For generations, the massive moai of Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by the locals, have stood in quiet testimony to one of archaeology’s longest-standing mysteries. How did an island society, remote ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. There are more than 1,000 moai statues on Easter Island, representing a key part of the region’s cultural and archeological past.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Among the palm fronds and hibiscus flowers of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, the moai—massive statues of volcanic rock usually carved in the images of ...

Easter Island’s Rapa Nui statues were carved by several independent groups, including competing families, without any central authority overseeing them, according to a new study. The iconic Moai ...

When the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen landed on Easter Island in 1722, he was puzzled by how the indigenous islanders could have transported the hundreds of colossal stone statues he found studding ...

The gargantuan heads of Easter Island may have finally tacked on an artist credit — or several, it turns out. The over 900 statues on Rapa Nui, the indigenous name for the Chilean territory, had long ...

Researchers say Easter Island's 4-ton moai "walked" across the island -- thanks to physics, ropes and a little ancient choreography -- no magic necessary. Binghamton University Turns out, the heads of ...

Easter Island has long been considered one of archaeology's most studied puzzles. With more than 1,000 massive stone figures already mapped across its landscape, researchers believed they had a fairly ...

The "walking moai hypothesis" could end a long-time debate over how ancient engineers moved these iconic statues around Easter Island. Reading time 3 minutes The moai statues of Easter Island have ...

A high-resolution 3D model of Rano Raraku shows that the moai were created in many distinct carving zones. Instead of a top-down system, the statues appear to have been produced by separate family ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: How Easter Island’s moai statues made it from the quarry to their final destinations has been a mystery for centuries. Archaeologists who analyzed ...