1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,680
Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

2
00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:09,080
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

3
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,119
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

4
00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

5
00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,080
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

6
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:30,080
Speaker 2: my name is Nolan.

7
00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,879
Speaker 3: They call be Bed. We're joined as always with our

8
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,879
Speaker 3: super producer Dylan. That's Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

9
00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,880
Speaker 3: argue you are here. That makes this the stuff they

10
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,760
Speaker 3: don't want you to know. Thank you for joining us tonight, folks.

11
00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 3: We had a bit of a rough ride with a

12
00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,600
Speaker 3: previous episode on Chicago's Ripper Crew, so we're thinking of

13
00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:53,479
Speaker 3: this one as a bit of a palate cleanser.

14
00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,560
Speaker 4: Man, I'm both bummed and not bummed that I missed

15
00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:57,160
Speaker 4: that one.

16
00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:00,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, and welcome back. You know I've been using new

17
00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:02,880
Speaker 3: street name for you, Copenhagen Brown. I appreciate.

18
00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:05,360
Speaker 4: I hope people don't think that I'm like doing dips

19
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,600
Speaker 4: all the time. You know, the Copenhagen isn't that like

20
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:09,760
Speaker 4: a chew, like a chewing tobacco brand.

21
00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:11,080
Speaker 2: Oh, I think it is.

22
00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,560
Speaker 3: It might be. Yeah, not the demographic, but cool. I

23
00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:15,920
Speaker 3: don't think they're no no, no, I love it.

24
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:16,319
Speaker 2: I love it.

25
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,280
Speaker 4: I'm here for it, and people can think whatever they want.

26
00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,120
Speaker 4: And I had a really lovely time. And Copenhagen despite

27
00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,440
Speaker 4: Radio had canceling their show that I was there for

28
00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,880
Speaker 4: because speaking of conspiracy theories, now, Tommy Yorick had apparently

29
00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:33,440
Speaker 4: a real bad throat infection and my show got rescheduled

30
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,479
Speaker 4: and I'm not going back. But I had a great time,

31
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:37,560
Speaker 4: lovely Christmas market. It's a great time of year to

32
00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:38,720
Speaker 4: be in that part of the world.

33
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:46,640
Speaker 3: Simply having a wonderful Christmas time. I didn't say that.

34
00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,320
Speaker 3: That's Paul McCartney. Yeah, Paul McCartney is simply having a

35
00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:53,840
Speaker 3: wonderful Christmas time at all times.

36
00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:55,400
Speaker 4: Wonderful Christmas time at all times.

37
00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:57,680
Speaker 2: The phrase is fine, Just please don't say it in

38
00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,000
Speaker 2: that way, you know what I mean.

39
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000
Speaker 3: There's a great conspiracy about our conspiracy theory about this

40
00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,960
Speaker 3: that I enjoy, which is the narrative that that song

41
00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,720
Speaker 3: is entirely a bunch of people having pagan celebrations and

42
00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,000
Speaker 3: line to the authorities. So the authorities show up and

43
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,280
Speaker 3: then they say, oh, oh, we're simply having a wonderful

44
00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 3: Christmas time.

45
00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:26,880
Speaker 2: So look look at all of the point.

46
00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:29,200
Speaker 4: An alternate conspiracy is that it in and of itself

47
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,120
Speaker 4: is a syop and the most brilliant one ever perpetrated

48
00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,520
Speaker 4: on the American people whoa mind control stuff. Guys, Hey,

49
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:42,239
Speaker 4: have y'all ever considered the coconut? I mean, it's a

50
00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:46,040
Speaker 4: it's a it's a legitimate question. You can do a

51
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,040
Speaker 4: lot with a coca. I'm sorry, we're talking about something

52
00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:49,840
Speaker 4: today that's got me very malana coated.

53
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:50,480
Speaker 2: Ah.

54
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,200
Speaker 3: Yes, this is our a bit of a bit of

55
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,760
Speaker 3: a palate cleanser. It's one of those, Uh, it's one

56
00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,240
Speaker 3: of those explorations or episodes that we looked back upon

57
00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,120
Speaker 3: and said, to wait, have we really never covered this?

58
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,520
Speaker 3: It's kind of a Bermuda Triangle moment for us. We're

59
00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:08,880
Speaker 3: diving into something. It's a little bit of hidden history,

60
00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:11,959
Speaker 3: a little bit of travel, and I would say an

61
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 3: enduring obsession for all of us in our younger, wilder years.

62
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,359
Speaker 3: This is the story of the mysterious sculptures of Rapannui,

63
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,680
Speaker 3: often called Easter Island.

64
00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:28,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it because of the statues, So we're

65
00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:30,600
Speaker 2: kind of focused a little bit on those today, right.

66
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,880
Speaker 4: You may also know it as as an UNESCO World

67
00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:36,440
Speaker 4: heritage site, I believe, and is it also one of

68
00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:37,600
Speaker 4: the wonders of the modern world.

69
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,720
Speaker 3: It definitely should be. Yeah, it definitely should be.

70
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 4: What a snub?

71
00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,000
Speaker 3: Well, we also know that the idea of what makes

72
00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:51,880
Speaker 3: what dotha wonder make is pretty arbitrary throughout history.

73
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:53,360
Speaker 4: I thought I wondered that myself.

74
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got a whole series of that on Ridiculous History.

75
00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,200
Speaker 3: Check it out for now with us, folks. Imagine we're

76
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 3: in a boat, the waves are rising, and we see

77
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,440
Speaker 3: there in the distance, a little piece of land in

78
00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,280
Speaker 3: the middle of nowhere. What's that on the horizon? Why?

79
00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:18,240
Speaker 3: It looks like a giant person with a very big head. Okay,

80
00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 3: we'll be back. Here are the facts, all right. We're

81
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,360
Speaker 3: going to use the phrases Easter Island and Rapa Nui interchangeably,

82
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:35,000
Speaker 3: because most of the outside world uses the term Easter Island,

83
00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,440
Speaker 3: but the original inhabitants call it Rapa Nui.

84
00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:43,240
Speaker 4: That's right. And I mentioned the Alana bit because I

85
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,000
Speaker 4: believe the fictional island that that film takes place on

86
00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:51,000
Speaker 4: is called Maltan Nui and seems to be It's definitely

87
00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 4: a reference to the Polynesian heritage and culture of this

88
00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:55,040
Speaker 4: part of the world.

89
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,599
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's cool man, Yeah, because I believe Rapa nui

90
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:03,600
Speaker 3: means great rapa. It's also been called Tepito te henw

91
00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:07,599
Speaker 3: we're not native speakers here. That translates in English to

92
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:10,640
Speaker 3: navel of the world. But the name you probably know

93
00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:14,920
Speaker 3: it best by folks statistically is Easter Island. And that

94
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,680
Speaker 3: doesn't come from the people who live there. That comes

95
00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:22,080
Speaker 3: from the first Europeans that we know made it over

96
00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,360
Speaker 3: to the island. They were Dutch. They reached it in

97
00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:29,600
Speaker 3: seventeen twenty two, and they reached it on Easter Day. So,

98
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,240
Speaker 3: in an entirely not self absorbed way, they named the

99
00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:36,320
Speaker 3: whole island after the day they reached it. They did

100
00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:40,040
Speaker 3: not ask the locals. It's like showing up to someone

101
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:44,640
Speaker 3: else's town on a Tuesday and saying, oh, this is

102
00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:45,480
Speaker 3: Tuesday toon.

