End of Easter Island | Explorer

early inhabitants cleared countless
trees to build their society
slash-and-burn agriculture it could be
very destructive they were clearing
larger and large expanses of land
cutting down the forest to feed more
people over the centuries the population
grew by the thousands harvested trees
became canoes and shelters but many were
felled for the sake of one singular
obsession building boy nearly all of the
massive statues were carved from the
soft stone of a single quarry
the Islanders considered each to embody
the spirit of their ancestors some
statues are over 30 feet tall and weigh
more than 80 tons these monoliths were
moved from the quarry up to six miles
across uneven terrain without the
benefit of large animals or the wheel
it is believed that trees could have
been used as posts for rope systems or
as rollers or levers to make sleds or
even as tracts that were laid across the
island virtually all of these methods
would have required that the trunks were
frequently replaced moai are made larger
and larger as the centuries pass it
seems like through time there was strong
competition for not only building great
monuments to honor the ancestors but
also among Chiefs for prestige and
status hundreds of statues still litter
the hillside many abandoned in the
process of moving or being carved frozen
in time one known as El Gigante the
giant would have stood over seven
stories high it suggests the Islanders
ambition may have been greater than
their resources in the space of just a
few centuries the trees were used up