Home to hundreds of mysterious, gigantic stone statues, Easter Island is an isolated, tiny island in the Pacific. Check out this podcast to learn more about the astonishing history of Easter Island.
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Welcome to stuff, you missed in history, class from Housetop works, dot, com
hello and welcomes the pastime editor tend to skip syndrome dies diverting. The grand taking us saying, I think that if I could go any place in the world, it would be east or I ll and really is a beautiful place. Have you, then I have an undersea pictures, but it looks beautiful. I again of obsessed by that, and I was looking
videos at Easter Island the other day, and I stumbled upon this fabulous
if information- and that is that Easter Island has its own marathon- and now I love
learning long distances. I love had an area the familiar than that I'm very slow. I won't professed to be the first of its kind or even like the eight hundred, but I dont think their view.
Anything cooler than running
around the mill I suggest trial and then it's not that
of an island actually looking at it, I mean asked- I saw There- was about sixty four square miles and that's about coming to see the point of reference like about the same size,
the Washington DC. It is illegal
Furthermore, it is in the middle of nowhere. I think it's clean
the land neighbour, I guess a vague land
but I think there are other I'll.
Smothered round nearby, but not to close by would be Chile
two thousand two hundred ninety nine miles away, nor I believe you will get a globe. It looks like just a tiny little speck on the globe ended its fascinating
people were able to find it as early as they did yeah.
Considering that these are the polynesian who lived probable
in South Amerika were not quite sure where they came from.
Sure why they laughed weather.
Some sort of
that arose or by their son, got ambitious and want to start their own colony elsewhere died, because
The polynesian are such great sailors and navigators. They were able to make it to this item
whenever they seldom wooden boats that are probably last together with reads wrath really tightly like robes, and there are probably adrift in the ocean for about two weeks before they had land is
Ireland, and that around four hundred a d, and so I can understand how archaeological evidence can't really indicate like what exactly motivated are. These people
as they were, they ended up being isolated on this island. For so long. Furthermore, is thinking of isolation. We're not sure how many went the first time,
And when they arrived at Easter Island, we're not sure if they settled there because they had picked at soon, they knew it exists now, their final destination or if their research
spread, they ain't any land that they could have seen and Eve regardless. They actually came very prepared for for being ready to survive wherever they landed yeah. They had a type of leafy green with them to grow. The had speed
Nato is, in my view, man as I now who doesn't love a stupid heading Janusz. I think they are adequate
left again and again when they,
after Easter Island. I just I can't imagine how they must have felt because,
of Easter Island where just
just a very verdant paradise. I think that today archaeologist suspect that there may have been at one time, six
eighteen million palm trees, Justino and even in the middle of the ocean, but the part that they doc dad ways. Alas,
welcoming landscape and that's the thing about Easter Island is tiny, as it is a little triangle. Shit island has very diverse landscapes. It has widened.
Beaches, in that it has a very jagged and forbidding class that hasn't hurricane also volcano palm trees. So who knows what they thought, but they set to task and
did pretty while they cultivated the land and they increase their population,
and and they ve come. A very sophisticated society can see how it was probably pretty hard at first specially because they brought most of their sustenance with them. As we said, and what was actually on the island itself before they came, there was not much. There were their lizards, maybe in insects by that
They actually had to start from the ground. Up mostly exactly they were able to hunt dolphins and other types of fish in the waters, but it's important to know that
for Ireland is not as remote as far as people Gowan and animals, like you were saying, there aren't very many nutrients in the water or there weren't at that time. Yes, and I'm not much, could be sustained, so they were birds.
Has over and some people think that's how it got to be such a verdant little paradises at the the birds but bring seeds that they deposited
this is actually a point of contention about, like hell, things got there in and arm etc, because some historic
claim like we're trying to figure out where the original people came from and some historians claim. Oh these people came from Chile. Obviously like us, the closest land,
by win, explores eventually stumbled upon the island of european explorers.