103
00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:50,960
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, European conquista horse slash Explorers. Well is that

104
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:51,440
Speaker 2: funny too?

105
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:53,640
Speaker 4: The way things like that just stick. Like we did

106
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:56,719
Speaker 4: an episode of Ridiculous History about the origins of the

107
00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,640
Speaker 4: ice cream Sunday and that had everything to do with

108
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:01,760
Speaker 4: the fact that it originally was like a special that

109
00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:02,799
Speaker 4: came out on a Sunday.

110
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, for weird religious reasons exactly.

111
00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:12,320
Speaker 2: So, guys, the original inhabitants. Yes, I found a couple

112
00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,400
Speaker 2: stories that said that there had only been human inhabitants

113
00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,360
Speaker 2: on the island for about nine hundred years. I guess

114
00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,200
Speaker 2: before that, or I guess at this point nine hundred

115
00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:24,600
Speaker 2: years ago. But did you guys find that there was

116
00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:25,800
Speaker 2: a later date than that.

117
00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:26,840
Speaker 1: Yeah.

118
00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll get into that in depth here. And I'm

119
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,320
Speaker 3: glad you're bringing that up because there's still This is

120
00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:35,800
Speaker 3: a slight spoiler, but one of the big reveals of

121
00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:38,800
Speaker 3: this episode is going to be all the mysteries we

122
00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,960
Speaker 3: bring up continue and there's new, amazing research that keeps

123
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:49,120
Speaker 3: reframing the conversation or the exploration, and we could posit

124
00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:53,480
Speaker 3: that part of the reason this research is still ongoing.

125
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,880
Speaker 3: Part of the reason these various mysteries we're exploring still

126
00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:02,120
Speaker 3: continue here in twenty twenty five record on Friday, December fifth,

127
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:07,320
Speaker 3: is because Rapa Nui is so far away from everything else,

128
00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:11,040
Speaker 3: and it is tiny. If you pull up your favorite

129
00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:15,240
Speaker 3: Big Brother Internet map of choice, you'll see this thing

130
00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:19,560
Speaker 3: is only sixty three square miles in size. It's in

131
00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,640
Speaker 3: the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, and it is

132
00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:29,239
Speaker 3: so gosh darn far away from everything. When the Dutch

133
00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:33,880
Speaker 3: first got there, they said, okay, these native inhabitants live

134
00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:36,560
Speaker 3: a life similar to that of other folks we know

135
00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:41,160
Speaker 3: of in other parts of Polynesia, with a big difference.

136
00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:47,880
Speaker 3: This place is riddled with statues, monolithic sculptures, ruins. The

137
00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,680
Speaker 3: Europeans occasionally speculated of a once great civilization that must

138
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,679
Speaker 3: have fallen in antiquity, and of course, you know, being

139
00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 3: Europeans of their day, they said, oh, this must mean

140
00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,960
Speaker 3: that some ancient group of proto European people got here first,

141
00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,800
Speaker 3: because who else would build this same stuff they said

142
00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:15,840
Speaker 3: about the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Bit of an anglocentric view, right,

143
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:21,960
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. And post European arrival, this goes

144
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 3: back to this harkens back to our episode on uncontacted

145
00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 3: peoples and tribes. After the Europeans figured out this thing existed,

146
00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:36,040
Speaker 3: stuff went pretty tough for the local people. New diseases arrived.

147
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:40,680
Speaker 3: Later in the eighteen sixties, Peruvian forces would launch straight

148
00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:45,160
Speaker 3: up slave raids, and that's also contributed to a massive

149
00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,760
Speaker 3: migration drain. Locals were saying, okay, I got to get

150
00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:51,959
Speaker 3: out of here. I know everything else is far away,

151
00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,160
Speaker 3: but I'm going to try to go to Tahiti. And

152
00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,400
Speaker 3: as a result, you know, when the Dutch got there,

153
00:08:57,440 --> 00:08:59,880
Speaker 3: there were an estimated two thousand to three thousand pe

154
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:05,120
Speaker 3: people on Rapanui. But by eighteen seventy seven, because of

155
00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,920
Speaker 3: all these factors, there were only one hundred and eleven

156
00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:11,840
Speaker 3: native people Jesus alive.

157
00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,160
Speaker 4: One hundred and eleven souls. That's that's not very many.

158
00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:17,560
Speaker 3: That's a rate of attrition.

159
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:19,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean it is improving, I believe.

160
00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, and now, okay,

161
00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:29,120
Speaker 3: so fast forward. It's eighteen eighty eight. Chile conkers the

162
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,280
Speaker 3: island annex. Is it similar to what the US would

163
00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 3: later do with Hawaii in the fifties at nineteen fifties

164
00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:42,280
Speaker 3: and this, this situation continues today. Easter Island Rapanui is

165
00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,360
Speaker 3: a dependency of Chile, but it may as well be

166
00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:48,440
Speaker 3: on a different planet. It's actually do you guys remember

167
00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,199
Speaker 3: the Pitcairn Islands. We've never been, but I.

168
00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:51,800
Speaker 4: Don't know about them.

169
00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,800
Speaker 3: No, oh man, that's its own stuff. They don't want

170
00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,000
Speaker 3: you to know. It's a very it's an island of

171
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:06,520
Speaker 3: partially Tahitian descent and partially Mutineer descent from back in

172
00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:12,720
Speaker 3: the day. And it had an intergenerational continuing sex scandal.

173
00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:17,760
Speaker 3: And it's technically part of England for some reason. But anyway,

174
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,960
Speaker 3: that place is also isolated in the middle of nowhere.

175
00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:24,680
Speaker 3: At Rapanui's so far away that it is closer to

176
00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,800
Speaker 3: Pitcairn Island than it is to Chile. It's like twelve

177
00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:33,959
Speaker 3: hundred miles from Pitcairn, but it's two thousand something miles

178
00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,440
Speaker 3: away from Chile. It's tough to get to.

179
00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,440
Speaker 4: It's interesting too that the indigenous folks there were not

180
00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:44,280
Speaker 4: granted citizenship of Chile until nearly a century later, in

181
00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:45,600
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty six.

182
00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:48,640
Speaker 2: Has the population increased.

183
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,600
Speaker 4: I think that's again I believe, I believe it's doing.

184
00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:53,040
Speaker 4: They're on the ups.

185
00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,319
Speaker 2: If you look at the I guess a map from

186
00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,160
Speaker 2: above of this island, you can just see that there

187
00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,200
Speaker 2: aren't a ton of great places to live on the

188
00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:06,440
Speaker 2: I mean there's some, there's some really nice areas, it's

189
00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,040
Speaker 2: just a lot of it is volcanic rock. And you

190
00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:13,760
Speaker 2: know that huge crater that's there from a volcanic crater

191
00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 2: that we're going to talk about later with the quarrying

192
00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:19,760
Speaker 2: and everything, but it's when I was trying to imagine

193
00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:22,760
Speaker 2: around three thousand people on that island at one time.

194
00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:24,319
Speaker 2: That felt like a lot to me.

195
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:29,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it definitely was. And now, as far as

196
00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:32,800
Speaker 3: we can tell, at least from the twenty seventeen census,

197
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,240
Speaker 3: Rapa Nui has a popul population of a little less

198
00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,719
Speaker 3: than eight thousand people something like seven seven hundred and

199
00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:45,560
Speaker 3: fifty now, and that's only possible because of international.

