Treasures Decoded

1 October 2014

Episode 1: Easter Island Heads - Wednesday 10 September, 9pm, More4

The giant stone heads of Easter Island are some of the most recognizable statues on earth. But they’re also some of the least understood. Even today, archaeologists argue over who made them, and why. There are around a thousand moai, or statues on the island, but what few people realize is that by the mid-nineteenth century, all of them - bar one - lay toppled on the ground.  The standing figures that we see today were re-erected only in the last fifty years.

The problem is that the Easter Island people lived cut off from the outside world right up until 1722. They had no written language. They handed down their history and traditions by word of mouth, and that knowledge was lost when the most of the island’s elders were kidnapped by slave traders and taken thousands of miles away to the South American mainland.

So what happened? Treasures Decoded examines competing theories and, using a new analysis of the last statue standing unravel a story of extraordinary struggle.

That key statue is called Hoa Hakananai’a:  translated as the stolen or hidden friend. It was dragged from its hilltop resting place by a crew of sailors from Britain’s Royal Navy, who transported it half way round the world to the British Museum in London.

Treasures Decoded investigators piece together the true purpose of the statues. They discover that they represent the islanders’ ancestors. They’re not merely works of art, or even memorials, but a way of turning the ancestors into gods. The idea was that if they were honored, they would offer protection and prosperity to the islanders: healthy children; a good harvest; peaceful weather.  The construction of the statues – even though took huge effort and resources – was a kind of insurance policy.

This evidence makes the fact that they were all knocked down all the more strange. The investigation explores the so-called “collapse” theory:  that through over population, and deforestation, the islanders used up all their natural resources, and started fighting amongst themselves, dividing into warring clans that tore down each other’s statues.

The episode looks at a counter-theory: that  natural disaster in the form of drought hit the island, and that this was what caused all the trees to disappear.  In this version of events, the islanders believe that the statues have ceased to offer protection, and they simply abandon them.

The unique set of markings carved into the back of Hoa Hakananai’a tell us what happened next. The investigation unlocks the secrets of the religious cult which rose after the statues had fallen; how a living god, The Birdman was chosen in an extraordinary endurance, run by the clans’ bravest young men.   The hidden history of Easter Island is written in the stone of that statue.