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Pavel Pavel moves heavy plant
for a living and for fun.

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The problems of moving
the moai had Pavel hooked.

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A giant was cast in concrete,
the manpower roped in

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and a legend was
put to the test.

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It said the giants had walked.

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Pavel showed this
could happen by rocking

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his giant from side to side.

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Today, he's testing
different claims.

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First, that the moai were
dragged on their backs

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over rollers.

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The workers of Prague are
enlisted and put into harness.

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It only takes 20
strong men to get

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nine tons of moai a rolling.

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The support team's hard pressed
to keep up with the rollers.

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This method was probably
used for small statutes.

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It means between 5, 10, 15,
maybe 20 tons on this trail.

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Now, I would like try experiment
to pull statue only on grass

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without rolls, without nothing,
only on sledge and on grass.

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I will meed more people.

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In every case, maybe
three times more people.

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NARRATOR: Even with
three times the manpower,

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without rollers to help it,
the moai won't budge an inch.

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The experiment
wasn't successful,

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but I'm satisfied because we can
see that this way is nonsense.

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Now we can try with
smash potatoes.

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We will put many potatoes
under sledge, and we will see.

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People on Easter Island
believe that this is solution,

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and that sledge with
statue was pulled

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on layer from potatoes smash.

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It's legend only.

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NARRATOR: Legend speaks
of Easter Islanders

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pulling their statues on
yams, the sweet potatoes

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found everywhere in the
Pacific, but nowhere in Prague.

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The Pavel, ordinary
potatoes must do.

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Legend may be true.

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Legend is true that potatoes
helped for lubrication.

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NARRATOR: In America's
cowboy country,

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Professor Charlie Love,
also has moving on his mind.

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Like Pavel Pavel, he's
cast himself a moai.

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Charlie Love wanted to try out
the walking theory as well,

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but with wooden feet on the
statue, rollers under it,

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and a posse of
choreographed cowboys.

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On local TV news, Charlie
has pulling power.

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CHARLIE: On three.

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One, two, that's it, pull.

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NEWS ANCHOR: Now,
here's something

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you don't see every day, a
13-foot high, 17,600 moai.

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But the 25 Rock Springs
volunteers couldn't budge

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this moai from the soft dirt.

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NARRATOR: Getting
the giant to move

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can need a little
20th century help.

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CHARLIE: Watch your back.

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Back outta the way.

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Outta the way.

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The single greatest
problem that we

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had in any of the moving
methods was choreography,

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and I think, perhaps, that if
you belonged to the lineage

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that this statue was
going to pertain to you

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might have better chances at
choreographing the moving of it

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then if you're in
Rock Springs, Wyoming

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with a bunch of Americans.

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Because getting them together,
explaining exactly what you're

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going to do, and then
having them do it in unison,

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and not be
catastrophic about it,

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meaning pulling the statue over
or having it fall on someone,

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that takes a lot
of coordination.

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We were eventually able
to move the statue.

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In terms of how far
can you move it,

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and how fast can you
move it, we moved

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our statue on a level
ground about 132 feet

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in the space of two minutes.

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What you're probably
looking at on Easter Island

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is a lesson in
how people can get

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together to do
spectacular things

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and cooperate at a huge level.

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I mean, it must taken
hundreds of people

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all neatly coordinated to
move some of those big ones.

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I think there are
loads of mysteries

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left on Easter Island.

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I think the biggest one, the
most pressing one currently,

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is you've noticed, you've
been staring at this statue.

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It has no topknot on it.

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How did they get the topknots
on the top of the statues?

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NARRATOR: No one knows what the
topknots, or pukao, were for.

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Whether they were crowns,
turbans, or hairstyles,

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only a few giants wore them.

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Those that did became
even more awesome.

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Made of red volcanic
rock called scoria,

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the topknots weighed
as much as 11 tons.

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Mounting them on the giants
is a heavyweight problem,

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even for Pavel Pavel.

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His first task is to overcome
the topknots resistance.

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Luckily, he knows his potatoes.

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The mash should ease things.

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Pavel uses only
ropes, tree trunks,

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manpower, and ingenuity, all
that the Easter Islanders had.