200
00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:48,520
Speaker 4: Trade, that's right, And as we mentioned before European contact,

201
00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,840
Speaker 4: it was only around three thousand before that precipitous drop,

202
00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:56,760
Speaker 4: so you know, doing comparatively well, yeah, which will go

203
00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:00,720
Speaker 4: into our ideas of the concepts we have to explore

204
00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:06,200
Speaker 4: limited resources and population control. I mean, this is still,

205
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:10,800
Speaker 4: again by any measure, one of the most remote inhabited

206
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,160
Speaker 4: islands on the world. We talked about it a little

207
00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:18,319
Speaker 4: bit off air. As we remember, I had.

208
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:22,880
Speaker 3: The misfortune and lack of foresight to get so close

209
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:27,760
Speaker 3: to visiting Rapanui back in twenty nineteen at the dawn

210
00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:30,320
Speaker 3: of the world locking down for the pandemic. So instead

211
00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:33,080
Speaker 3: of actually making it over there, you can only fly

212
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:38,280
Speaker 3: out from Chile at certain times of the year. Guys,

213
00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,240
Speaker 3: I ended up racing back to the Santiago airport to

214
00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:44,280
Speaker 3: try to make it out of the country before they

215
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:48,240
Speaker 3: shut down their borders. It was dicey, and.

216
00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,079
Speaker 2: You'd never made it, and you're still there right now today.

217
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:53,640
Speaker 3: And I never made it and I'm still there right

218
00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:54,360
Speaker 3: there today.

219
00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,880
Speaker 2: But that's interesting. It was just going to be a

220
00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:01,240
Speaker 2: flight from where you were in Chile to to the island.

221
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a flight out of Santiago is usually going

222
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:10,040
Speaker 3: to be how most modern outsiders arrive to Easter Island.

223
00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:12,680
Speaker 3: And it can again, it can only happen specific times

224
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:13,920
Speaker 3: a year. That's when they offer it.

225
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 2: But I'm sorry. Last question, is there I imagine there's

226
00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:20,319
Speaker 2: a lot of tourism on the island, So is there

227
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:22,640
Speaker 2: a pretty good infrastructure as a visitor when you go

228
00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:24,960
Speaker 2: there to stay in a place for a while.

229
00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:30,800
Speaker 3: Now there is a much more robust infrastructure because people

230
00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:35,360
Speaker 3: do travel there despite it being despite it being so

231
00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:42,360
Speaker 3: cartoonishly remote. If you get over there, you're going to

232
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:46,360
Speaker 3: go for several reasons. Right There are a lot of

233
00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:48,800
Speaker 3: people who go there for scientific research. There are a

234
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:53,280
Speaker 3: lot of folks who go there for personal curiosity, even

235
00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:58,280
Speaker 3: to the degree of people who may have ancestry from there, right,

236
00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:01,400
Speaker 3: but they are now part of the diasporas, so they

237
00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:05,040
Speaker 3: have returned to learn more about their ancestry. And then

238
00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:08,520
Speaker 3: of course quiet part out loud. A ton of people

239
00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:13,440
Speaker 3: are there to see the statues in person, the moai.

240
00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:17,679
Speaker 2: Because they're mysterious. It's all heck, why why these? Why this?

241
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:19,440
Speaker 2: Why did you face it this way?

242
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:20,200
Speaker 3: Well? They look like that?

243
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:21,080
Speaker 4: Whose face is that?

244
00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:23,600
Speaker 2: When? How did they get there?

245
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:23,800
Speaker 3: Right?

246
00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:25,760
Speaker 2: That was at least for a long time. I remember

247
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,680
Speaker 2: when when we're growing up with those those book series.

248
00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,640
Speaker 3: Right and everything, Mysteries of the Unknown, shot timelife.

249
00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, how do they get to where they are on

250
00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,400
Speaker 2: the island? And like and again why they are.

251
00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:43,120
Speaker 4: Because they're structurally I mean massive and the way tons

252
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:45,320
Speaker 4: they're ten to twenty feet tall. Some of them are

253
00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,440
Speaker 4: even bigger than that. And there's a lot of them.

254
00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:53,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, hundreds, hundreds that we know of, and several

255
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:56,160
Speaker 3: of them also are still standing or have been re

256
00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:01,320
Speaker 3: erected on equally mysterious huge stone platforms called ahoo So

257
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:06,120
Speaker 3: for centuries, ever since the first Europeans stumbled across the place,

258
00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:10,400
Speaker 3: they and everyone who came after them were mystified by

259
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:15,320
Speaker 3: these gigantic stone statues, by these moi, and so people

260
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,640
Speaker 3: have always obsessed about this stuff. Who built them, how

261
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:21,560
Speaker 3: did they build them? When did they build them? To

262
00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:24,240
Speaker 3: some of the questions you were raising their matt and also,

263
00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,760
Speaker 3: perhaps most importantly, why did they build them? And why

264
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:28,640
Speaker 3: did they stop?

265
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,760
Speaker 2: Yeah? Think about how much effort it would take to

266
00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,000
Speaker 2: make one of those things, right, that's the concept. And

267
00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:41,120
Speaker 2: then these people chose to make that many. There's got

268
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:43,360
Speaker 2: to be some serious significance to these things.

269
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:48,120
Speaker 3: And so tonight we're tackling the mystery. Join us. We'll

270
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:55,920
Speaker 3: be back after a word from our sponsors. Here's where

271
00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:00,200
Speaker 3: it gets crazy, all right, to answer these questions, to

272
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:04,680
Speaker 3: tackle them and unravel some of this mystery, or carve

273
00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:07,160
Speaker 3: out the stone of this mystery. Maybe we start by

274
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:11,320
Speaker 3: learning a little bit more about the maui themselves. I

275
00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,440
Speaker 3: feel like it is an assumption, but I feel like

276
00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,640
Speaker 3: pretty much all of us who are tuning in tonight

277
00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:22,880
Speaker 3: are familiar with the iconic pictures of the Easter Island statues.

278
00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,520
Speaker 4: Right, very large foreheads, very large sloping noses.

279
00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, stoic expression. They differ in size and location

280
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:35,040
Speaker 3: They're usually going to be the ones that were moved

281
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,240
Speaker 3: from their quarry site, which we'll get to. They're usually

282
00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:39,960
Speaker 3: going to be along the coast. They're going to be

283
00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:45,520
Speaker 3: facing in towards the interior pretty often, and their rocking

284
00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:51,000
Speaker 3: stoic expression. About three eighths of the entire statue. Is

285
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,920
Speaker 3: this enormous, elongated, somewhat rectangular head.

286
00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:00,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, and as you were saying, they're mostly facing in,

287
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,560
Speaker 2: but there are some that are facing out right, which

288
00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,000
Speaker 2: leads to that mystery. It seems like they would all

289
00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,360
Speaker 2: be facing the direction of the important thing that they symbolize,

290
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,240
Speaker 2: whatever this would be. This is imagining we're one of

291
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:19,000
Speaker 2: these European explorers, especially that stumbles upon these, right, Why

292
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,440
Speaker 2: would you even have a choice of facing it some

293
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:23,159
Speaker 2: different direction?

294
00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:27,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly what is the significance of that placement? You know?