Polynesian on the ship is actually able to converse with
though there, and so that is where they were, obviously speaking, a variation on polynesian do they think people came from Polynesia, and so
he tell you all about used Rhineland all day. You and if you don't know much about it, you may be saying ok sure. So it's a tiny little eyes are green people came from nowhere great by
the really important thing about Easter Island is them ally.
Yeah and ultimate
The more I brought about the height
this civilization and then their very, very darkest hour and in the history of Easter Island, not just how they got there, because that part is interesting in and of itself, but it gets so
thing, and it really gives me details everytime, I think about it. These people had a very specific religion,
and culture and on their spirituality was manifested through
our Tino storytelling string, figures and sculpture, and you ve got to
or island deal
Kay knows in the quarries had all of this ash that was perfect for making sculpture, and so they made these giant head
and their very stylized. Looking if you ve never seen a picture of them. I would encourage you to look at the Easter Island. My like a million people, usually associated with Easter Island, is huge. How is your task and it? What I find interesting is that their actually found other places like other other cultures, did have something like this, but it was the user islanders who actually like they had the most
forget it and the biggest and most incredible ones will, and you have to wonder too. I think they might have gotten board and there is a sense of competitiveness around them, because they would build these giant giant heads and just to give you guys an idea. Average
average wise. They could waved to eighty two tonnes instead of the thirty two feet high they were here.
Giant hides it and have now that there is really long year loaves and they were very stylized in their features of their long noses and their eyes were sometimes ornamented with coral or obsidian. But they look very phallic and perhaps archaeology-
That's because the population was always struggling to reproduce yeah and they were obsessed with fertility guys. I believe they were yeah they worse. If eight they could be found in homage to fertility guidance and on speaking of which, because the population is their talent, they had inbred and south even to this day I'll find some Easter islanders who have six toes. I, in fact the very interesting I guess I also probably stems from the fact that they had a class system even with
Coney Island on this, their population into classes like an upper class in a working class sort of thing, and I imagine that contributed to separating how people bread, I think so
when it came to the mill, I knew this was such a manifestation of of honour and spirituality. I think everyone was a participant, no matter the class. I dont know therefore,
but I would assume that people will come together and there,
a very specific process with creating them ally. Artist would start in the quarry, inciting output in Iraq to gather and departing it down and chiseling at and is then
would be sort of on em like a little block, humming
carving out new and creative,
deeper rivets alongside
blocks and finally there is just like a tiny little slivers down the connected the head to the quarry- and this was the key element,
etc. The keel they were
lay the head,
a series of of lives. We urge and end archaeologists are in dispute about how they transported these heavy heavy monoliths began. Its was reflected the Stonehenge of of Easter Island because people were historians or boggled, but if like how these people have the technology in the in the in the ingenuity, I guess to move these
Monday structures in that's like a huge feet. It is, and so people either imagine that
seventy man got together and pulled them with ropes, fashion from part of trees, or else
them on a series of logs and when she two layers of logs perpendicular to each other, they, Greece them with palm oil and they drove them on a platter
and I imagine, is such a painstaking process. I think that it can take up to two weeks
and now I must be an important event- exactly was very important to them, because if such labour interact and their final resting spot we're on Yahoo or platform
and the more I faced inland toward the island. It was obviously meant to watch
the residents and to protect them. So they put these around. The perimeter rate is opaque, and so all of these around the perimeter we're looking inwards, yeah and was really interesting. We think over the course of five hundred years about nine hundred of them were carved and you can see where the artist Scott
how did it? Because there are so many that were left unfinished and the quarry an archaeologist found them later on ones that had a flaw, maybe are ones that were.
Again. You know whether in transit or whether in construction nearest abandoned completely on either of reflection of slavery.
