| Show T t r V or I M q Ibe Sea ii 1 Science Robbed Bobbed of the Chance to Solve olve Riddle of the I The he inside ofa of a volcanic sister crater Vanished aril shed People Who rho Carved Wf-B Wf I rV CO fJ jt Gi Giant S B act nt Stone gym Images ages f ura OS 0 on th the Easter Ea colossal colo ter Nand Island l tone stone and statue omo that of 3 v J were evidently carved there to rr l s ks s and filled Caves Caves- With Strong Strangely Sy elif U M Marked Skulls be mountain lofty later platforms platform side aide carried on and andset the down set et seashore up the on f de 11 h t f I c 1 4 do C M e C I 1 II j I a I t r t q I I a a I k r ra rt rr t i I r l wC 71 t r I 1 i a as s k 5 r y s 1 I II I 4 4 1 4 T 3 Ili Ilir Ilin r n 1 mot 11 II t l Il l lr I r S I y I Ir II r I w wI I 1 ill t k l 1 b lI II r 1 I f 4 v y I Ic I c n nI I i i if I P Ps f 1 I 1 l s i 1 1 Id I II e L I t ik 1 1 1 11 1 t r k i 4 I 1 1 fw e r n t r i Curiously Cur a 4 carved wooden TI TIa v r figures that are thought to have havet 4 t been wor wor- worshipped t k shipped by thet the t ancient East t P er Islanders Islander as 81 household gods goda was coos far from any trade route end and on an aD ASTER ISLAND that lonely and average was visited by no more than EASTER lid mysterious patch of land In the three ships in two years dreary wastes of the Southern The voyager who vho might have havo ap- ap Pacific Is believed to have been Easter Island many any centuries LL lowed up by the sea sea-a sea a victim of the extraordinary series of earthquakes and tIdal waves that recently did such shock shock- shocking shocking ing damage In Chile Hawaii and Japan If it be true that the island has been engulfed leaving nothing to Indicate the spot where shere her it once stood then science is probably robbed forever of tho the chanco of solving the most puzzling enigma of ofa ofa ofa a long-forgotten long civilization 0 o er er which It has ever had to ponder Who were ere the vanished people who carved the gigantic stone atone images that covered Easter Caster Island r Where did they come from and what finally became of them How did they drag their huge statues down from the tho volcanic crater to the tho sea and mount them upon lofty plat plat- platforms plat plat- platforms platforms forms What appalling catastrophe was it that sudden suddenly put an end to their strange work ork And why hy were all aU the images thrown down from from the tho platforms on which they stood and their stone crowns cast off and scattered about These are arc only a few of the questions that have perplexed ethnologists and archaeologists arch since the tho discovery ery of Easter Caster Island two ho centuries ago Many different answers have been suggested for them but but scientists have never been able to agree which if Il any of them the right ones And now with Easter Island and all its curious relics swallowed sallo up by the sea ea the tho chances are that they must al- al always al always ways ays I emam the deep mysteries they are day areto-day day to-day The island got I its name from the day Easter Sunday on which it was sighted in 1722 by Captain Jacob He was as the first European to behold it That it was not discovered earlier was wasby wasby wa waby by no means surprising for it was a amere amere amere mere scrap of volcanic terra firma finna m in Pacific PacIfic mId 2100 miles mlles west of the South 2 American coast IJ It was only thirteen miles long and po seven miles wide Ide triangular in shape mountainous without a tree but cov cov- covered covered MYr ered with Ith the greenest of grass Three r Ai extinct volcanoes helped to render It pIcturesque For many years ears past pat only one white man lived there the man man- manager manager 5 ager for a Chilean concern which used I the island as a cattle ranch There was wasa wasa wasa a village of or so natives The island ago would have hava beheld placed at intervals vals along the tho shorn shore great platforms of hewn stone on which stood od rows of gI- gI gIgantic gigantic gi gigantic gantic images with their faces turned toward the tho sea On one platform he might have counted fifteen such colossI from forty to sixty feet tall That was as the largest platform 8 platform 8 feet high 9 feet wide and SO feet long In front of each platform was a wide wido Ide paved space apparently designed to afford standing room for lor a considerable multitude Concerning the origin of the statues there was no puzzle for lor the workshop wherein they were ere made mado was waa to be bo seen on the island with many similar Images in various stages of manufacture just justas justas justas as the tho sculptors left them The The studio or art factory was the crater of an ex- ex extinct ex extinct volcano called Rana Eana 1327 feet high which stood alone alono near tho southern coast As one approached the mountain many stone images could be seen lying on either side of the roadway as if they had been dragged some aono distance stanco toward the coast and suddenly abandoned AU Al Alof of them were lying dying on their faces laces On the tho grassy slopes inside and outside the crater stood many more some of them just begun others almost finished Scores were in the making simultaneously The crater was four fifths of a mile In diameter and its edge