295
00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:31,560
Speaker 3: In the visages of these sculptures, this is interesting. We

296
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:36,200
Speaker 3: see a great hommonality. Not just the fact that although

297
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:40,640
Speaker 3: they vary in size and weight, they also very emplacement

298
00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:44,360
Speaker 3: and so on, but the fact that they all have

299
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:49,160
Speaker 3: such similar expression also shows us a connection to other

300
00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:53,119
Speaker 3: Polynesian cultures. You got the minimalist style. The heads are

301
00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:59,399
Speaker 3: probably so big because there's this common Polynesian belief that

302
00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:02,120
Speaker 3: the head is a center of sanctity. So you're kind

303
00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:07,040
Speaker 3: of prioritizing that in the in the construction. Whomever we're

304
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:11,920
Speaker 3: building these things in memory of, it's meant to make

305
00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:16,000
Speaker 3: them look good and say, hey, these were impressive people.

306
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,880
Speaker 3: At least that's our assumption this squatting. They have arms

307
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:24,920
Speaker 3: resting different positions, but they don't have legs.

308
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:26,640
Speaker 2: Never legs, not all out.

309
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 3: Legs are too far.

310
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,800
Speaker 2: Maybe legs didn't the see a thing though, maybe they

311
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,359
Speaker 2: had legs. That was one of the early mysteries about

312
00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:38,160
Speaker 2: the thing, like is this statue because many of them

313
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,240
Speaker 2: were in the earth, right, so you.

314
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,240
Speaker 3: Buried about up to what looks like the shoulders.

315
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,040
Speaker 2: Yes, So there was this imagining that, oh, if we

316
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,480
Speaker 2: excavate this thing, we're gonna get a full humanoid statue. Right,

317
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,720
Speaker 2: That was and that was a long time ago. We've

318
00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:57,160
Speaker 2: found out that, Yeah, it is almost like there's there's

319
00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,960
Speaker 2: detail on many of them that goes down past those shoulders,

320
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,240
Speaker 2: past this area, but not much.

321
00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 3: Right right, Yeah, nailed it. I mean. Current research argues

322
00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:12,080
Speaker 3: that most, if not all, of these were created sometime

323
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:15,840
Speaker 3: between twelve hundred and fifty or twelve hundred CE and

324
00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,760
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred CE. So this means they had been standing

325
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:22,719
Speaker 3: and in some cases they had fallen or been knocked

326
00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:27,800
Speaker 3: over for centuries before there was any meaningful contact with

327
00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,760
Speaker 3: the outside world. That goes back to someone who teased

328
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,400
Speaker 3: to have been in the beginning here. For a long time,

329
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:36,720
Speaker 3: people would look at these statues and say, okay, we

330
00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,560
Speaker 3: can guess they were made and you know, insert this

331
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 3: time period, but how did the people who carved them?

332
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,840
Speaker 3: How did these sculptors get to the island in the

333
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,680
Speaker 3: first place, right, because they had to come from somewhere.

334
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:54,439
Speaker 3: It's just too far away from other sites of natural

335
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:59,760
Speaker 3: human evolutions. So for a long long time, researchers said, okay,

336
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 3: the people that we call the Rapanui, or the original

337
00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:07,120
Speaker 3: native inhabitants of this island, they got there around eight

338
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 3: hundred CE. But if you fast forward in two thousand

339
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:14,360
Speaker 3: and seven, you'll see studies that make a pretty good

340
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 3: case they didn't get there in eight hundred CE, but

341
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:22,080
Speaker 3: much later in twelve hundred which is again exactly when

342
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,399
Speaker 3: we believe the construction of the original statues began.

343
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:32,520
Speaker 2: Isn't that interesting? It what do you guys think is

344
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:37,080
Speaker 2: more plausible a group of humans arrives on a remote

345
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:41,360
Speaker 2: island like that and immediately begins building, you know, some

346
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,919
Speaker 2: statues of significance, or the concept of building the statues

347
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:50,920
Speaker 2: is grown after several hundred years of a civilization being there.

348
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 4: I think it's that one, Matt that seems most likely.

349
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:57,280
Speaker 4: I'd have to have I don't know, some shared experience

350
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 4: and to kind of have time to semboled that much lore.

351
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,920
Speaker 3: I guess around it, well, Kat, I would argue actually

352
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,040
Speaker 3: for the twelve hundred arrival date, just from the studies

353
00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,400
Speaker 3: and the oral history that we're going to talk about

354
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:19,000
Speaker 3: a little bit, which is kind of a mixture of genealogy, lineage,

355
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,800
Speaker 3: historical record and then myth making and propaganda. For sure,

356
00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 3: But it feels to me like if you look at

357
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 3: or not to me, but based on the studies that

358
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 3: we were reading for this, it feels like the statues

359
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:37,560
Speaker 3: have so much in common with other similar Polynesian practices

360
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:40,439
Speaker 3: that they probably landed there and got cracking.

361
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:43,640
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, oh that's a good point.

362
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 4: I guess, yes, they would have already had a lot

363
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:47,399
Speaker 4: of those beliefs in place, for sure.

364
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,440
Speaker 2: I think I agree with you, Ben from the studies.

365
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 2: The interesting thing that's arising there is we're about to

366
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,360
Speaker 2: talk about it in the construction of these things. We're

367
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 2: going to It was thought for long time that this

368
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 2: was one big herculean effort that everybody got together to do, right,

369
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,360
Speaker 2: But as we're the more we're learning, we're learning that, oh, well,

370
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:13,800
Speaker 2: maybe these statues were actually constructed by much smaller groups

371
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:20,879
Speaker 2: for their own individual group's purposes, which makes me just

372
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,479
Speaker 2: personally move a little bit away from that concept that

373
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:25,800
Speaker 2: they all arrived together and then this was the thing

374
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 2: that you do. But maybe I'm my thinking is a

375
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 2: little wrong there. I'm just not sure yet.

376
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get to this because these are great questions.

377
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:38,160
Speaker 3: We're okay, let's say we're random explorers or we are

378
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,959
Speaker 3: shipwrecked and we somehow end up on Rapanui. When we

379
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 3: look at these things, they're weighing fourteen tons on average,

380
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,680
Speaker 3: but the tallest weighs eighty plus tons, The heaviest weighs

381
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 3: in at eighty six tons, a real bruiser, and you

382
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,600
Speaker 3: would have to say, how did these things get here?

383
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,679
Speaker 3: Especially if you're on the coast. Sixty three miles square

384
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,480
Speaker 3: is not a big deal in the size of the

385
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 3: world overall. But if you're a human and you're standing

386
00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 3: on the coast, you're going to just see a stunning

387
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 3: statue or series of statues, and you're gonna have no

388
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 3: idea where they came from. It looks like they kind

389
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 3: of sprouted out of the rock in some cases, or

390
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 3: sprouted out of the ground. And this is where we

391
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 3: get to the immensely impressive details of construction. It reminds

392
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 3: me a lot of the other stuff we see in archaeology,

393
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,080
Speaker 3: something called experimental archaeology, like that famous clip of the

394
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 3: guy who's trying to build stone hinge by himself for

395
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 3: demonstrating the methods you could use with simple technology to

396
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:49,360
Speaker 3: create this stuff, and.

397
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 2: He was really effective at it or VI recall I

398
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:56,480
Speaker 2: remember those videos, and it often, at least in the

399
00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:00,680
Speaker 2: construction here we're talking about ballards right by yards. I

400
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 2: don't know how to say it correctly, or where it

401
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:09,479
Speaker 2: even stems from. The posts in the ground staggered in

402
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 2: certain ways so that you could actually end up rolling

403
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 2: a statue down like from a large let's say quarried hill.