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Finally, the Prague
pukao is safely in place.

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Back on Easter Island,
wild horses won't

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drag one secret from the moai.

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What power did
the giants possess

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to make people haul them up to
14 miles over rocky terrain?

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It's puzzled every adventurer.

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From the Dutchman,
Admiral Jacob Roggeveen,

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who discovered the
island on Easter day

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in 1722, to Captain
James Cook in 1774.

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He wondered if the statues
showed that a race of giants

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had actually lived here.

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The Frenchmen, la Perouse,
didn't think the giants were

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religious idols, but
noted that the natives

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showed the statutes respect.

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During the First World War,
Katherine Scoresby Routledge

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cataloged every single moai.

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She unearthed no answers.

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French academic, Alfred
Metraux sought the truth

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in the island's legends.

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In the 1940s, Thor Heyerdahl
thought that the giant builders

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came from South America.

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He retraced that journey
on his kon-tiki raft.

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The giants themselves
maintain a stony silence.

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They stand, most of
them, with their backs

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to the sea watching over the
communities whose ancestors

262
00:14:49,700 --> 00:14:52,890
some say they represent.

263
00:14:52,890 --> 00:14:55,130
But there are a few exceptions.

264
00:14:55,130 --> 00:15:00,120
These stand inland, set askew
on their rock platforms.

265
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,840
For astronomer, William Liller,
these moai provide some clues.

266
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,990
We found that there
were approximately 14

267
00:15:07,990 --> 00:15:11,870
that were aligned
with the equinoxes,

268
00:15:11,870 --> 00:15:14,140
with the solstices, those
special points where

269
00:15:14,140 --> 00:15:16,970
the sun rises on the
first day of the winter,

270
00:15:16,970 --> 00:15:22,460
on the first day of spring, and
it was unusual to find so many.

271
00:15:22,460 --> 00:15:23,930
It's not what you would expect.

272
00:15:23,930 --> 00:15:29,470
The chances of it happening by
accident are exceeding slim,

273
00:15:29,470 --> 00:15:32,130
so therefore, there must have
been some reason behind it,

274
00:15:32,130 --> 00:15:36,550
and the obvious answer was they
did it to show the direction

275
00:15:36,550 --> 00:15:38,420
towards the rising
sun on these very

276
00:15:38,420 --> 00:15:41,770
special dates, the shortest
day of the year, et cetera.

277
00:15:41,770 --> 00:15:44,480
To them, the stars, the
heavens, the sun, the moon,

278
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:49,440
these were the closest other
pieces of land that they knew.

279
00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:53,750
They were able to tell
where the sun would rise.

280
00:15:53,750 --> 00:15:55,605
They were able to tell
where the moon would rise,

281
00:15:55,605 --> 00:16:01,230
the motions of the stars, and
they wanted to memorialize

282
00:16:01,230 --> 00:16:04,010
these in stone by
building platforms

283
00:16:04,010 --> 00:16:06,070
and building moai
that would look

284
00:16:06,070 --> 00:16:08,940
in these very
special directions.

285
00:16:08,940 --> 00:16:13,430
We found that this
particular platform

286
00:16:13,430 --> 00:16:16,850
and this particular
moai, this statue,

287
00:16:16,850 --> 00:16:21,870
had been twisted around relative
to this plaza out in front,

288
00:16:21,870 --> 00:16:25,780
so that it was looking
off in that direction.

289
00:16:25,780 --> 00:16:29,730
And it turns out, we found that
that is precisely the direction

290
00:16:29,730 --> 00:16:35,930
in which the sun rises on the
shortest day of the year, 21st

291
00:16:35,930 --> 00:16:37,330
of June down here.

292
00:16:37,330 --> 00:16:40,680
And at the same
time, it rises just

293
00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:42,190
to the right of a
small little hill

294
00:16:42,190 --> 00:16:48,010
over there called Mata Maunga,
and it was very probably,

295
00:16:48,010 --> 00:16:52,090
we believe, made to mark that
particular special direction

296
00:16:52,090 --> 00:16:54,940
in the sky.

