1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,099 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:17,099 --> 00:00:21,620 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:21,620 --> 00:00:35,584 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:35,584 --> 00:00:41,905 On a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, a frightening and mysterious massacre took place. 5 00:00:41,905 --> 00:00:48,147 A race of stone giants carved a thousand years ago guard the shore in silence, as if unable 6 00:00:48,147 --> 00:00:51,828 to endure what they have witnessed. 7 00:00:51,828 --> 00:00:56,109 The clues to the mystery remain locked behind mute lips. 8 00:00:56,109 --> 00:01:02,031 There is no voice to tell who carved the giants and why hundreds of them were destroyed in 9 00:01:02,031 --> 00:01:25,797 the Easter Island massacre. 10 00:01:25,797 --> 00:01:31,999 In the beginning of time, legends tell us, land and sea were at war with each other. 11 00:01:31,999 --> 00:01:38,241 Coast of the earth exploded in fury and sent molten lava boiling into the sea. 12 00:01:38,241 --> 00:01:43,242 The lava cooled and hardened into black rock. 13 00:01:43,242 --> 00:01:50,284 Eons ago, an island was born, forged in agony and cursed with a destiny that hangs over it 14 00:01:50,284 --> 00:01:53,445 to this day. 15 00:01:53,445 --> 00:01:59,367 It is Easter Island, a jagged speck of land on the endless seas halfway between the coast 16 00:01:59,367 --> 00:02:08,409 of South America and Tahiti. 17 00:02:08,409 --> 00:02:14,631 Easter Island is perhaps the loneliest inhabited place on earth. 18 00:02:14,631 --> 00:02:22,173 Its existence was unknown until it was discovered by a Dutch explorer in 1722. 19 00:02:22,173 --> 00:02:26,294 The Dutch ship landed on a warm and balmy Easter Sunday. 20 00:02:26,294 --> 00:02:31,775 It was welcomed by a band of natives who swam out to the boat carrying gifts. 21 00:02:31,775 --> 00:02:35,576 At one time, the population exceeded 10,000. 22 00:02:35,576 --> 00:02:42,178 But since that fateful Easter Sunday, slave raids, civil war, and a smallpox epidemic 23 00:02:42,178 --> 00:02:45,539 nearly decimated an entire race. 24 00:02:45,539 --> 00:02:51,581 Today, less than 1,000 people live in the only village, Hangeroa. 25 00:02:51,581 --> 00:02:56,222 The island is owned by Chile and the official language is Spanish. 26 00:02:56,222 --> 00:03:01,543 But the faces of the people hold no clue to the origin of the first islanders. 27 00:03:01,543 --> 00:03:07,225 Over the years, the mix of Polynesian, South American, and European blood has blurred lines 28 00:03:07,225 --> 00:03:14,987 of ethnic purity. 29 00:03:14,987 --> 00:03:20,188 It was on Easter Island that mankind had one of its most curious ideas. 30 00:03:20,188 --> 00:03:23,629 No one knows who had it or why. 31 00:03:23,629 --> 00:03:29,111 But the inhabitants of that lonely island undertook what is perhaps one of the most amazing engineering 32 00:03:29,111 --> 00:03:31,712 projects of ancient time. 33 00:03:31,712 --> 00:03:34,912 They did not build pyramids or tombs. 34 00:03:34,912 --> 00:03:44,515 Instead, they carved colossal stone idols in the likeness of man. 35 00:03:44,515 --> 00:03:51,037 The stone figures of Easter Island are so massive, their size is difficult to grasp. 36 00:03:51,037 --> 00:03:55,758 Standing beside them, a person becomes as small as a fly spec. 37 00:03:55,758 --> 00:04:00,759 Statues range between 30 to 80 tons of solid volcanic rock. 38 00:04:00,759 --> 00:04:12,643 A small one is equal to the weight of 1,000 men and stands as tall as a two-story house. 