(ORDO NEWS) — Until now, historians have tried to somehow justify the sad ending of this story: they say, the Polynesians cut down the trees and led themselves to decline.
A new study, meanwhile, shows that the natives lived, albeit in their own way, but relatively well – until that very ill-fated day, which for some reason coincided with the great Christian holiday.
The islanders called him either “a lost friend” or “breaking the wave.” Hoa Hakananaia. Such translations of this name suggest sad thoughts.
Or maybe this is a monument to a man who swam great, but died or was killed? The statue was found in 1868 by sailors of the British Royal Navy, it was half covered with earth.
In general, by that time, on the triangular piece of land lost in the Pacific Ocean, there was already complete desolation and there were more amazing sculptures than people.
And, I must say, there are 887 statues – moai – on Easter Island. So this is the 888th, because it is not on the island, but in the British Museum.
Largely thanks to her, about seven thousand tourists visit the mysterious place every year.
The museum’s website says that the “lost friend” is made of basalt, other sources say that this is a slightly different material.
In any case, moai consist of volcanic rocks, of which there is a whole wealth on the island – there are already four volcanoes there.
Local legend says that once there was a large land here, but the staff of the formidable god Wake split it, and only over this edge did he take mercy. Some compare this with the myth of Atlantis.
In any case, this is the only Polynesian island with its own written language: linguists from all over the world are still struggling with rongo-rongo boards.
By the way, the boards themselves are made of sophora – this is a small tree, a relative of legumes. They are a clear confirmation that the island was not always “bald”.
Most historians are inclined to believe that the first European guests of the Rapanui (Rapanui is the real, native name of the island) were the Dutch.
The navigator Jacob Roggeven was actually looking for terra incognita – “unknown land”, the legendary Southern continent. Fabulously huge and fabulously rich. His father devoted half his life to this dream.
Therefore, the son eventually convinced the businessmen from the Dutch West India Company that the business was profitable.
Equipped three ships and a team of two hundred sailors and soldiers. Loaded 70 guns. In short, a typical research expedition.
It is difficult to say how religious Roggeven was, but it was such a tradition to name new lands in honor of the events of biblical history, if the date of discovery fell on such.
And April 5, 1722 was just the Resurrection of Christ. And it turned out that it was on this day that they saw the island from the boards of the Afrikanen Galei, Tienhoven and Renda ships.
It was later noticed that smoke was rising above it in several places. We also saw huge stone idols. All this was interesting, but the windy weather did not allow us to swim to the shore.
There is evidence that initially the contact was quite friendly: a canoe with a naked bearded man swam up to the ships. He was amazed at the sight of the huge boats.
The Dutch invited him on board, and the communication turned out to be quite peaceful and calm. And then a whole crowd gathered on the shore. I must say, they, too, were mostly just curious.
When the Europeans landed, the simple-hearted hosts even brought them their bananas and their chickens as a sign of greeting – by the way, sacred birds for the natives, because without chicken they probably would not have lived to see such a solemn moment.
However, many other local residents were not imbued with especially warm feelings and behaved as it should be for savages: they surrounded the gentlemen, began to grab them by their clothes, by the long things in their hands (guns). As a result, some gentleman got nervous and fired. And hit.
The shocked Polynesians fled, but quickly returned in slightly larger numbers. Roggeven realized that his people could simply be killed. And ordered to open fire to kill. And all this on a day like this.
But the greatest misfortune for Rapanui was the very fact that the Europeans discovered this island. At first, its presence did not cause practically any emotions in the “civilized” world.
However, half a century later, Spain remembered the island, since it was keenly interested in the preservation and growth of its colonies in Latin America. The ship with the subjects of King Charles III arrived at the shores in 1772.
The Spaniards spent several days on the island, declared it San Carlos and read out to the natives an official document on the protectorate (it would be interesting to see this). But, in fact, it was not possible to “attach” Rapanui anywhere.
James Cook sailed two years later. He described the natives as hungry, exhausted, and, in turn, wondered how this wild people not only hollowed out such giant sculptures with stone tools (from 3 to 15 meters and sometimes weighing more than 10 tons!), But also dragged them to the desired place and put on pedestals.
There was a French explorer, François La Perouse, who brought scientists with him, and they found out that once there were entire forests on the island. Of course, without trees it became bad.
There is no wood – there are no normal boats, which means there is no serious fishing in the sea, that is, there is a problem with food. The French left a few sheep and pigs as a gift in the hope that the Rapanui would breed them. Planted a citrus tree.
And, by the way, in his book “Journey around the world on the ship” Neva “in 1803-1806” he wrote that everything is in order with food, bananas, sweet potatoes grow, and all this is happily exchanged by Easter people for various nails and especially on knives that were specially forged for them right on board the ship.
But the pets were not noticed. Only chickens, perhaps. It looks like cattle breeding has failed.
Four years later, the Americans came – already on a specific case: they tied 22 people on the island and took them as slaves to the Juan Fernandez Islands in order to establish seal hunting there. Business idea.