edgo was as almost a n per per- perfect per perfect lect circle broken only at a point on the southside south side through which the lava streamed when the volcano was active and found lound its way to the sea Inside the cliffs had been cut into terraces by bythe bythe bythe the image makers tankers Hero and there thero stood stone atone giants half halt finished others were nearly ready to receive the final touches from the tool All the images were length half terminating ter- ter terminating ter terminating at the waist lust or hips Five hun hun- hundred hundred hundred dred and five fifty-five of them had been found lound weighing from twelve to forty tons The largest of them all 1111 stood in inthe inthe inthe the crater unfinished it was seventy feet high There were ere three ninety-three In Inthe inthe inthe the crater and more outs outside de the rIm and at the tho toot loot of the mountain The heads of all the stone giants were flat on top to provide for the tho crowns they were meant to wear But no crowns were found in or about the workshop because they came from another source a 11 a crater about eight miles distant The statues zero ero of gray lava but tho the tY I l i s sN N V vae tw 4 5 fitly 6 4 c P tr j a p pw pf w f q 1 n f 6 r rt tr w rZ i y t r d c 4 4 T I a ga s gA A f e s sT sy sI y eQ- eQ eQI I K M Ma rry g pe t A k rp 7 e ia F r R p 7 i Ar g 1 C Fr tt Gr s yr r k d da a 1 xI C da i iI I hY oNa Y J t l li r t tt a i t t l l 6 6 S 'S 4 fa far r I I n I Ir y AZ r l lr 4 II 1 i a ate te teH H r t r i a yr i A sf i s iy d ISZ a t tZ td Z Y t IC Y 4 a a Zo Tc Ye t y i z c pv Pi F a r tf M Ms s kru f 4 l cb t tit x d One of the f wv a skulls found thed d in tho the island caves showing p t tv v k deeply etched 4 the bone in ao a symbol whose whoso r to o significance cance n t ke a a i I s 1 ti tik k vt I science has hat fir ia l a 1 E f z w N jk never been sable labia to explain w y 5 7 i Vf d i tN a Ri s F Ff f ti tiyA yA r Below the enormous head of one ono of the k ti ty t Easter Island t td I Istone stone atone images 4 with its un- un uncanny un uncanny 4 canny expression KS don sion of disdain I that centuries fi fib b a have been un- un unable un unable N able to efface Y crowns were red tuf volcanic mud hardened l to stone They weighed from one to three tons wro The physiognomy of all rf the giants was almost ex- ex exactly ex exactly yd the same the same the e eyes es w o by heavy brows bro qs the nose large with low j w 1 bridge and very broad at atthe atthe p 4 rd h r- r a n the nostrils the tho upper hp s t was short All had hadn n 1 riS irk the same fame haunt haunt- haunt y solemn and disdainful r ir expressIon expression expression g gono sion ono ono one might x sg call it supercilious tand and scornful aa r 4 r fand It was formerly b supposed that the a r r d 1 rb rM Images p v r t w gods but most eth- eth ethnologists ethnologists eth ethnologists long w r ago 4 iG G rs became convinced t rl i r tha thus they were conventIOnal por- por portraits por y Pr c crI rI traits of chiefs L Land and other distin distin- A- A AC C 1 persons t f Some of ct the them m mw gt j w wore ere e r e evidently rs females tamales The great r The Thu crowns they had p platforms I a t for m s on t ls worn were wen scattered which they were here and there What What- Whatever set up were Iere mostly In ruins but what hat whatever L Lh h ever ever catastrophe may have havo brought L Lh h remained of them showed that they were ere built of hewn stones beautiful cut and fitted without mortar There were of these platforms along thirty-five thirty miles of coast line The were hollow and seemed to have served as tombs of chiefs When a chief was as buried bUrled his body was lowered through an opening which was there there- thereupon thereupon thereupon upon closed witha with a lid hd of stone weIghing a ton or more Upon this stone above his mortal remains was erected the ho gigantic supposed to represent him wearing on its head bead a cylindrical cylindrical cylindrical crown of bright red volcanic tuff On each platform several images stood in an impressive row looking out to sea But when tho first white whito men vIsIted the tho island all of them were found lound over over- 0 overthrown overthrown er- er thrown and lying about on the ground about t this condition of affairs tho work of statue-making statue e evidently was W never re resumed umed In the crater where the crowns were quarrIed many of them them were found lound only begun or in an unfinished condition There were ere the same evidences of labor suddenly discontinued as if the sculptors sculptors sculptors tors had dropped their tools and depart depart- departed departed departed ed never as it proved to come como back The sculptors had no metal tools but did all the tho work with ith stone chis chis- chisels chisels els ds a n few of which have been pl picked kd Up It must have been enormously laborious although the die lava of the tho Rana Rena grater and tho the porous red tuff tuR that lur- lur fur fur Eater fished the material for lor the crowns were other soft and easily car carved caned cd The method adopted was to finish each lin- lin linage image im-aga im age as far as po possible before cutting the tho back backof of it away from the tho mother rock But how was