297
00:16:54,940 --> 00:16:56,940
NARRATOR: Liller
believes moai like this

298
00:16:56,940 --> 00:17:00,570
were also farming calendars.

299
00:17:00,570 --> 00:17:05,760
The islanders that lived in
the inner parts of the island,

300
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,069
those were the crop growers,
and they had to know when

301
00:17:09,069 --> 00:17:12,560
the time was ripe for
planting their crops,

302
00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,150
and so by noting when the
sun rose on the shortest

303
00:17:16,150 --> 00:17:19,839
day of the year, they knew--
and shortly afterwards, it was

304
00:17:19,839 --> 00:17:22,821
going to start to get warm and
they should have their crops

305
00:17:22,821 --> 00:17:23,520
planted.

306
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,260


307
00:17:28,260 --> 00:17:30,830
NARRATOR: In 1978,
two chance discovery

308
00:17:30,830 --> 00:17:33,720
was made here at Anakena.

309
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,240
It opened the eyes of the
archaeologists and the statues.

310
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:40,190


311
00:17:40,190 --> 00:17:43,880
An Easter Islander found
two strange objects.

312
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,920
In a flash of insight, she
put one and one together.

313
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,110
She found the
components of an eye made

314
00:17:51,110 --> 00:17:53,620
of coral and red
scoria, something

315
00:17:53,620 --> 00:17:57,380
that was placed inside
the socket of the statue.

316
00:17:57,380 --> 00:18:00,340
This coral portion was first
found, and we've found,

317
00:18:00,340 --> 00:18:01,780
or other archaeologists
have found,

318
00:18:01,780 --> 00:18:04,090
these things on several
other sites on the island,

319
00:18:04,090 --> 00:18:05,440
and people usually
thought they were

320
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,410
ceremonial bowls or some sort
of an artifact like that.

321
00:18:08,410 --> 00:18:12,880
But with the magic that
comes with finding objects

322
00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:15,900
on the same sight but not
understood in terms of how

323
00:18:15,900 --> 00:18:18,970
they relate, it was made
clear that these two

324
00:18:18,970 --> 00:18:20,890
pieces went together.

325
00:18:20,890 --> 00:18:24,730
And this eye suddenly
opened up a whole range

326
00:18:24,730 --> 00:18:26,420
of possibilities
and opportunities

327
00:18:26,420 --> 00:18:28,650
for better understanding
the statues.

328
00:18:28,650 --> 00:18:30,810
Coral and red scoria
is found often

329
00:18:30,810 --> 00:18:33,780
in association with
crematoria and with burials.

330
00:18:33,780 --> 00:18:35,970
So we believe they're
sacred materials associated

331
00:18:35,970 --> 00:18:37,330
with funeral ceremonies.

332
00:18:37,330 --> 00:18:39,360
When these eyes
were in the statues,

333
00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:40,850
some of those
kinds of ceremonies

334
00:18:40,850 --> 00:18:41,740
must have been going on.

335
00:18:41,740 --> 00:18:45,330


336
00:18:45,330 --> 00:18:47,920
Hundreds of statues
lie unfinished

337
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:51,380
in and around the quarry
where they were carved.

338
00:18:51,380 --> 00:18:53,570
It looks as though the
sculptors had just put down

339
00:18:53,570 --> 00:18:55,730
their tools for a tea break.

340
00:18:55,730 --> 00:18:58,490
But what really brought this
extraordinary undertaking

341
00:18:58,490 --> 00:18:59,880
to an end?

342
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:00,785
We can only speculate.

343
00:19:00,785 --> 00:19:05,770


344
00:19:05,770 --> 00:19:07,590
NARRATOR: However
they moved the giants,

345
00:19:07,590 --> 00:19:09,080
the islanders needed trees.

346
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,620


347
00:19:11,620 --> 00:19:14,540
But today, Easter
Island is desolate.

348
00:19:14,540 --> 00:19:16,160
There's barely a
branch to be seen.

349
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:19,980


350
00:19:19,980 --> 00:19:23,330
I With the help of
the Chilean Navy,

351
00:19:23,330 --> 00:19:26,420
agronomist, Gerardo Velasco,
is looking for Easter

352
00:19:26,420 --> 00:19:27,735
island's lost forests.