39 00:04:12,643 --> 00:04:15,003 They cover the entire island. 40 00:04:15,003 --> 00:04:30,568 Each has a unique character, some morose and brooding, others almost comical. 41 00:04:30,568 --> 00:04:35,209 The mysteries that surround the giants begin with the question of why the islanders created 42 00:04:35,209 --> 00:04:38,730 so many of these enormous idols. 43 00:04:38,730 --> 00:04:44,251 It is as if their fear of life was so terrifying, they needed a multitude of gods to protect 44 00:04:44,251 --> 00:04:47,052 them. 45 00:04:47,052 --> 00:04:51,493 Even more mystifying is evidence that many statues appear to have been systematically 46 00:04:51,493 --> 00:04:57,215 massacred, some savagely decapitated and mutilated. 47 00:04:57,215 --> 00:05:00,456 A ritual murder seems to have taken place. 48 00:05:00,456 --> 00:05:13,139 No one knows who did it or why. 49 00:05:13,139 --> 00:05:20,061 The search for answers begins in the quarry, the crater of an extinct volcano, Rano Raraku, 50 00:05:20,061 --> 00:05:26,263 a dark and forbidding womb. 51 00:05:26,263 --> 00:05:30,824 There are enough questions here to intrigue an army of scientists and fill a bank of 52 00:05:30,824 --> 00:05:36,385 computers, but only a handful of men have pursued the quest. 53 00:05:36,385 --> 00:05:41,507 Foremost in the search is Dr. Edmundo Edwards, a Chilean archaeologist who has spent the 54 00:05:41,507 --> 00:05:49,109 last ten years probing the riddle of the statues. 55 00:05:49,109 --> 00:05:54,310 Five hundred years ago, the quarry rang with the blows of hammers and the rhythmic chanting 56 00:05:54,310 --> 00:05:59,312 of workers' chipping stone. 57 00:05:59,312 --> 00:06:13,716 Then, quite suddenly, work was abandoned. 58 00:06:13,716 --> 00:06:18,957 Half-finished forms are embedded in the side of the volcano, ranging from embryos to fully 59 00:06:18,957 --> 00:06:22,958 formed young gods. 60 00:06:22,958 --> 00:06:35,682 Some are difficult to discern because their contours have merged with the crater. 61 00:06:35,682 --> 00:06:41,083 Work was stopped so suddenly that the presence of the workers can still be felt. 62 00:06:41,083 --> 00:06:45,804 Tools lie in their place, undisturbed for centuries. 63 00:06:45,804 --> 00:06:52,366 Crude basalt chisels that were used to carve the expressive faces of the stone gods, where 64 00:06:52,366 --> 00:07:01,649 once the sound of a thousand hammers filled the air, now there is not even an echo. 65 00:07:01,649 --> 00:07:08,370 Once finished, all that remained was to sever the umbilical cord. 66 00:07:08,370 --> 00:07:14,252 An elaborate pulley system lowered the statues from the mouth of the volcano down the slope. 67 00:07:14,252 --> 00:07:21,494 Here the monoliths were free to begin their lumbering march to the sea. 68 00:07:21,494 --> 00:07:27,456 One legend has it that the stone gods were endowed with a supernatural power called mana, 69 00:07:27,456 --> 00:07:32,857 a power that enabled them to walk from the volcanic quarry to the sea. 70 00:07:32,857 --> 00:07:38,579 There they stopped, each in its place, and turned their backs to the sea so they could 71 00:07:38,579 --> 00:07:42,540 cast their mana over the land. 72 00:07:42,540 --> 00:07:45,981 The mana emanated through the eyes. 73 00:07:45,981 --> 00:07:55,463 The last ritual act of the carvers was to open the stone lids so the mana could escape. 74 00:07:55,463 --> 00:07:59,824 At one time, open-air temples lined the coast. 75 00:07:59,824 --> 00:08:14,708 Then all the statues with open eyes were smashed and desecrated. 