On the third day after they sailed, that is, far away on the open sea, the captives were untied, their chains were removed, and so on. And the natives immediately jumped overboard. “Civilization” began to catch them, but the “savages” stubbornly refused to be caught.
And it must be emphasized that they were already very far from the island, the chances of reaching home are either scanty or equal to zero. This is fundamentally important for understanding this act.
After that, of course, the island of Rapanui became inhospitable. Only this did not save. In the 1860s, the Peruvians needed free labor for their booming economy, and they came. They took almost fifteen hundred people.
Soon, about a hundred remained alive, and international negotiations had to be arranged with the Peruvian authorities in order to return the unfortunate people home.
While we were talking, a dozen and a half people remained. They returned, but they brought smallpox and tuberculosis back to their homeland. This was approximately the situation at the time of the arrival of Queen Victoria’s fleet.
Subsequently, scientists argued that it nevertheless predetermined the deplorable outcome. Many appeal to the fact that the Paschals had a terrible confrontation between the two classes.
They had “long-eared” – this is, so to speak, “white people” among the Polynesians, they were really lighter and carried heavy loads in their earlobes, which made it all hang down to their shoulders. Please note that the idols are depicted just like that.
And there were “short-eared” – respectively, without these decorations and in a subordinate position.
When the famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl sailed to the island in 1955, he found a single person of almost European appearance, red-haired, and he said that he was a descendant of the “long-eared” and his grandfather forced him to listen and remember who he was as a child.
According to legend, a long time ago because they are tired of carrying volcanic blocks on the orders of the big-eared ones. For this, the exploiters dug a ditch for them and threw brushwood into it. That is, they prepared a fire for the rebels.
But a woman changed the course of history. As usual. It was the wife of one “long-eared”. She knew everything, and it did not give her peace of mind. And she could not stand it and told the “short-eared” what was in store for them.
As a result, the “peasants” planned everything so that the “bourgeois” would fall into their own fire. That is, she did not prevent trouble. Just flipped it over. It turned out the same, only in a mirror image.
However, the analysis of the ashes and other contents of this pit did not show the presence of any bones or other traces of what the legend says. because they are tired of carrying volcanic blocks on the orders of the big-eared ones.
For this, the exploiters dug a ditch for them and threw brushwood into it. That is, they prepared a fire for the rebels. But a woman changed the course of history. As usual. It was the wife of one “long-eared”. She knew everything, and it did not give her peace of mind.
And she could not stand it and told the “short-eared” what was in store for them. As a result, the “peasants” planned everything so that the “bourgeois” would fall into their own fire. That is, she did not prevent trouble. Just flipped it over.
It turned out the same, only in a mirror image. However, the analysis of the ashes and other contents of this pit did not show the presence of any bones or other traces of what the legend says. That is, they prepared a fire for the rebels. But a woman changed the course of history.
As usual. It was the wife of one “long-eared”. She knew everything, and it did not give her peace of mind. And she could not stand it and told the “short-eared” what was in store for them. As a result, the “peasants” planned everything so that the “bourgeois” would fall into their own fire.
That is, she did not prevent trouble. Just flipped it over. It turned out the same, only in a mirror image. However, the analysis of the ashes and other contents of this pit did not show the presence of any bones or other traces of what the legend says.
That is, they prepared a fire for the rebels. But a woman changed the course of history. As usual. It was the wife of one “long-eared”. She knew everything, and it did not give her peace of mind. And she could not stand it and told the “short-eared” what was in store for them.
As a result, the “peasants” planned everything so that the “bourgeois” would fall into their own fire. That is, she did not prevent trouble.
Just flipped it over. It turned out the same, only in a mirror image. However, the analysis of the ashes and other contents of this pit did not show the presence of any bones or other traces of what the legend says.
But that’s not the point. Supporters of the theory of self-destruction of the Easter culture claim that by the time the Europeans arrived on the island, everything was bad.
Scientists can’t take people’s word for it. But they can trust the silent stones. So the moai are the main witnesses in this case. Many of them remained unfinished in the Rapanui quarries. Next to them are the bones of the builders and their cleavers.
A recent study has shown that some of the statues are relatively young, having been worked on after the Dutch and up until the failed Spanish annexation. And this, you understand, is evidence. If they built idols, then they continued to live their lives. To end.
And finally, about how they still raised multi-ton statues. The last “long-eared” made friends with Thor Heyerdahl and nevertheless revealed the secret.
First, the ends of the logs are slipped under the moai, and assistants hang from the other ends. The commander, in this case the Norwegian’s new friend, lays down on his stomach and stuffs a pebble under the idol’s head. Then another. Third. More. Even more.
And so on. Patient monotonous work for ten days. Next, the stone head is wrapped with ropes and tied on four sides to thick stakes so that the giant does not fall somewhere in the wrong place.
In the end, the moai rises already so high that it slowly leans back and stands on its pedestal. Well-coordinated team work. That’s all. Fantastic!
“Leonardo,” I said, “you are a businessman, tell me how in the old days they dragged these stone heroes?”
“They walked on their own,” Leonardo replied.
Thor Heyerdahl, “Aku-Aku”
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