353
00:19:27,735 --> 00:19:34,000


354
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,750
He believes traces may
lie deep in the lake

355
00:19:36,750 --> 00:19:38,260
at the heart of this crater.

356
00:19:38,260 --> 00:19:47,620


357
00:19:47,620 --> 00:19:49,930
Under the water,
deep in this mud,

358
00:19:49,930 --> 00:19:52,970
lay layer upon
layer of sediments.

359
00:19:52,970 --> 00:19:57,420
Preserved in them are pollens
from thousands of years ago.

360
00:19:57,420 --> 00:20:00,380
They hold the key to tell
experts what vegetation

361
00:20:00,380 --> 00:20:03,760
grew on the island and when.

362
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:08,170
These sediments are the leaves
of a book waiting to be read.

363
00:20:08,170 --> 00:20:10,505
The harvest of today's
exploratory probe

364
00:20:10,505 --> 00:20:13,410
will be flown across the
Pacific to New Zealand

365
00:20:13,410 --> 00:20:14,705
and Professor John Flenley.

366
00:20:14,705 --> 00:20:19,443


367
00:20:19,443 --> 00:20:22,360
What I'll do is
to open up the core

368
00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:27,680
and take out from a particulate
depth, a piece as a sample

369
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,515
of about 1 cubic centimeter.

370
00:20:30,515 --> 00:20:33,480
It will end up on
a microscope slide,

371
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,420
and then we can look at
that under the microscope,

372
00:20:35,420 --> 00:20:39,240
and see what we've got
in the way of pollen.

373
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:43,240
Let's have a look
at what we've got.

374
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:45,950
We found stacks of
pollen, and mostly

375
00:20:45,950 --> 00:20:49,080
of one particular
species, a kind of palm.

376
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:51,360
It seems to be now
extinct, but it

377
00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:55,280
was very similar to the
Chilean Wine Palm, a big tree.

378
00:20:55,280 --> 00:21:00,710
And it became extinct
only during the last 2,000

379
00:21:00,710 --> 00:21:06,490
years, during which people
arrived on the island.

380
00:21:06,490 --> 00:21:09,940
The island had
formally been forested.

381
00:21:09,940 --> 00:21:13,540
We know it is now
completely without trees,

382
00:21:13,540 --> 00:21:17,600
and perhaps, the
removal of the trees

383
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,300
was the thing which had
triggered the collapse

384
00:21:21,300 --> 00:21:23,060
of the civilization.

385
00:21:23,060 --> 00:21:25,370
When the trees
have been cut down,

386
00:21:25,370 --> 00:21:28,020
there were no more rollers,
and people couldn't

387
00:21:28,020 --> 00:21:30,490
move statues without rollers.

388
00:21:30,490 --> 00:21:33,350
Therefore, there's no point
in continuing to make them.

389
00:21:33,350 --> 00:21:37,260


390
00:21:37,260 --> 00:21:39,660
NARRATOR: On a fishing trip
to these remote cliffs,

391
00:21:39,660 --> 00:21:41,855
Gerardo Velasco
netted another clue.

392
00:21:41,855 --> 00:21:45,320


393
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,040
He suddenly noticed
neat cylindrical holes,

394
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:52,040
all that was left of
palm trees swept away

395
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:53,940
and entombed by flowing lava.

396
00:21:53,940 --> 00:21:57,580


397
00:21:57,580 --> 00:22:00,530
I started to look around
and found several holes

398
00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:06,620
of remarkable features
resembling the typical palm

399
00:22:06,620 --> 00:22:12,790
trunk, and at that moment, I
was so excited because it fitted

400
00:22:12,790 --> 00:22:18,010
exactly what had been
found in the craters,

401
00:22:18,010 --> 00:22:21,770
pollen samples,
pollen cores, made

402
00:22:21,770 --> 00:22:24,570
the whole picture quite clear.

403
00:22:24,570 --> 00:22:27,610
They were definitely
trunks to my view.