76 00:08:14,708 --> 00:08:19,390 The work of restoring the monoliths has only recently begun. 77 00:08:19,390 --> 00:08:26,072 Mario Aravalo is a topographer and one of the prime movers in the restoration project. 78 00:08:26,072 --> 00:08:31,953 According to the most recent count, there are over 500 battered giants on the island, 79 00:08:31,953 --> 00:08:39,915 and many are in the final stages of degeneration. 80 00:08:39,915 --> 00:08:45,637 Mario and archaeologist Edmundo Edwards waged a desperate battle to stave off the effects 81 00:08:45,637 --> 00:08:47,677 of erosion. 82 00:08:47,677 --> 00:08:52,279 The work involves the painstaking process of plotting the position and alignment of each 83 00:08:52,279 --> 00:08:54,959 statue. 84 00:08:54,959 --> 00:09:00,161 So far, only 12 have been restored because there isn't enough manpower or machinery 85 00:09:00,161 --> 00:09:04,162 to save more. 86 00:09:04,162 --> 00:09:09,803 Somehow the statues were transported across 20 miles of rough terrain to the sea. 87 00:09:09,803 --> 00:09:15,485 No evidence remains of how the engineering feat was accomplished, but a primitive boat-rolling 88 00:09:15,485 --> 00:09:22,007 method still used by local fishermen provides a glimmering of how it was done. 89 00:09:22,007 --> 00:09:27,608 The theory holds that the statues were rolled over miles of wooden skids to the beach. 90 00:09:27,608 --> 00:09:33,650 If true, this is one of the earliest uses of rollers known to man. 91 00:09:33,650 --> 00:09:38,251 Not even the more technologically advanced Egyptians knew of this method when they moved 92 00:09:38,251 --> 00:09:41,332 the giant blocks for their pyramids. 93 00:09:41,332 --> 00:09:46,933 How did a people, isolated by thousands of miles of endless sea, develop an advanced 94 00:09:46,933 --> 00:10:02,938 engineering skill? 95 00:10:02,938 --> 00:10:07,739 The riddle of how the statues were moved has challenged many men to come up with a concrete 96 00:10:08,099 --> 00:10:09,900 solution. 97 00:10:09,900 --> 00:10:13,741 Diagrams illustrate what the ancient method might have been. 98 00:10:13,741 --> 00:10:19,662 For Roberto Forster, a local engineer, the theory of the giant rollers is not enough. 99 00:10:19,662 --> 00:10:23,383 He swears he can demonstrate a more practical method. 100 00:10:23,383 --> 00:10:32,386 He calls his invention the fulcrumista. 101 00:10:32,386 --> 00:10:37,507 As in the seesaw, the principle of the fulcrum is to exert the greatest possible leverage 102 00:10:37,507 --> 00:10:47,670 in the lifting of an object. 103 00:10:47,670 --> 00:10:53,952 In an experiment executed on a small scale, Roberto intends to move a five-ton stone to 104 00:10:53,952 --> 00:11:00,033 prove how a 50-ton giant might once have been transported. 105 00:11:00,033 --> 00:11:04,715 Roberto prevails on the mayor to gather a workforce for his project. 106 00:11:04,715 --> 00:11:08,636 He vows he will solve the ancient riddle once and for all. 107 00:11:08,636 --> 00:11:14,557 The mayor has doubts, but agrees. 108 00:11:14,557 --> 00:11:30,322 The experiment is scheduled for tomorrow morning. 109 00:11:30,322 --> 00:11:33,802 The experiment will be carried out on a small scale. 110 00:11:33,802 --> 00:11:41,805 A five-ton stone replacing the 50 odd tons of a monolith. 111 00:11:41,805 --> 00:11:47,046 On the appointed morning, a workforce gathers for the momentous test. 112 00:11:47,046 --> 00:11:53,008 Roberto's fulcrumista will either stand or fall. 113 00:11:53,008 --> 00:11:59,249 Edmundo, Mario, and even the mayor himself have joined in the effort to put to rest once 114 00:11:59,249 --> 00:12:28,057 and for all the question of how the statues were moved. 