Scientists Make Easter Island Statue Walk | National Geographic
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as evidence of how ancient people could move huge stones with only ropes and simple methods.
What it is
A one-minute National Geographic clip of researchers Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo testing a theory that Easter Islanders used ropes to rock the moai statues upright to walk them to their platforms.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2019 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Cites dalbasal · 2019-08 · on “How to Build a Pyramid”
Always seemed more likely to me, at least some method like it. Simple, clever tricks using the leverage. This is how some researchers think easter island heads were moved around: [this video]
Cites ardit33 · 2021-08 · on “Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria, 12500 Years Ago”
His theories are about 'advanced civilizations' that build everything, and somehow disappeared, and the humans that came later just found the knowledge ready... etc. etc. Basically a bunch of crap without any evidence. If it was an advanced civilization, they would have left plenty of tools and artifacts behind, but they didn't. The only evidence he mentions how Goebli Teppe or the Sphynx, were so extraordinary, that they could only be build by some advanced civilization. Yet, we have no proof of what he says whatsover. Stonehedge, Mayan pyramids, Atlantis, etc.. are all been mixed in these types of imaginations. The fact is that early humans were not stupid savages/cavemen, and civilization
Cites atombender · 2024-02 · on “How did the settlers of the Canary Islands survive a millennium of isolation?”
As far as I'm aware, this has been thoroughly debunked, especially by Hunt and Lipo [1], who have argued against the "ecocide" theory, pointing out that the deforestation appeared to have had a positive effective on the islander's agriculture, and that contrary to Diamond's claims, the population was increasing, not falling, at the time of European contact. The deforestation was almost certainly caused by the Polynesian rat, as archeological research has shown that the same type of deforestation happened on other islands where rats where accidentally introduced, but not on settled islands where there were no signs of rats having been introduced. I believe Diamond (or maybe it was Heyerdahl)