Rollers, wooden carts, and even alien life are just a few of the theories of how people moved the iconic moai statues of Easter Island (also called Rapa Nui). These roughly 130,000-pound, 32-foot-high statues somehow made it about 11 miles from the volcanic quarries where they were made to their final positions, over hilly terrain–all without modern technology.

Now, using 3D modeling and field experiments from archeologists and anthropologists, we might finally have an answer. Rope and “walking” along specially designed roads moved the giant statues, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

“It shows that the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out,” study co-author and Binghamton University anthropologist Carl Lipo said in a statement. “They’re doing it the way that’s consistent with the resources they have. So 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.”

What are the moai statues?

Rap Nui’s moai statues are massive megaliths that were built by the Rapa Nui people in roughly 1400–1650 CE. Most people know them as the Easter Island heads, but these heads do have full bodies. 

There are about 1,000 of these enormous statues. About 95 percent of them were carved out of tuff ejected from volcano Rano Raraku. Tuff is a compressed volcanic ash and is easy to carve with the stone tools available at the time called toki. 

The moai statues were built in honor of chieftains and other important people who had died. The statues were placed on rectangular stone platforms called ahu, which serve as tombs. Initially, the moais were made with different characteristics to represent the appearance of the deceased.  

‘The physics makes sense’

In this new study of roughly 1,000 moai statues, a team put this to the test. The same team previously showed that an upright, rocking motion, let the large statues “walk” from their volcanic quarry over to the ceremonial platforms. 

“Once you get it moving, it isn’t hard at all – people are pulling with one arm. It conserves energy, and it moves really quickly,” said Lipo. “The hard part is getting it rocking in the first place. The question is, if it’s really large, what would it take? Are the things that we saw experimentally consistent with what we would expect from a physics perspective?”

To see how a larger statue might move, the team created high-resolution 3D models of the moai. With these models, they identified distinctive design features, including wide D-shaped bases and a forward lean. These bases would make them more likely to be moved in a rocking, zig-zagging motion.

They then built a 4.35-ton replica moai with the distinct forward-lean design to test out this theory. They could move the moai about 328 feet in 40 minutes, with a team of only 18 people. 

“The physics makes sense,” said Lipo. “What we saw experimentally actually works. And as it gets bigger, it still works. All 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.”

Passing the road test

The roads of Rapa Nui also lend some support to this new theory. At about 14-feet-wide with a concave cross-section, these roads were ideal for stabilizing the statues as they moved.

“Every time they’re moving a statue, it looks like they’re making a road. The road is part of moving the statue,” said Lipo. “We actually see them overlapping each other, and many parallel versions of them. What they are probably doing is clearing a path, moving it, clearing another, clearing it further, and moving it right in certain sequences. So they’re spending a lot of time on the road part.”

According to the team, there are no other real theories that could explain how the moai were moved. Rapa Nui is notorious for wild theories that have zero evidence, and the team worked to put a real theory to the test. 

“People have spun all kinds of tales about stuff that’s plausible or possible in some way, but they never go about evaluating the evidence to show that, in fact, you can learn about the past and explain the record that you see in ways that are fully scientific,” said Lipo. “One of the steps is simply saying, ‘Look, we can build an answer here.’”

The post How Easter Island’s famed heads ‘walked’ appeared first on Popular Science.

Background

Majestic 12 is the purported code name of a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, supposedly formed in 1947 by an executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The purpose of the committee was to investigate UFO activity in the aftermath of the Roswell incident – the purported crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. This alleged committee is an important part of the UFO conspiracy theory of an ongoing government cover up of UFO information.

Document Archive

The following FBI files were requested, which are the alleged members of MJ-12 and even the FBI’s file on MJ-12 itself.

Although some of these files may have nothing to do with UFOs or MJ-12, these are the alleged members and are archived here.

Original Alleged MJ-12 Members

Majestic-12 FBI File – [24 Pages] Subject concerns an FBI inquiry into a possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information when a document marked “Top Secret” was made public. According to the FBI, the investigation was closed after it was learned that the document was completely “bogus.”

Berkner, Lloyd – [135 Pages, 10.43 MB]  Berkner, Lloyd, Release #2 – [12 Pages, 2.4 MB] – Lloyd Viel Berkner (February 1, 1905, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – June 4, 1967, in Washington, D.C.) was an American physicist and engineer. He was one of the inventors of the measuring device that since has become standard at ionospheric stations because it measures the height and electron density of the ionosphere. The data obtained in the worldwide net of such instruments  were important for the developing theory of short wave radio propagation to which Berkner himself gave important contributions.Additional information was found at the FBI, that originated at the CIA.  The FBI forwarded these records to the CIA for review, and declassification, and the CIA information me that all material on Berkner is classified.  Berkner, Lloyd CIA Documents Denial Letter – [ 2 Pages, 0.5 MB ]

Bronk, Detlev – [ 248 Pages, 7.18 MB ] – Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November 17, 1975) was a prominent American scientist, educator, and administrator. He is credited with establishing biophysics as a recognized discipline. Bronk served as President of Johns Hopkins University from 1949 to 1953 and as President of the The Rockefeller University from 1953 to 1968. Bronk also held the presidency of the National Academy of Sciences between 1950 and 1962. Please note: According to the FBI, more pages exist on Bronk and are being sent to another government agency for release. Will post when available.