A faction ass. This is you how they were expressing their devotion to the gods and they got bigger over time till he. I started out more modest and then there is one that they call L gigantic in it. So big of courses in the quarry, no one could possibly have moved as here, but here in lies the problem with what,
doing yeah. So if we go back to how they transported them, they obviously Kanda suggested that they were using logs and in
It must have taken a lot and obviously they made a lot of these mill. I so there
cutting down a whole lot of trees, and this ended up being they're here.
For there is a huge mistake. You right
ties
time they had such an abundance of resources. I think a year's dead throwing com
the wind right, then, what are you user of think of trees is its most renewable resource. There is, of course, lake on that
isolated island, they must have just
no you're right when you're living in isolation that, when you use up your resources, how renewable it is you're, not getting any more seats to plant and you're out cultivating the landscape it's over and that's it
Ben, because not only do they cut down. All the trees by day isn't
because other topsoil on island wash away began the roots friendlier to hold it down. Furthermore,
using the trees to make boats to grant and fish for dolphins and purpose
this is especially said to me is that they couldn't make boats anymore. You know they could not finish, because it couldn't make both because enough trees and what's wrong.
The Non elected they not fish. Not only are they not grow crops after they really
destroyed their island and all the trees were guy me. They didn't have anything left to make puts with to flee the eyes were prisoners of their own, making you and that's when things got
really dark and really dangerous girl started. Star
some scholars posit that may be some may resorted. Cannibalism. Yeah, that's true, and this is a point of contention because some some
Torreon suitably Jerry Diamond, says that these islands,
resorted to cannibalism, after, like other food sources, dwindled and he
points to how cannibalism is that their oral tradition, islanders oral tradition is rife with with cannibalism in talk of it and
little bit of Archeo archaeological evidence that on human
are found in these pits of of garbage they wear. It is that these are the pitcher they threw their their food trash and so
People like Jerry Diamond
I use this to to say or will they must have resorted to: cannibalism, others,
they're like oh, no there's not enough evidence to say, then we should say that unless its most shore and they say it
But you know after people naturally die. They there are richer
so people did with people don't we know that happen to serve as a point of contention so
however, you interpret these relics of bone down. You can look at the things that are alongside them that the date two around the same time, the man you see that this is the first time, an Easter island that they ve manufactured weapons like spears and arrows, and things like that. The resale right between the tribes were ya and we know that when they came, there were very, very few of them around eleven. Fifty a data population with them from seven thousand nine thousand. Sixteen hundreds that, with the height of this
position. It was around ten thousand and population done, but then, when
started declining and population started dwindling. We say that people broke off into different plans
and essentially they were all fighting for the very tiny parcels of arable land that were left and,
was very, very difficult to stake a claim to the US, because I think that the Easter islanders they were respectful of their God
respectful of women and children, even the scholars who point the fact that they may have resorted
Annabelle, as I'm going out that women and children never watched. This happened, which I dont know if that means that men were the only ones who resorted cannibalism if they ate it and private away from women and children. But I think that day you know there are still trying to hold their civilization together,
harder and harder. And finally, there is a cold. There arose out of all the distress and was called the burning coal, and the promise was pretty some,
I'll, be the first person to grab the egg from a city,
turns nest and you're gonna, be the leader for twelve man's and not may sounded pretty simple feet, but the city turn,
Nests are
the highest cliffs on the islands of involving a swim and rock climb, and then a massive track back to the first person to have this egg, and if you lost
contest. It was all that's off, because the losers, we're typically expected to start them, starts with spears, so the Burmese called dies. Sound pretty drastic,
that, through those there actually wise, a rebirth and arable land and cultivation of crops. I think the sweet potato reared its head again, because I think it is fair to verse and they were struggling. There are still struggling to to an extent, and this is a win. You know european,
actually started stumbling upon these people and if they finally had sort of contact and in access to the outside world, but this ended up cause
a lot of harm as well as good, because, like obviously
peons come with their.
