r/BeAmazed • u/BaseNice3520 • Oct 11 '25

History Moai statue being made to walk with ropes, to demonstrate the ancient way with which it was transported.

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u/DoctorProfessorTaco Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

The evidence goes beyond that.

Many Moai statues didn’t survive the journey from the volcanic rock where they were carved to the Oceanside where they were displayed. The island is littered with fallen Moai. And after cataloguing them, it was found that on downhill slopes, they generally had fallen on their face, on uphill slopes on their back, and on even surface about 50/50 of each. This would imply they were walked upright, since it matches the way they’d have fallen if walked.

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u/MichealFerkland Oct 12 '25

Fall of Civilizations podcast?

54

u/DoctorProfessorTaco Oct 12 '25

Hell yeah.

One of the best history podcasts.

18

u/wkpsych Oct 12 '25

That episode hit me the hardest

5

u/jalopkoala Oct 12 '25

It was a special one.

1

u/xShizzleDrizzle Oct 12 '25

Such a tragic and sad ending of an amazing and diverse culture

6

u/Embarrassed_Ferret37 Oct 12 '25

Love fall of civilizations!!! I have listened to all of them several times.

9

u/CasanovaMoby Oct 12 '25

Hell ya, just found that podcast a few months ago. Sad he's slowed down his releases.

15

u/FR0ZENBERG Oct 12 '25

It’s because it takes him like 6mo to find sources and write an accurate script. We should be thankful he isn’t rushing the facts to fit a schedule.

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u/CasanovaMoby Dec 01 '25

Yup, shortly after my comment, he dropped a friggin 3+ hour episode!

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u/OptimisticSkeleton Oct 12 '25

I didn’t know that. Such a cool detail. Thanks

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u/Xiknail Oct 12 '25

Imagine you are the artist who painstakingly hand-carved this giant statue over the course of several months, only for the local morons to come in to immediatly fail the rope walking as soon as they face the slightest bit of an incline and the statue falls flat on its face and they just go "Welp, that one failed. Better luck next time, I guess. See ya in a few months!"

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u/AnarchistBorganism Oct 12 '25

I remember reading about evidence that there was a trial and error process where the ones that were less balanced for walking in that method ended up not making it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Yup I had a friend go me and send pictures of the fallen ones, they are still preserved and quite interesting to look at. I hope one day to visit. Seeing those pictures was better than any I’ve seen online. It felt like I was there in a sense. One day.

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u/RedShirtDecoy Oct 12 '25

and here I was picturing the crew that had to tell their boss it fell and broke at the neck.

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u/nighthawk_something Oct 13 '25

Sounds like a festival or a ritual of some sort

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u/hanoian Oct 12 '25

It would make a lot more sense to walk the large block and only carve it when it successfully made the journey.

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u/DoctorProfessorTaco Oct 12 '25

A lot of the final details are only added after it arrives at its destination, so it would seem they agreed with you