THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND
Easter Island is a very mysterious place. It is famous for its giant statues, called moai, that stand in rows looking out to sea. Why these huge sculptures were built and how they were transported and erected are questions that have occupied anthropologists and archeologists down through the ages. But the statues are not the mystery I want to talk about. Rather, it is how this island ever came to be inhabited in the first place.
That it should have become colonised by humans seems particularly unlikely, given its location. Easter Island could justifiably claim to be the remotest island on Earth, a speck lost amidst the mighty expanse of the Pacific Ocean. One might be forgiven for thinking that its discovery by seafaring Polynesians some 1500 years ago must have been an extraordinary accident.
Amazingly, it could well be that its colonisation was not accidental at all. As Geoffrey Irwin has argued, the Polynesians were mariners who had a highly-sophisticated search strategy that involved a method of quartering the ocean that aimed to find new lands. They also had an ingenious method for finding their way home. On their outgoing journey they would always head out against the prevailing winds and this meant that, on the extremity of any particular journey the wind would blow them back from whence they came. Just like Easter Island, home was an infinitesimal speck amidst vast expanses of water, but the Polynesians were skilled at reading the night sky and navigating by the stars, and, as Simon Conway Morris put it, "the constellations fitted into place so an increasingly familiar starlit sky provided the beacons for a successful homecoming".
So, what with their methods of quartering the ocean helping them widen their net of exploration, and their ability to navigate by the stars, the Polynesians achieved a seemingly miraculous outcome, and discovered Easter Island.
Images from wikimedia commons
REFERENCES
Wikipedia
"Life's Solution' by Simon Conway Morris
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wow great information!!! Im glad you posted this !
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Interesting article, but there's a lot you don't know about this topic.
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