404
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, and these statues, by the way, are all carved

405
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,120
Speaker 3: from pretty much the same thing, a substance called volcanic

406
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,360
Speaker 3: tough tuff tough stone.

407
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,400
Speaker 2: Hey, I only know a boy that from Minecraft.

408
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 4: My favorite way to spell tough two is in any context,

409
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 4: it's not the same as obsidian or other kinds of

410
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,400
Speaker 4: volcanic rock. This is made from solidified volcanic ash, right.

411
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, you nailed it. Upwards of ninety five percent of

412
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,640
Speaker 3: all known sculptures, please clock how we said known sculptures

413
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 3: comes from quarry zones at a volcanic crater called Rano Rabraku,

414
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,199
Speaker 3: and this place is still home to a lot of

415
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 3: what we call incomplete MOI today. Like if you go

416
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 3: to the quarry, you'll see instances where it looks like

417
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 3: someone started carving out a new statue and then stopped

418
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 3: somewhere in the process, kind of like walking through a

419
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 3: car factory and seeing a car that is partially completed.

420
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 2: You can see mapped images, like if you're looking in

421
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,679
Speaker 2: the satellite imagery of this place, and you can kind

422
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 2: of maybe feel like you're making out statues hanging out

423
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 2: as we talked about, that still exists in that quarry

424
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 2: and that's pretty cool.

425
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and oral traditions, which often get ignored

426
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 3: by the way. Historically they suggest that the maui were

427
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 3: carved either by this distinguished class of artisans right or

428
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:53,239
Speaker 3: by members of each individual clan, because the Rapanui at

429
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 3: this time they were not They all lived in the

430
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 3: same place right on the same sixty three square miles,

431
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 3: but they had individual factions, communities, people's clans, lineages, and

432
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 3: so we know that the quarry appears to be even

433
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 3: per the oral history that again people were ignored. The

434
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 3: quarry was subdivided into different territories. For each clan they

435
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 3: had their turf of carving areas. So after a statue

436
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 3: gets completed, the locals, this is the narrative, they would

437
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 3: painfully move it all the way from the quarry, which

438
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 3: is in like the southwest to the coast to a

439
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:37,439
Speaker 3: ceremonial site, and then sometimes they would adorn it with

440
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 3: a red stone cylinder called a I can't remember the

441
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:48,119
Speaker 3: pronunciation p ukao pucau. Maybe it looks for all the

442
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 3: world like a cute red hat. If you've seen the pictures,

443
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,479
Speaker 3: it looks like a red hat with a brim around it.

444
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 3: A lot of those ended up a lay off over time,

445
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 3: as we'll see. Care for the care for the now,

446
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 3: I declined precipitously. Later research would show I think it

447
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 3: was you Nola mentioned obsidian. Later research would show that

448
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:19,120
Speaker 3: these things looked way different when they were originally constructed.

449
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,719
Speaker 3: They probably in the carvings for the eye sockets, there

450
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,199
Speaker 3: was probably other material like obsidian and like a.

451
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:30,680
Speaker 4: White little adornments, kind of like a little detail work.

452
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looked like they had actual eyes that were

453
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:35,119
Speaker 3: staring at so.

454
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, that would have been cool to see.

455
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 2: Like a snowman and the coal.

456
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 3: I don't know, Yeah, that's right, very similar, right, And

457
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 3: so everybody said the doll's eyes. Sorry, like Kirsten Dunn said,

458
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 3: it's just yeah, we don't have to relitergate that one.

459
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 3: But I said what I said. So, this was obviously

460
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 3: a time intensive pursuit. You had to have huge amounts

461
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 3: of skill, patience, and people thought huge amounts of collaboration.

462
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 3: So naturally, one of the first questions everybody asked, from

463
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 3: the Dutch all the way to the modern day is

464
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 3: why would you go to all this trouble in the

465
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 3: first place? What would motivate you towards such an historical flex.

466
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 4: Well, we will explore that and much more. Right after

467
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 4: a quick break to hear, we're from our sponsor and

468
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 4: we're back. So let's start in right away on some

469
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 4: of these answers. The first answer to the question why

470
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 4: would you do this, why would you bother going to

471
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 4: all this trouble to build some giant heads is ancestry. Ben,

472
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 4: you pointed out one word, ancestry. Many mai are thought

473
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 4: to be representations and commemorations of the debt monuments to

474
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:04,719
Speaker 4: past and present try leaders. These were, you know, incredible

475
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 4: flexes like you put it, Ben, status symbols thinking of

476
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 4: think of like, you know, a mausoleum, you know, marking

477
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 4: the burial spot of a great general or something like that.

478
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 4: You know, we we still do stuff like that to

479
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 4: this day, honoring the dead and various ostentatious forms, you know,

480
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 4: depending on their stature when.

481
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 2: They were alive.

482
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, this was very It was very socially valuable too,

483
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 3: aside from the spiritual aspects of it. But you say

484
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 3: that it reminds me of an earlier conversation I can't

485
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 3: remember which show or whether it was on air, about

486
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 3: the problematic aspect of a living person getting a statue

487
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 3: of themselves. It feels a lot, doesn't it feel a little.

488
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 4: Lot been really quickly. We don't have any evidence, however,

489
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 4: that these were burial sites, though this would have been

490
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 4: more just like an honoring of these individuals, not necessarily

491
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 4: that their remains were there.

492
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great point. We don't have a ton

493
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 3: of evidence saying that this would be you know, like

494
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 3: how a pyramid would have a VIP of that society

495
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 3: interred within or something. We don't have evidence of that.

496
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 3: But we do have sub kind of evidence that these

497
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 3: statues were placed purposely for some reason. The largest the

498
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 3: larger the statue was, the more manna according to Bradstreet Foundation,

499
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 3: or the more you know the juice, the more acclaim

500
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:39,520
Speaker 3: you had as being the person who commissioned it. So

501
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 3: some of these statues were made for leaders of communities

502
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 3: or tribes while they were alive, which again it's just

503
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 3: it feels weird to have a statue of yourself while

504
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 3: you're alive. If it's someone else's idea, I guess that's

505
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 3: fine because it's them giving you a gift and you

506
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 3: don't want to be a jerk about it. But if

507
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 3: it's if it's your idea, it's it's a little weird.

508
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 2: Which is more self aggrandizing a statue or a giant arch?

509
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 3: Hmmm? For a good question, I would say it depends

510
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 3: on the size of the statue. Okay, maybe that's.

511
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 2: Part of it. Maybe an arch sized statue would be

512
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,040
Speaker 2: worse than a statue sized arch.

513
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you're getting a little as a mandias when

514
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 3: you put your face on it. Right, and check out

515
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 3: our earlier strange News conversation about why why this country,

516
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 3: the United States, had to make a specific law that

517
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 3: said no living people on the money. Mm hmmm, because

518
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 3: it became so it all goes down to one really

519
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 3: really sneaky ballsy guy at the Treasury. I forgot about

520
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 3: that story. It's me, I'm on the money, look exactly,

521
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 3: which has to you know, in some social situations. I

522
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 3: guess that is impressive, but so okay. Ancestry is one

523
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 3: answer to that question why build these statues in the

524
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 3: first place? But the second question becomes why build so

525
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 3: very many? And that leads us to our second answer. Competition. Man,

526
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 3: these guys got mad when the people the next neighborhood

527
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 3: over built a statue that was bigger.

