Experimental Archaeology and the Moai of Easter Island
This NOVA episode is about the moai ("giant head" statues) of Rapa Nui. The documentary examines who created the statues, and how they were made, but focuses more on how the huge monuments were transported from where they were carved to where they stand today. Previous hypotheses involved dragging them on sleds or rolling them on logs, but some contemporary archaeologists give credence to oral traditions, which say the moai "walked" to their destinations. The film crew follows a team of scientists as they create a realistic replica of a typical moai, and attempt to use ropes and muscle to "walk" it down a primitive road.
This episode also explores the mystery of what happened to the original inhabitants of Rapa Nui. Archaeologists discuss the evidence of severe environmental degradation and ensuing hostilities, but they discredit the overly-simplistic myth of self-destruction through "ecocide." The commonly-held notion that cutting down all the trees ruined the island--and...
Good Portrayal of What Happened on Easter Island
This represents a good overview of what happened on Easter Island. It also illustrates good archaeology and how method of the field can be used to gain insights.
Most interesting but not a lot of Easter Island!
This is a short doco filmed in Hawaii about how the Easter Island Moais might have been moved. Having visited Easter Island several times I was very interested in the subject matter and was glad to see this disc. It is however very short, and has almost no Easter Island content at all. An excellent rent but overpriced and the Hawaiian experiment made the title a little misleading.
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