it possible for the tho island laland- islanders ers ere without any engineering apparatus or machinery to convey stone stono giants of such size eizo and great weight eIght out of the crater and down the tho mountainside to the seashore Not long ago one of tho the smallest was picked out for tor transportation to Eng Eng- England Eng Eng- England England land where It is now on exhibition In Inthe inthe inthe the British Museum Its removal over overa overa a relatively short distance to the waters water's edge edgo required the labor of SOO seamen and natives A native legend ex- ex explained ex explained the phenomenon by saying They walked and some fell by the thew way ay ay One Ono reason for believing ng that the peo peo- people people people who inhabited Easter Island in mod mod- modern modem modern ern em times were not descendants descendant of the makers makers Image is that they had no traditions traditions bons regarding the tho latter Neither were they acquainted with the tho language in which inscriptions were carved on ancient an- an ancient an ancient tablets of wood To the tho strange hieroglyphs of these tablets no key has ever been found and efforts to decIpher them have been futile There was no story to account for a number of stone stono houses on the tho ISland eVIdently of great age Some of them were over feet leet long built like forts lorts wIth walls ails of hewn stone six feet leet thIck The interiors were lined with mth stone slabs painted with geometrical figures and pIctures of mythological animals The Tho modern natives had no story to account for lor the great accumulations of human skeletons found in caves on the Island There Thero were many ninny thousands of the these so caves originally formed by bub bub- bubbles bub- bub bubbles bubbles bles of volcanic gases and scores of them were literally crammed with human bones One subterranean vault of great size contained an immense de- de deposit de deposit posit consisting exclusively of skulls Some Somo of the skulls were ero painted with peculiar markings the meaning of which can hardly be bo surmised Other relics found on the tha island included stone stono Implements figures carved out of wood paddles painted with strange designs coronets of feathers worn perhaps by chiefs on ceremonial occasions and wands which wInch may have been carried by though priests priests though that is a 1 mere guess Unquestionably it must have required the united efforts effort of thousands of men mento mento to drag the stone stono giants down the moun moun- mountain mountain mountain tain to the seashore It is manifest that the island must have hale 0 had a n large largo population population population lation But inasmuch as it was vas only thirteen miles nules long and seven miles wIde a triangle at that how could it produce enough food to support so many people It must be bo assumed that Easter Island Itself possessed a numerous population such as could have havo been maintained only by a much uch more moro extensive land area And right there thero is what many scientIsts e behe to be the tho clew to tho the whole mys mys- mystery mys- mys mystery mystery tery Easter Island they think was a mere remnant of what was only a very few fow centuries ago a land mass of largo large area perhaps covering some thousands thousand of square miles It was anciently pop pop- populated populated pop populated not by Polynesians as were tho alian Islands but quite probably Peru at atthe atthe by the same race that inhabited the time of the tho conquest of that coun coun- country coun- coun country country try by Pizarro The stone images though they can hardly be said to have ha been like any that have been found in Peru exhibited certain suggestive resemblances Being cut off to so remarks remarks- dw 1 t a alA lA l i e e r 0 il j jq 1 q y r u uY ld r 13 Y a t Easter Eatter Islanders of modem times whom science 3 science thinks an entirely entirely en- en V different race from the islands island's former inhabitants blo an extent from contact with the tho rest of mankind the tho Easter Caster Islanders devel devel- developed developed developed a culture which was peculiarly their own According to this theory Easter Island Island Island and was as peopled for lor thousands of years ears before belore Captain Jacob sight sight- sighted sighted sighted ed it It had during that period an anarea anarea anarea area far lar greater than in recent times Its population may have numbered some hundreds of thousands Quite possibly the business of Image Image- making Image making had some somo relation to tho the pea peo peo- people's people's ples pies religion At all events e it was con con- conducted conducted conducted ducted systematically andon and on a large larte scale But what was it that brought the tho theis hole is hole business to an end causing the tho sculptors to quit their work ork overthrow overthrow- overthrowIng overthrowing overthrowing ing the stone stono giants glants and bringing every every- everything everything everything thing to a full stop forever The only theory that will servo serve to ex- ex ex- ex ex explain explain plain the v whole hole mystery is that a great reat earthquake was as tho the beginning of ol a catastrophe catas catas- catastrophe catastrophe winch |