528
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, it goes back to that early early concept that oh,

529
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 2: look these people's constructed statues together as one thing, right,

530
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 2: all of these peoples living on this island must be

531
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 2: the same and of this one culture, and all did

532
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:45,080
Speaker 2: them together. And then going back to the competition aspect,

533
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 2: it makes total sense now and and or with that

534
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 2: new framing, right, with just a little bit of time.

535
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, now it's a matter of keeping up with the Joneses.

536
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 3: It's an arms race of op and importance. It's kind

537
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 3: of like I was reading about this in Macau and

538
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 3: a lot of the casinos, there's this weird thing that

539
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 3: happens where people get VIP tables at casinos or clubs,

540
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 3: and to show off their wealth, they start ordering expensive

541
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 3: champagne for whatever seems like the next richest table or

542
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 3: the next biggest table of rich people, and then those

543
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 3: folks respawed by ordering more bottles of champagne for the

544
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 3: other table. Now, spoiler, folks, Those bottles of champagne get announced,

545
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 3: but they never actually get delivered. It is entirely just

546
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 3: to say, look at me and the money I have.

547
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,200
Speaker 3: And the folks do get charged for the champagne, they

548
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 3: just never actually get to drink it.

549
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 2: Oh snap, the guys on my MoMA told me just

550
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 2: had a great conversation with someone about that very thing

551
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 2: in the conspiracy of the bottle service, of slowly draining

552
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 2: the wealth with bottle service, and it's insane.

553
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,479
Speaker 4: The markup on alcohol already is insane, and bottle service

554
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 4: just makes it like ten x it's oh my gosh,

555
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 4: it's bonkers.

556
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 2: Well, and the social pressure to do it right right,

557
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 2: combined with just who is actually getting bottle service and

558
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 2: a table, like who is actually getting a VIP table?

559
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,800
Speaker 2: Wait a second, it's not the like extremely wealthy people

560
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:25,239
Speaker 2: doing that.

561
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 3: No, it's the up and comers with the Jones pressure, yes, sir, yeah,

562
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 3: or who need to be visible, right, Like let's say

563
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 3: I have an album that just came out, or let's

564
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,360
Speaker 3: say I'm trying to popularize this. Uh, this happens especially

565
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 3: in Atlanta too. By the way, I'm trying to popularize

566
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 3: this single that I once played at the club, and

567
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 3: now here I am in person at the club. It's

568
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 3: me Swift City, which is an old Rapnu mas.

569
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:53,720
Speaker 4: Well, you're paying for the real estate too, you're playing,

570
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 4: You're paying for the spot and being seen and all

571
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 4: of the accoutre moment goes along with it, and that,

572
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 4: you know, presentation of wealth and opulence.

573
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 3: So what we're saying is this is a very human

574
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:11,239
Speaker 3: constant folks around the world. And there were doubtlessly some

575
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 3: groups at some point on Rapanui who maybe over prioritized

576
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 3: building these statues, you know, maybe could have spent a

577
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:26,120
Speaker 3: little more time fishing, maybe already sort of predicted some

578
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 3: agricultural issues ahead. But will be gosh darned if those

579
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 3: people a few miles distant have a better, bigger statue

580
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 3: than us.

581
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 2: It's like somebody at the edge of a huge fire

582
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 2: just saying, remember.

583
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 3: Me, witness me, witness me. Fury Road was so good.

584
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 3: But I mean, look, we're I hope we're making it

585
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 3: clear folks that we all agree this might seem silly

586
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 3: to some folks in the modern day, but it was

587
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 3: a huge deal in the communities at the time. And

588
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,000
Speaker 3: before we look down our collective noses at this or

589
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:11,280
Speaker 3: other practices, we got to remember every society from ancient

590
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,400
Speaker 3: to modern evenings has all sorts of practices and status

591
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 3: symbols that seem bizarre or strange to outsiders. And I

592
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 3: want to thank you specifically, Matt, because bottles and my

593
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 3: mom had told me, because bottle service is a perfect

594
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 3: example of how silly this kind of thing can become.

595
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 3: You know, we're using the past tense too, here's why

596
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 3: the island is no longer making these unique, amazing sculptures.

597
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 3: In fact, at some point, until quite recently, the overall

598
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 3: narrative was that for some reason, the locals abruptly stopped

599
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:53,880
Speaker 3: making the statues all together, abandoned the incomplete ones that

600
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 3: had just been a few weeks previous, so very important.

601
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 3: The civilization collapse, that's the argument. But what led to it,

602
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,720
Speaker 3: What happened? You know, it's the eighteen hundreds. Of course

603
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 3: by this point, right we said seven twenty two, the

604
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 3: Dutch make it over there. By the eighteen hundreds. Some sources,

605
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 3: overwhelmingly European, are saying the rapanui of the modern day,

606
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 3: you guys, they're a remnant of a greater civilization that

607
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,240
Speaker 3: was lost to the waves. Who ever heard of Atlantis dog?

608
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 3: Because they called each other dog? I guess, yeah, yeah.

609
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 4: I mean it's not quite as you know, extreme as that.

610
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 4: It's sort of more maybe not obvious, but historically consistent,

611
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,840
Speaker 4: just you know, resource extraction. That's really what it amounts.

612
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 3: To right. Yeah, yeah, they said, look, there are hundreds

613
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 3: of moai out there. They're possibly in the ruins of

614
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 3: full cities that fell beneath the waves. That hypothesis got

615
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:57,839
Speaker 3: debunked because what you just said, Noel, is much more

616
00:37:57,960 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 3: likely to be the case.

617
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,280
Speaker 2: It's way better than having to publicly come out and say, hey,

618
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,280
Speaker 2: sorry for the diseases and all of the slavery stuff.

619
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 2: Maybe instead Atlantis.

620
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be okay. Yeah, the plague is not good

621
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 3: pr for us, so maybe, yeah, a little bit of plague,

622
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 3: but probably Atlantis, though probably I think probably mainly Atlantis.

623
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 3: What we found is that you have to remember Rapanui

624
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 3: is not a big place. If you go to the

625
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 3: Smithsonian as recently as two thousand and seven, when some

626
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 3: of those other studies we mentioned published, they point out

627
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 3: that the local people depended upon giant palms that grew

628
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 3: on the island. However, like any other civilization, they wanted

629
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 3: to march toward progress. They also had a growing population.

630
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 3: They had people to feed, so they started hutting down

631
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 3: the trees. We call it the forestation now. But they

632
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 3: were making room for agriculture, or they were burning for fire,

633
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 3: or they were making tools and instruments, like we were

634
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 3: saying earlier, to transport statues across the island. And then

635
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 3: when you don't have trees, erosion steps in right, and

636
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 3: erosion starts whittling away at the soil, and then eventually

637
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 3: the people have to begin burning grass. So this led

638
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 3: to a perilous situation. The palms are disappearing, people are

639
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 3: beginning to starve. Warfare is breaking out amid these various clans,

640
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 3: and this is war not driven by necessarily deep seated enmity.

641
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 3: It's driven by the fact that if these people eat,

642
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 3: then there is less food than for you. You know,

643
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:49,399
Speaker 3: it's a terrible situation to be in. And so by

644
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 3: the time the Dutch get there, the forest is pretty

645
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 3: much gone. The land is virtually barren.