115 00:12:28,057 --> 00:12:46,222 A fiasco. 116 00:12:46,222 --> 00:12:50,783 Indeed if the attempts of modern man to solve these incredible engineering feats meet with 117 00:12:50,783 --> 00:12:55,705 failure, think of the ingenuity of the ancient carvers. 118 00:12:55,705 --> 00:13:00,266 One may well wonder if the peoples of those early times did not have gifts that have been 119 00:13:00,266 --> 00:13:02,467 lost to us. 120 00:13:02,467 --> 00:13:06,748 The secret remains locked behind stone faces. 121 00:13:06,748 --> 00:13:11,949 Faces that remind archaeologists of another face staring out over its mountain kingdom. 122 00:13:11,949 --> 00:13:17,471 The place is Tiawanaco, Bolivia, an ancient civilization built on oblique plateau in the 123 00:13:17,471 --> 00:13:19,991 Andes. 124 00:13:19,991 --> 00:13:26,713 Between gods separated by 4,000 miles and a span of at least as many years. 125 00:13:26,713 --> 00:13:31,114 There is no evidence that there was any contact between the two cultures. 126 00:13:31,114 --> 00:13:35,916 And yet, the features bear an uncanny resemblance. 127 00:13:35,916 --> 00:14:03,563 What common spirit might they have been invested? 128 00:14:03,563 --> 00:14:08,925 Perhaps one of the seven written tablets found on the island contain the answer. 129 00:14:08,925 --> 00:14:13,366 The pictographs are like those of no language known on earth. 130 00:14:13,366 --> 00:14:22,248 They have not been decoded, but anthropologists believe they tell a dark and bloody tale. 131 00:14:22,248 --> 00:14:40,453 There is evidence that long ago the island was torn by terrible civil strife with brother 132 00:14:40,453 --> 00:14:43,134 pitted against brother. 133 00:14:43,134 --> 00:14:47,855 The bones of hundreds of islanders have been found in caves that stretch from miles under 134 00:14:47,855 --> 00:14:50,296 the lava crust. 135 00:14:50,336 --> 00:14:52,776 What were the natives hiding from? 136 00:14:52,776 --> 00:14:55,257 Why were they slain? 137 00:14:55,257 --> 00:14:59,378 Edmundo ascribes it to overpopulation and starvation. 138 00:14:59,378 --> 00:15:05,420 He speculates that in mass frenzy, the strongest killed the weakest and survived by eating human 139 00:15:05,420 --> 00:15:06,420 flesh. 140 00:15:06,420 --> 00:15:32,587 The survivors set up the worship of a new god, the bird man, who dove on his prey from the 141 00:15:32,587 --> 00:15:34,948 sky. 142 00:15:34,948 --> 00:15:39,589 Folklore has it that on the first day of spring, the strongest men would swim through 143 00:15:39,589 --> 00:15:48,031 shark endangered waters to the tiny island that lies offshore. 144 00:15:48,031 --> 00:15:53,633 They would search the crags for the Manotara egg and swim back, carrying the prize in their 145 00:15:53,633 --> 00:15:55,233 mouths. 146 00:15:55,233 --> 00:16:07,197 The first man back was proclaimed king for one year. 147 00:16:07,197 --> 00:16:13,038 Perhaps the petroglyphs tell the story of the days that preceded the bird man cult. 148 00:16:13,038 --> 00:16:17,720 Archaeologists have labored since the glyphs were first discovered in 1922 to decipher 149 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:33,564 the meaning of the bizarre symbols. 150 00:16:33,564 --> 00:16:42,926 The chalk paint accentuates the designs but cannot unlock the meaning of the curious etchings. 151 00:16:42,926 --> 00:16:55,610 Only a tragic face remains as an emblem of past events. 152 00:16:55,610 --> 00:17:00,531 The strongest clues seem to lie in the myths and legends handed down by word of mouth over 153 00:17:00,531 --> 00:17:02,772 the centuries. 