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Show Where Statues Wore Hats! Mystery of Easter Island Science Finds Creators of Intricate Script Were 'Long-Eared' Artists. ON EASTER DAY, 1722, the Dutch Admiral Roggeveen landed on a small Pacific island, which he named after the day. He must have thought that he was landing in a nightmare, for the shores were ringed with gigantic stone statues, wearing tall red hats, and standing on high platforms plat-forms with their backs to the sea. And the whole island was literally covered with statues! They still stand there today. Later visitors made further odd discoveries. It seemed that the inhabitants had suffered a devouring devour-ing national passion for sculpture. Hardly a boulder or an outcrop of rock had not been turned into an enormous bust, a fantastic head with enormously long ears. At the same time, they discovered wooden tablets and other objects covered with a complicated script. This started a series of the most extraordinary theories, including suggestions that Easter island had been occupied by Red Indians, Egyptians, and the lost tribes of Israel. But nobody managed to put forward a reasonable explanation explana-tion of how this diversity of races got there, or . went away when their work was done! Long-Eared Artists. Then science took a hand. First of all, local legends were investigated, investi-gated, and the islanders told of a migration in the past from a distant dis-tant island in the west. Proof came from one of the Gambier islands, over a thousand miles away, in the form of another legend. It told of a defeated chief setting sail to find a new home for his people. Local legend also told of two distinct races inhabiting inhabit-ing Easter island, the "long ears" and the "short ears." And here again, science found the proof; for skulls found on Easter island show that migrants came, not only from the Pacific islands, but also from the Australasian islands. The "long ears" were the artists. art-ists. It wa their tribal custom to stretch the lobes of their ears, and they wore hats for ceremonial purposes. They were the creators cre-ators of the intricate script which cannot be read, but, defeated by the "short ears," they have faded away and left no one to tell their story. So far science can speak with authority, but science cannot say' why the islanders who migrated' to Easter island should have progressed pro-gressed so far beyond those of their race who inhabit other islands. i |