646
00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:58,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what we're talking about up at the top

647
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 2: of this episode. When you look at the Eye island itself,

648
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 2: you imagine where would all these people live. And even

649
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 2: right now we're saying there's eight thousand people that occupy

650
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 2: the land. It's astonishing and it's only possible for the

651
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 2: things that been mentioned there, getting things to that island

652
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 2: and trading.

653
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:19,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, unfortunately, and of those we should mention of those

654
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 3: almost eight thousand people there on the island, not all

655
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:29,280
Speaker 3: of them are descendants of the original inhabitants. Right. There

656
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 3: are people in Behalf, I believe, Yeah, yeah, yeah, they

657
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 3: live there. There are people who are not rapanui who

658
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 3: live there full time. Right. Not as extreme as what

659
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 3: happened in Hawaii, but I would say a similar process.

660
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 3: So the real villain here is not some act of

661
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 3: the paranormal or vast hidden Atlantean Lemurian conspiracy. Said. It

662
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 3: seems to be what Jared Diamond, the author of Guns,

663
00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,839
Speaker 3: Germs and Steel, would later describe as eco side, which

664
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,400
Speaker 3: is a phrase I wasn't familiar with.

665
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, nor I that's a much better term than I

666
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 4: had said, resource extraction.

667
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 3: This isn't exactly right.

668
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 4: Certainly some of that, like you said, been making tools

669
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 4: and you know, burning trees for energy and things like that.

670
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:18,359
Speaker 4: But this was just essentially them not quite understanding how

671
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 4: delicate the balance of their ecosystem was, and so ultimately

672
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:22,879
Speaker 4: they killed it.

673
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:29,240
Speaker 2: Wait, was competition amongst different groups there on the island

674
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:33,399
Speaker 2: what led to the problems? Are we saying competition could

675
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:34,320
Speaker 2: be bad at times?

676
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, especially when coupled with resource consumption. Under very

677
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 3: harsh constraints, you know what I mean, because it's not

678
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 3: as if. Look, it was such an epic journey to

679
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 3: get there in the first place, what is considered the

680
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 3: easternmost Polynesian island. You were in a locked room essentially

681
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:03,400
Speaker 3: with the technology at the time. Right, even though Polynesian

682
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 3: cultures pretty much by any measure, for thousands of years

683
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 3: they were the world leaders in navigation using the stars

684
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 3: at sea. Uh, even with the oral history, you would

685
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 3: know things were a long long way away, So you

686
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 3: don't really have anywhere to go.

687
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,320
Speaker 2: It's tough to mcgruber yourself out of some ecoside.

688
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 3: Right exactly. Yes, and do check out. I was going

689
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:29,880
Speaker 3: to make up a mcgruver episode. We did, but we

690
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:32,040
Speaker 3: have it yet. We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll

691
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 3: call Will fort Nae.

692
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 2: Did you guys see the Epstein Files.

693
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:41,399
Speaker 3: One? Yes, it's a series, a series of sketches from

694
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:44,920
Speaker 3: one of the most recent Saturday Night Lives and to

695
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,400
Speaker 3: say anything Saturday Night Lives whatever, to say anything else

696
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 3: ruin your enjoyment. But do check it out. I'm going

697
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 3: to look forward to Yeah, text this other group chat.

698
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 3: I'm sure it is a compilation.

699
00:42:57,560 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 2: Mcgroover's definitely not in them.

700
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:04,839
Speaker 3: Definitely not, definitely not. We're asking too many questions, so well,

701
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 3: was it toss me that paper clip? Let's focus and

702
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,720
Speaker 3: what's important. So we wanted to close this one out

703
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 3: with something we've been kind of teasing. This is our

704
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:19,880
Speaker 3: big reveal. Research into the story of Rapanui continues just

705
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 3: last month. In fact, new investigations indicate that humanity still

706
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:27,879
Speaker 3: has a lot to learn about the rise and fall

707
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 3: of this statue building era, as well as about the

708
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 3: moi themselves. And this brings us to a professor of

709
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 3: anthropology at Binghampton University, Carl Philip LiPo LPO.

710
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 4: Matt, you were talking about this one off micah Bit

711
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 4: and how fascinated you were by these new was it

712
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,239
Speaker 4: three D models that give you a real look like

713
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:47,920
Speaker 4: behind the curtain of all this stuff?

714
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:48,560
Speaker 3: Oh?

715
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 2: Yes, this is Carl Philip LiPo, Professor of Anthropology at

716
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:59,279
Speaker 2: Binghamton University and the State University of New York. This

717
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 2: is It's incredible. It's a thousand Molai statues and the

718
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 2: quarry itself and large parts of the island that are

719
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 2: in a high resolution three D model. And when you

720
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 2: pull the thing up and you look at it, which

721
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 2: we highly recommend you do. I don't know if there's

722
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,280
Speaker 2: a super easy way to get to it, guys, because

723
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:23,640
Speaker 2: it's not like the best url. I found it on

724
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 2: fizzorg phys dot org. I'll just give you that link

725
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 2: so you can look for it. First of its kind

726
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:32,480
Speaker 2: three D model that's you explore Easter Island statues up close,

727
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:34,280
Speaker 2: and then there's a link in there you can click

728
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,319
Speaker 2: on and you can find this thing, which is just

729
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 2: first of all, you're hit with the volcanic crater right

730
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,800
Speaker 2: when you look when you open up this three D model,

731
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 2: and then you're looking at the sides of that crater

732
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 2: that have these these thirty I think thirty sites that

733
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 2: are all separate that are well, they're at least separated

734
00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 2: out into individual sites. And without this three D model,

735
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,479
Speaker 2: it looks like it's one contiguous thing. Wouldn't you say?

736
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:09,440
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, And please folks, always support your local academics.

737
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 3: Go to the name of the actual study is Megalithic

738
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 3: Statue Production on rap Anui and you should be able

739
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 3: to find it on plos. You should be able to

740
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 3: read it in full. It's worth your time and like

741
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:29,080
Speaker 3: Matt was, saying it fundamentally redefines some what we understand

742
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,120
Speaker 3: about this process, because they also how cool is this?

743
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:37,400
Speaker 3: They used drones to collect all these images that they compile,

744
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 3: and they also use something that I just learned about.

745
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:45,479
Speaker 3: It's one of my new favorite words, a process called

746
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 3: structure for motion photo grammetry. Photo grammetry. It sounds like

747
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 3: a weird class you would take at the Harry Potter School. Heck, yeah,

748
00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 3: I'm a photogrammatrist. And that's where they make that three

749
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,759
Speaker 3: D model. They overlap the two D images, and this

750
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 3: is where they find our big reveal that labor was

751
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 3: not some kind of pyramid scheme, no bad jokes left behind.

752
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:19,200
Speaker 3: Instead of a top down hierarchical approach where one king

753
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 3: is ordering construction, it appears that there was this group.

754
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 3: There was an abundance of self organized smaller family groups,

755
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 3: clans or tribes, and everybody had their turf in the quarry.

756
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 3: They were competing with each other. And also it took

757
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 3: way fewer people to move, to complete and to move

758
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 3: the statues than we assumed. It wasn't the entire island

759
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:50,760
Speaker 3: going one two three bush. It was like six people

760
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:54,280
Speaker 3: going one two three bush.

761
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:56,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like because of the use of those ballard

762
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,399
Speaker 2: things that I didn't understand what these were at all.