Bush, Vannevar – [ 241 Pages, 78.1 MB ] – Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, whose most important contribution was as head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during World War II, through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including initiation and early administration of the Manhattan Project. He is also known in engineering for his work on analog computers, for founding Raytheon, and for the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer with a structure analogous to that of the World Wide Web.  Bush was also an alleged member of the Majestic-12 (MJ-12) group.  Please note: As admitted by the FBI, an entire file on Bush was destroyed. According to the FBI: “One record (161-BS-1452) which may be responsive to your FOIA request was destroyed in April of 1998.”

Forrestal, James – [290 Pages, 32.66MB] – James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense. Forrestal was a supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. In 1954, the world’s first supercarrier was named USS Forrestal in his honor, as is the headquarters of the United States Department of Energy. He is also the namesake of the Forrestal Lecture Series at the United States Naval Academy, which brings prominent military and civilian leaders to speak to the Brigade of Midshipmen, and of the James Forrestal Campus of Princeton University in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.

Gray, Gordon – FBI Release #1 – [349 Pages, 88.8MB]  Gray, Gordon – FBI Release #2 – [23 Pages, 2.5MB]  Gray, Gordon (State Department Release) – [3 Pages, 1.1MB] Gordon Gray (May 30, 1909 – November 26, 1982) was an official in the government of the United States during the administrations of Harry Truman (1945–53) and Dwight Eisenhower (1953–61) associated with defense and national security.

Hillenkoetter, Adm Roscoe Henry – [ 32 Pages, 20.70MB ] – Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter (May 8, 1897 – June 18, 1982) was the third director of the post-World War II United States Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the third Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency created by the National Security Act of 1947. He served as DCI and director of the CIG and the CIA from May 1, 1947 to October 7, 1950 and after his retirement from the United States Navy was a member of the board of governors of National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) from 1957 to 1962.

Hunsaker, Jerome – [ 3 Pages, 0.9MB ] – Jerome Clarke Hunsaker (August 26, 1886 – September 10, 1984) was an American airman born in Creston, Iowa, and educated at the Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.According to the FBI, Hunsaker’s file was destroyed September 24, 2004

Menzel, Donald – [ 209 Pages, 24.10MB ] – Donald Howard Menzel (April 11, 1901 – December 14, 1976) was one of the first theoretical astronomers and astrophysicists in the US. He discovered the physical properties of the solar chromosphere, the chemistry of stars, the atmosphere of Mars, and the nature of gaseous nebulae.

Montague, Robert M. – [ 2 Pages, 0.3MB ] – Robert Miller Montague (August 7, 1899 – February 20, 1958) was a Lieutenant General in the United States Army. He achieved prominence as the deputy commander of Fort Bliss, Texas and commander of the Sandia Missile Base in New Mexico during the start of modern ufology and head of the U.S. Caribbean Command.  The FBI claims that they could not find a file on Montague.

Souers, Sidney Adm. – [ 691 Pages, 47.53MB ] – Sidney William Souers (March 30, 1892 – January 14, 1973) was an American admiral and intelligence expert. ear Admiral Souers was appointed as the first Director of Central Intelligence on January 23, 1946 by President Harry S. Truman. Prior to this, as Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, Souers had been one of the architects of the system that came into being with the President’s directive. He had written the intelligence chapter of the Eberstadt Report, which advocated a unified intelligence system. Toward the end of 1945, when the competing plans for a national intelligence system were deadlocked, Souers’ views had come to the attention of the President, and he seems to have played a role in breaking the impasse.

Twining, General Nathan – [ 23 Pages, 15.43MB ] – Nathan Farragut Twining, (October 11, 1897 – March 29, 1982) was a United States Air Force General, born in Monroe, Wisconsin. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1953 until 1957. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1957 to 1960 he was the first member of the Air Force to serve in that role.

Vandenberg, Hoyt – [ 98 Pages, 6.12MB ] – Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg (January 24, 1899 – April 2, 1954) was a U.S. Air Force general, its second Chief of Staff, and second Director of Central Intelligence. During World War II, Vandenberg was the commanding general of the Ninth Air Force, a tactical air force in England and in France, supporting the Army, from August 1944 until V-E Day. Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central coast of California is named for General Vandenberg. In 1946, he was briefly the U.S. Chief of Military Intelligence. He was the nephew of Arthur H. Vandenberg, a former U.S. Senator from Michigan.

Other Alleged MJ-12 Members

The post FBI File: Majestic-12 first appeared on The Black Vault.