For any who are interested in UCL’s involvement in research on Easter Island, members within the archaeology department of UCL received funding earlier this year to research the landscape and statues on Rapa Nui, but specifically how the statues weighing up to 30 tonnes were moved. In 2010, researchers from UCL discovered a complex network of roads up to 800 years old. This has significant consequences for Easter Island, as prior theories suggested that palm tree trunks were used to roll the statues, and thus contributed to deforestation on the island, which has been proposed by some as the main cause of Easter’s collapse (to be discussed in following posts).
New funding from the AHRC award (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20110204) is allowing UCL researchers to investigate this further, particularly the spatial organisation of the moai, the quarries and tribe settlement, and the cultural and religious reasons for the moai erection.
Watch this space in the future!
Nice link to UCL research. You should get the PIs (principal investigators to follow your blog!)
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