154 00:17:02,772 --> 00:17:14,495 Granita Guerra is a noted linguist who understands many tongues. 155 00:17:14,495 --> 00:17:19,536 The old woman begins to chant a tale about a war between the long years and the short 156 00:17:19,536 --> 00:17:33,980 years. 157 00:17:33,980 --> 00:17:39,262 Her story bears the epic ring of heroic battles and great conquests. 158 00:17:39,262 --> 00:17:42,383 It sounds like a tale out of ancient Greece. 159 00:17:42,383 --> 00:17:48,024 A great saga in which the short ears rose from enslavement and in a battle that rumbled 160 00:17:48,024 --> 00:18:07,709 like the quaking of the earth slew every man, woman and child who had long ears. 161 00:18:07,709 --> 00:18:21,033 The story is a tale about a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man 162 00:18:21,033 --> 00:18:33,997 who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who 163 00:18:33,997 --> 00:19:01,284 was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was 164 00:19:01,284 --> 00:19:28,571 a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man 165 00:19:29,092 --> 00:19:37,614 mythology with its strange symbols plays tricks on the imagination but it springs from real 166 00:19:37,614 --> 00:19:42,895 events that once occurred and there is little doubt that the events on Easter Island have 167 00:19:42,895 --> 00:19:46,756 been bloody and tragic. 168 00:19:46,756 --> 00:19:51,698 The tragedy was matched by the fate of the Islanders and provides a final clue to the 169 00:19:51,698 --> 00:19:55,459 Easter Island mystery. 170 00:19:55,459 --> 00:20:00,500 records that thousands of natives died under the guns of their conquerors and from the dread 171 00:20:00,500 --> 00:20:09,142 diseases brought with them. 172 00:20:09,142 --> 00:20:12,623 The endless waves of course have seen it all. 173 00:20:12,623 --> 00:20:18,745 They saw brave people put their hope and faith in mighty gods carved from stone, and they 174 00:20:18,745 --> 00:20:21,826 saw the failure of those gods to protect them. 175 00:20:22,506 --> 00:20:29,028 It was that failure that may have led to the massacre of the stone giants. 176 00:20:29,028 --> 00:20:35,069 On a remote speck of land in the South Seas, a great civilization flourished and died. 177 00:20:35,069 --> 00:20:39,871 The wide-scale destruction of the giants of Easter Island is symbolic of the tragic destiny 178 00:20:39,871 --> 00:20:40,871 of a people. 179 00:20:40,871 --> 00:20:44,832 It is also testament to the power of faith. 180 00:20:44,832 --> 00:20:50,194 A faith that motivated thousands of men to toil relentlessly on stone monoliths, and 181 00:20:50,194 --> 00:20:55,155 a faith so strong that when it was lost, it may have driven them to turn against their 182 00:20:55,155 --> 00:20:57,876 own gods with a terrible vengeance. 183 00:21:20,202 --> 00:21:44,208 Coming up next, in search of continues with an investigation into the disappearance of 184 00:21:44,208 --> 00:21:47,369 pioneers in the lost colony of Roano. 185 00:21:47,369 --> 00:21:51,930 In the late 20th century, with Mike Wallace reports on the impact of DNA fingerprinting 186 00:21:51,930 --> 00:21:57,132 and brings you an exclusive interview with O.J. Simpson trial attorney Peter Neufeld. 187 00:21:57,132 --> 00:22:01,733 And later tonight, Vanishing Act Week begins on History's Mysteries with an investigation 188 00:22:01,733 --> 00:22:05,414 into the disappearance of Teamster Kingpin Jimmy Hoffa. 189 00:22:05,414 --> 00:22:08,455 Date here on the History Channel, where the past comes alive.