Archaeology & History

New Easter Island moai statue discovered in dried-up lake bed

By T.K. Randall
February 28, 2023 ·  2 comments

Not all the Easter Island statues have been found. Image Credit: CC BY 3.0 Bradenfox A small land mass of only 60 square miles, Easter Island has remained something of an enigma for years.

Its army of strange stone statues and the fate of its original inhabitants are mysteries that continue to draw both intrigue and puzzlement.

In total there are over 1,000 such statues - known as moai - spread across the island, with most experts now agreeing that they were built between 1250 AD and 1500 A.D.

As it turns out, however, there are still more of them hidden on the island, just waiting to be found.One such discovery was made just recently when a team of researchers unearthed a previously unseen moai that had been buried at the bottom of a dried-up lake bed.

What's more, it is thought that the same location could also yield further statue finds.

"For the Rapa Nui people, it's [a] very, very important discovery," said Salvador Atan Hito, vice president of Ma'u Henua - the group that oversees the island's national park.

"Because it's here in the lake and nobody knows this exists - even the ancestors, our grandparents don't know [about] that one."

Source: IFL Science | Comments (2)

Tags: Easter Island