Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Easter Island heads have bodies

seeker401.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 92 posts

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#41

Post by tripzilch »

Of course they have bodies! How is this news to anyone? A good part of these statues are well above ground including their bodies, and we've known the sunken ones have bodies below the ground for several decades already.

They've been excavating these statues for quite a while already.

Here, go read the Wikipedia article on Moai, it's way more interesting than this article (which is just a copy of the first few paragraphs of http://www.eisp.org/3879/ with the commentary "wild stuff" added):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai

Now excuse me while I go submit an article about the Great Pyramids having five sides. Yes mind=blown, I know.

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#42

Post by GeneTraylor »

spindritf wrote: post #37
GeneTraylor wrote: post #26

Whenever I see an easter island head, I can't help but draw parallels between our global civilization and theirs. The eastern islanders consisted of around a dozen tribes, each competing for resources with others. It's thought that all of these statues were put up in a race by chieftains, competing with one another to put up the biggest, most refined and the best statue. I wouldn't be surprised if they competed in th…

That's a really captivating story with a strong message but it's far from obvious whether it happened, and whether it happened like you describe: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-... Especially the claims of cannibalism seem a little far fetched.

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I read a detailed discussion somewhere about how they analyzed burial pits and found large amounts of cuts as if the flesh had been flayed and so on. Apparently they did detailed DNA analysis and even found human bone fragments in waste pits.

I can't seem to find that discussion online right now. However I did find a rebuttal by Jared Diamond on the same site to this argument;

http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-...

On a side note I think that it is uncomfortable for us to think about the demise of everything we cherish in this way, and that's why we tend to shy away from discussing this more openly and rigorously.

It's interesting to see how the blog post I cited ended with the same note;

>>>The islanders did inadvertently destroy the environmental underpinnings of their society. They did so, not because they were especially evil or deprived of foresight, but because they were ordinary people, living in a fragile environment, and subject to the usual human problems of clashes between group interests, clashes between individual and group interests, selfishness, and limited ability to predict the future. Does that remind you of any problems that we ourselves face today? That’s why we find Easter’s story so gripping, and why it may offer us lessons. You’ll find good coverage in Bahn’s and Flenley’s new book.<<<

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#43

Post by ibisum »

lukifer wrote: post #34
ibisum wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the book "Behold!! The Protong!" and you'll get an even more intriguing explanation. These statues are a WARNING TO THE FUTURE that the great CATACLYSM, which comes in cycles, will HAPPEN AGAIN. Below the ground-line (which represents the flood survivors emerging from the murk) these statues are holding the "Bi" - an iconic feature representative of the grand CATACLYSM where the balance of water is tipped, and w…

Setting aside the outlandish CONJECTURE which is the CONTENT of your post, the arbitrary SHOUTING does not aid your CREDIBILITY.

I would have thought quoting SZUKALSKI alone would have set that off, but okay .. not that I'm a huge fan of Zermatism (a subject I would have thought at least a few hackernews visitors might be familiar with) but the ideas of SZUKALSKI are intriguing from the perspective of being able to look outside the box. There is scientific analytical thought, and then there is artistic motive desire, and if you apply both to the same subject you often get surprising results.

In my opinion, the idea of Protong-as-a-warning has quite a bit of validity, if only intelligent minds weren't so easily dissuaded from looking outside their own little boxes now and then ...

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#44

Post by GeneTraylor »

rsanheim wrote: post #31
GeneTraylor wrote: post #26

Whenever I see an easter island head, I can't help but draw parallels between our global civilization and theirs. The eastern islanders consisted of around a dozen tribes, each competing for resources with others. It's thought that all of these statues were put up in a race by chieftains, competing with one another to put up the biggest, most refined and the best statue. I wouldn't be surprised if they competed in th…

Yes. Read _Collapse_.

Now I certainly plan to. Thank you.

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#45

Post by gedejong »

Anti-Ratfish wrote: post #8
alexwolfe wrote: post #7

This is one of the most amazing discoveries I have seen recently. The sheer weight of that stone is absolutely insane. I'm still a little stunned this was just discovered. I would love to know what the people who made this were thinking. To create a work of art that detailed and massive just to bury 75% of it seems very odd. I'm sure there was a good reason to do it (in their minds at least), I'd love to know what th…

Making stuff and burying it is very common in archeology according to my (limited) knowledge. Chucking stuff as offerings into springs, holes etc as offerings. Burin it with dead people (anyone under that stone is now 2 dimensional). But I do agree that this seems odd - half burying...

Guess it could be a case of bad foundation, causing it to slowly sink into the ground over many years. Judging the type of ground of the excavation site at the photo, it seems to contain a rather high amount of clay, which is a terrible foundation.