763
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 2: You can use that word to describe a lot of

764
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 2: different things. One of them are the little stubby metal

765
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:11,080
Speaker 2: posts that you've seen on a wharf or something like

766
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,719
Speaker 2: if you're going to attach a boat to something, those

767
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 2: are considered ballards. Also in traffic, they've got those same things,

768
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:22,240
Speaker 2: like the concrete ones often or metal ones that you'll see.

769
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 2: They just look a little posts. But if you imagine

770
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:28,319
Speaker 2: a bunch of those things and then rolling once you're

771
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 2: in that quarry and you finally got this huge twenty

772
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 2: ton statue and you can roll it down the hill

773
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 2: with enough people, which is just I still don't understand it.

774
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 2: I can visualize it, but then and I guess I

775
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 2: go back to that same guy you were describing, Ben,

776
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,920
Speaker 2: the dude who showed how you can turn a huge,

777
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 2: huge piece of stone around if you just elevate it

778
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:54,920
Speaker 2: in the right way and then build the correct wooden

779
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 2: structures around it.

780
00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:00,960
Speaker 3: Leverage right, it's a hell of a drug. We Yeah,

781
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:04,719
Speaker 3: this this is fascinating because it reminds us of one

782
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 3: of the most amazing parts of human civilization when people

783
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:15,680
Speaker 3: apply themselves to something. They are capable of such remarkable,

784
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:21,120
Speaker 3: extraordinary things without sounding too much like an old curmudgeon,

785
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:23,959
Speaker 3: but just a little bit like an old curmudgeon. These

786
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 3: folks didn't have ubiquitous social media information pulling their focus

787
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 3: and attention away. Their brains weren't suffering from the same

788
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:38,880
Speaker 3: degeneration that occurs when you constantly look at short term content,

789
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 3: which I that's not my opinion, that's a study from earlier.

790
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:46,720
Speaker 4: And we also, I think, experience that first.

791
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 3: It's very real.

792
00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 2: It makes one want to lay supine in a quarry

793
00:48:53,719 --> 00:48:54,880
Speaker 2: like a statue.

794
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 3: Sure, and some of those statues were not. They weren't

795
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,399
Speaker 3: suddenly abandoned because of a catastrophe. No one was like, oh,

796
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 3: the last palm tree's done, We're not gonna work anymore.

797
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:09,719
Speaker 3: A lot of times, because of the material science of

798
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 3: volcanic tough you would be part way through carving something

799
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:16,839
Speaker 3: out and you would run into lumps of much harder rock,

800
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 3: which is much more difficult to carve or carve around.

801
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:25,399
Speaker 3: Or current science speculates some of these were just rock

802
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 3: carvings that weren't meant to be moved. It's almost like

803
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,879
Speaker 3: some of them were practice carvings. If you think about

804
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 3: it's say, okay, well, before we do the actual statue,

805
00:49:35,719 --> 00:49:37,759
Speaker 3: let me make sure I get this news right.

806
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 2: Or maybe you know Bob passed away just before he

807
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 2: could finish his statue, and he was our only specialist

808
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:50,240
Speaker 2: in our group. Well, crap, I guess we're done there.

809
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess we're gotta make friends with someone else.

810
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 3: And they're like, ah, but I hate those guys in

811
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:56,280
Speaker 3: the next valley.

812
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 2: I really don't like Bob's work either. We're going to

813
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,239
Speaker 2: start a different one.

814
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:04,120
Speaker 3: His work derivative. It looked too much like the other statues.

815
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:06,439
Speaker 2: Can you imagine some of that?

816
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 3: Like kind of definitely, especially because they're in competition, not cooperation.

817
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 2: So that Petty always right.

818
00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 3: So Lipo's team also, this is another thing that is

819
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:22,240
Speaker 3: studying they came away with in the research. He's calling

820
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:27,760
Speaker 3: into question that official accepted story of deforestation, resource loss,

821
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 3: and massive collapse. He says that if you look at

822
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 3: this with the information, the data that they have uncovered,

823
00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 3: the unfinished Moi at Rono Raurku aren't evidence of a

824
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 3: sudden catastrophe. He says, they're normal quarry operations, so as

825
00:50:45,120 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 3: life gradually got worse. This kind of the prioritization of

826
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 3: this historical flex started to decline because people were increasingly

827
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 3: concerned about stuff like staying alive and eating food, hopefully

828
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,799
Speaker 3: at least once in a twenty four hour period. This

829
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:07,400
Speaker 3: leads us to that question again, we're returning to it.

830
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:10,320
Speaker 3: What actually happened. We still don't know, but we be

831
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 3: modern civilization are closer than ever before, and Guys, I

832
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:19,279
Speaker 3: would posit that the biggest potential for further breakthrough on

833
00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 3: the horizon here includes leveraging new technology like in the

834
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:27,360
Speaker 3: professor's work as well as in this is something I

835
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 3: think the public's ignoring, as well as returning to those

836
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:39,360
Speaker 3: oral histories anew and using current technology to fit these

837
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 3: narratives to see how they compare to the forensic evidence

838
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 3: that has been gathered and discovered. And I think we'll find,

839
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,040
Speaker 3: as we often do with oral history, there's a lot

840
00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 3: of astonishing truth there. It's a little bit of myth,

841
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of accurate information in there.

842
00:51:57,719 --> 00:51:59,840
Speaker 2: I think you're absolutely right, Ben, I do think we

843
00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:03,320
Speaker 2: have to keep our minds open for learning something extra

844
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:09,640
Speaker 2: right as we as technologies advanced, as some new thing

845
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,880
Speaker 2: is discovered there on the island. That explains things. We

846
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 2: just got to keep our minds open the way a

847
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:19,080
Speaker 2: lot of the folks did, who were still exploring this idea,

848
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 2: you know, up until these past few years.

849
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:27,400
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and perhaps that's where we leave it. We can't

850
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:29,479
Speaker 3: wait to hear from you folks. We hope you're having

851
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,120
Speaker 3: a great end of the year. Also, calendars are made up.

852
00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 3: Check out our episode on that and we want to

853
00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 3: hear from you. So find us on the lines, call

854
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:40,480
Speaker 3: us on the phone, send us an email, et etc.

855
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,319
Speaker 4: Oh please do you can find us at the handle

856
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:46,440
Speaker 4: Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook

857
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:48,880
Speaker 4: group here's where it gets crazy. On AXVKA, Twitter and

858
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 4: on YouTube we had video content for We're perusing enjoyment

859
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 4: on Instagram and TikTok. However, we're Conspiracy Stuff Show.

860
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:00,600
Speaker 2: We have a phone number. It is one eight three

861
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:05,359
Speaker 2: three st d WYTK. Turn those letters into numbers, then

862
00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 2: give that number a call. When you call in, it's

863
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:10,080
Speaker 2: a voicemail system. Give yourself a cool nickname and let

864
00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 2: us know if we can use your name and message

865
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,239
Speaker 2: on the air. If you are going to make a

866
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 2: MOI statue, what would it look like let us know.

867
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 2: If you want to send us an email, you can

868
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 2: do that too.

869
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:24,880
Speaker 3: We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence

870
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,600
Speaker 3: we receive. Be well aware, yet's out afraid. Sometimes the

871
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:31,399
Speaker 3: void writes back, so join us, O put my sunglasses

872
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 3: on here out in the dark. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

873
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to Know is a production

874
00:53:56,239 --> 00:54:00,000
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the ihet

875
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:02,840
Speaker 2: art radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

876
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:03,720
Speaker 2: your favorite shows.