404
00:22:27,610 --> 00:22:30,650
They are straight,
very, very regular,

405
00:22:30,650 --> 00:22:35,940
unlike the gas tubes
in caves that we are so

406
00:22:35,940 --> 00:22:37,750
familiar with in this island.

407
00:22:37,750 --> 00:22:41,110
They're absolutely regular,
and if you look inside,

408
00:22:41,110 --> 00:22:45,920
you can even see the imprints
of the leaves of the palm.

409
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:50,030
Eventually, when the
moais were carved,

410
00:22:50,030 --> 00:22:54,230
and they had to be rolled,
probably many of these trees

411
00:22:54,230 --> 00:22:56,660
had to be cut down
to make the rollers.

412
00:22:56,660 --> 00:22:58,360
They provide excellent rollers.

413
00:22:58,360 --> 00:23:02,000
These trunks, they're
perfectly cylindrical.

414
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:03,610
When they had no
rollers, of course,

415
00:23:03,610 --> 00:23:08,520
they couldn't move the moais
anymore, so we believe.

416
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:12,670


417
00:23:12,670 --> 00:23:14,980
NARRATOR: Or could the
moais themselves literally

418
00:23:14,980 --> 00:23:20,000
point to the reason for the
end of the giant building age?

419
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,060
All around the island,
they lie, face down or up,

420
00:23:24,060 --> 00:23:27,730
toppled from their
rock platforms.

421
00:23:27,730 --> 00:23:32,700
Historians thought they were
demolished by warring tribes.

422
00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:35,700
But one geologist realized
that Easter Island lies

423
00:23:35,700 --> 00:23:37,030
at the heart of
one of the world's

424
00:23:37,030 --> 00:23:39,980
most active earthquake zones.

425
00:23:39,980 --> 00:23:43,670
He found that 80% had fallen
in the same direction,

426
00:23:43,670 --> 00:23:45,030
to the west.

427
00:23:45,030 --> 00:23:48,830
Knocked over, he believes,
by seismic waves.

428
00:23:48,830 --> 00:23:52,530
Easter Island is
clear in the middle

429
00:23:52,530 --> 00:23:57,040
of a very active quake region.

430
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:03,140
This means to me is the
propagation of seismic wave

431
00:24:03,140 --> 00:24:06,580
in one direction, from
the west of the island,

432
00:24:06,580 --> 00:24:12,740
and you found 80% moais
fall down in that direction.

433
00:24:12,740 --> 00:24:15,500


434
00:24:15,500 --> 00:24:17,180
NARRATOR: Professor
Foran concludes

435
00:24:17,180 --> 00:24:21,260
the statue builders tried to
fight the earth's upheavals.

436
00:24:21,260 --> 00:24:24,730
From building huge moai
on small platforms,

437
00:24:24,730 --> 00:24:28,026
they moved to smaller statues
on bigger and bigger bases.

438
00:24:28,026 --> 00:24:30,940


439
00:24:30,940 --> 00:24:35,120
But in the end, they
were forced to give up.

440
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:41,030
But still, the moai
continue go down, fall down.

441
00:24:41,030 --> 00:24:45,750
They maybe thinks god
don't like our work.

442
00:24:45,750 --> 00:24:48,630


443
00:24:48,630 --> 00:24:52,020
It was not the problem
of tree topple the moai.

444
00:24:52,020 --> 00:24:53,230
It was earthquake.

445
00:24:53,230 --> 00:24:55,920


446
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,610
I find the idea that
the statue builders

447
00:24:58,610 --> 00:25:01,510
gave up because
earthquake's kept undoing

448
00:25:01,510 --> 00:25:03,880
their work very plausible.

449
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,950
It's a natural human
reaction, and as to the theory

450
00:25:06,950 --> 00:25:10,280
that the islanders brought down
their civilization by damaging

451
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,760
the environment, it shows
that we don't have a monopoly

452
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:15,820
on ecological disasters.

453
00:25:15,820 --> 00:25:18,740
So perhaps there's a
lesson here for all of us

454
00:25:18,740 --> 00:25:22,540
in the mysterious
fate of Easter Island.

455
00:25:22,540 --> 00:26:01,634