Diseases like that. They have become a me into so they exposed
diseases to the islanders at the time, and so that even heard their population even more, and I think that when the nineteenth century
came around population had dwindled to only caused it's a little over a hundred, maybe a hundred ten Easter islanders. Not only did the westerners bring their diseases. The author brought
religion or idea, and
One of the reasons is called Easter. Island is because, when it was first discovered, I guess discovered by Europeans was that it was Easter Sunday and it's interesting in the thrilled the d, I guess the nineteenth century. It eventually cushion missionaries did
over and start is our converting the islanders to most of them. I guess they ended up sacrificing but of their culture, which is
course necessary when you sacrifice your religion right when it Chris
missionaries came the exchange for giving up their religion and their culture like their storytelling in their their tattoo,
Is there anything else
that they learned how to use their land be rats essential is that they had livestock than they were able to say. Okay, so we have this very true:
land. Now that sound good for much, but it is good for using as around here and
time the Easter Islanders, I think, for the most part,
They were very wearied with their culture and when
he's gotten really dark date:
No, I and why, and rather they blame them, blame the guides for what had befallen them or whether they realise that it was their own in our very over enthusiastic production of the sculptures that brought them down certain knocking them down yeah. You know, you, like you, said, look we're not really sure why it happened. I remember reading one
Harry was I like win win the population split into different clans. One clean would destroy those with those statues because they believe those are the source of their power of the opposite clans power
there's all kinds of of theories about this, but
Lizzie. It is interesting that they made such amazing feat, and yet they ended up tearing it down, they dared and you can see where they, they gouge at the eyes, the Gambia Obsidian Eyes and David around
really sharp stones. Underwear at the head would form the men when they knocked it from the Yahoo. The head with severs. They weren't essence decapitated. These guides, and it was
Tell archaeologist
and back and tried to restructure them that they were able to rehearse voiced the male. Why? And I think that today, the Easter Islanders very much accept that as part of their culture, but another
that they lost for ever was their language, which was.
The wrong guy and it actually came about
from a very dirty trick that the Spanish pull back in seventeen seventy till they came over,
essentially, they tricks. The tribal leader
to signing a treaty that turn
his trial and over two spanish control so well that in itself is not diplomatic to any extent it inside
Mr Islanders to create their own system of writing, and so there are still tablets J with wronger wrongly that exists, and I think Easter Islanders continued a car of these little symbols that no one knows
That means, because again, part of giving up the culture
Kristen missionaries wasn't getting in our ranks
dad last year in their crops reestablishing essentially surviving, so they made that choice does interesting that the both
production of writing sort of hurt and help them in a way lake is sir.
Nasty trick to be okay. This is what writing is right. Anything on this line and euro, sacrificing our island unknowingly sort of thing, but it also
the fault, the burden and culture of the kind you try, leader with able to reassert his power
riding yeah, it's just such
getting history in the eastern islanders are very, very proud of their history. I think that today there are maybe
two thousand people on the island of their population is really rebounded. Thankfully they haven't, they have, I think, joints
some chap with Chile,
they can go back and forth if you want to Greece or Ireland. I think that you have to fight a chilly first and then there are flight certain days of the week that go out Easter, island and unsuited to amuse us and let Easter Island has. It has been an airport now and so people can come in there. You, like archaeologist, can study in tourism can find out
culture and it's pretty interesting, and yet they had Chile actually has control over because they annexed it in eighteen. Eighty eight wish well imagine that, but that the culture of eastern at last all live. The people are incredibly friendly link that people have written. That
they ve traveled to Israel in a hotel rooms or bucks. You can stay
any Easter Island family in our house and happily welcome new services.
It simply such a great place to visit. I can't wait to get mark my words twenty times. If I'm, not terrorism, income shake may place now. If you want to learn even more about Easter Island and other ancient civilizations be sure to check out house, don't count for more on this and thousands of other topics. Housetop, Warsaw COM, what does know what you think send an email, podcast Housetop works, dot, com.
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Transcript generated on 2020-02-07.