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#46

Post by cultureulterior »

lukifer wrote: post #34
ibisum wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the book "Behold!! The Protong!" and you'll get an even more intriguing explanation. These statues are a WARNING TO THE FUTURE that the great CATACLYSM, which comes in cycles, will HAPPEN AGAIN. Below the ground-line (which represents the flood survivors emerging from the murk) these statues are holding the "Bi" - an iconic feature representative of the grand CATACLYSM where the balance of water is tipped, and w…

Setting aside the outlandish CONJECTURE which is the CONTENT of your post, the arbitrary SHOUTING does not aid your CREDIBILITY.

UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS.

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#47

Post by ComputerGuru »

mushishi wrote: post #19
ComputerGuru wrote: post #3

This blew my mind. I don't know why, I find it incredibly eye-opening that the first thought that one might think of on seeing a head in the dirt (that there's the rest of it underneath) has just simply never occurred to generations of people because we were "told" by someone that they're just heads. How powerful words can be in casting an illusion, in defeating creativity, and hiding the truth!

Without knowing about the subject, I am curious to know, do you seriously think that [it] "has just simply never occurred to generations of people"...? A lack of physical investigation is not enough to conclude such a thing.

Typically, excavation of ancient peoples' objects has been a very high-priority thing for most people - there's generally a lot of pressure to uncover these artifacts and get a "better understanding" as its usually while in reality being just a big curiosity and a huge source of entertainment.

Just look at the billion dollar business in ancient Egyptian artifacts and momenta, and the attention that new finds in the Nile bring.... and before you say that's not necessarily comparable - look at the at least millions of dollars tourist budget the Easter Island heads have generated each year.

People just LOVE to talk/gossip/guess/BS about past civilizations, and I'd seriously imagine the only reason no one has bothered to dig up a head is simply because no one believed there was anything more to it than a head.

Then there's the fact that we very much call them "heads" - doesn't that speak volumes for the fact that we don't think they have bodies? I also believe there are a number of theories floating around about why the ancients only made heads and not whole bodies (which is absolutely laughable right now).

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#48

Post by netcan »

gbog wrote: post #27
GeneTraylor wrote: post #26

Whenever I see an easter island head, I can't help but draw parallels between our global civilization and theirs. The eastern islanders consisted of around a dozen tribes, each competing for resources with others. It's thought that all of these statues were put up in a race by chieftains, competing with one another to put up the biggest, most refined and the best statue. I wouldn't be surprised if they competed in th…

Ok, nice prose of your, but the tiny blue ball thing is bullshit. Any plane on window seat will show you that the Earth is enormous and empty for most it's parts, even in China. Don't think I advocate more cars and buildings. It's just that the tiny crowded ball argument is wrong, and dangerous, as it can be used to build a nasty antihumanism.

Population growth has some worrying trends if you start thinking in historical time frames. If we continue to grow as is, until we reach some sort of natural barrier we double the population ever 50-60 years. What will the world look like with 25bn (100yrs) or 100bn (200yrs)? What will it look like @ 1 trillion (say 300- 400 yrs)? Somehwere between 50 & 500 years from now we may know the limit. That's not that long in historical terms and it will probably be a recognizable world. Most of the same countries & cultures will probably still exist. Elvis might still be popular.

If growth does stop what will stop it? Culture (ie middle class western Europe) or something "natural" like famine?

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#49

Post by spindritf »

GeneTraylor wrote: post #42
spindritf wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really captivating story with a strong message but it's far from obvious whether it happened, and whether it happened like you describe: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-... Especially the claims of cannibalism seem a little far fetched.

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I read a detailed discussion somewhere about how they analyzed burial pits and found large amounts of cuts as if the flesh had been flayed and so on. Apparently they did detailed DNA analysis and even found human bone fragments in waste pits. I can't seem to find that discussion online right now. However I did find a rebuttal by Jared Diamond on the same site to this argument; http://ww…

That's the response from Jared Diamond who wrote a book (mentioned in the comments below: "Collapse") with pretty much the same story as yours, of course it will end with a similar conclusion.

Re: Easter Island heads have bodies

#50

Post by timf »

clemesha wrote: post #28
lurch00 wrote: post #11

This still a tech news aggregator? This is something that should be on reddit, not hacker news...?

Totally agreed. Come to lamernews.com.

This story is also of interest to the 'classic' HN votes, so it's not like one can argue HN "has changed": http://news.ycombinator.com/classic

Snippet-stuff that makes you rethink something has always been a part of HN. (That said, I prefer it to be a majority of tech stuff myself and usually only submit tech stuff: http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=timf )

Post reply on HN