All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S06E19.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[suspenseful music]

- Tonight, a remote island

that's mystified
humanity for centuries.

Home to a thousand giants.

Among the great wonders
of the ancient world.

- They are very
strange, otherworldly,

and found nowhere else on earth.

- Like Stonehenge,

these statues are
instantly recognizable,

but what's more interesting
about Easter Island

are the secrets that
we have yet to unravel.

- But it's not just the statues

that are shrouded in mystery,

it's also the people who live
there known as the Rapa Nui.

- When Europeans get there,

they were just
sort of blown away.

Could this have been achieved

by the people that
are living there?

Doesn't seem possible.

- What continues to intrigue
people is the question why?

Why in the world
did they do this?

- Now, we'll explore
the top theories

surrounding the mysteries
of Easter Island.

- Some claim the Moai
are the embodiment

of people that have passed on.

- The Rapa Nui people
cut down too many trees,

and things began to spiral
out of control from there.

- Some say that the Rapa Nui
were fending off starvation

by eating the flesh
of other survivors.

- How and why were those
astounding Easter Island statues

first built?

How were they moved into place?

And what happened to the
people who made them?

[mysterious music]

[tense music]

April 5th, 1722, Easter Sunday,

Dutch explorers are sailing
across the South Pacific

in search of Australia, when
they spot land on the horizon.

- The ship's captain, this Dutch
explorer, Captain Roggeveen,

comes across this bit of
land in the South Pacific

and he realizes very quickly
that this is not Australia.

That this is much smaller.

It's only about 14 miles long.

Didn't even show up on the map.

- It's incredibly remote.

It's 2,200 miles off
the coast of Chile.

The next closest island
is Pitcairn Island,

which is 1,300 miles away.

It's like a speck in the
middle of the vast Pacific.

- Upon first glance,
he's thinking,

"Oh, it's just this
barren spit of land,"

but the crew of Roggeveen's ship

starts to notice smoke
rising from the island.

[waves roaring]

- [Laurence] Islanders
sail out on canoes

to greet the explorers.

- The captain writes about
these people in his logs.

He writes that they're
built very strong.

They're very friendly.

They have astonishingly
white teeth.

They've got these very
unique hairstyles.

Now the captain, he starts
to realize this island

is unlike anything that
he's ever encountered before

- Europeans were just sort of
blown away by what they saw.

They come there expecting
to find native people

maybe scrapping out a living,

and you're struck instantly
about how is this possible?

How could anyone have
made any of these statues,

much less hundreds of
them on such scale?

It doesn't seem possible.

- [Laurence] The
islanders called them Moai.

They're found nowhere
else in the Pacific

and nowhere else on earth.

- These 1,000 statues

that mostly are dotted
along the landscape

on the coastal regions,

basically represent
human figures.

- Most people often
talk about Easter Island

as having the heads
on the island.

That the islanders made these
heads and moved them as such.

The reality is that all
of the heads that we see

are parts of full statues
that have torsos, and arms,

and bellies, but those
parts are buried.

[mysterious music]

- There are a variety
of Moai out there.

Some that are very tiny.

Others that are almost
seven stories tall.

Their sizes, although they range

in how big and fat they are,

the more average size is
about 14 to 15 feet tall

and somewhere around 10
to 20 tons in weight.

- So, we have this contrast

between a place where we'd
expect to find nothing,

but to find some of the
most spectacular archaeology

in the world.

- In his logs, Captain Roggeveen
writes about these marvels

that are these statues.

He writes, quote,
"These stone figures

caused us to be
filled with wonder

for we could not understand
how it was possible

that people had been
able to erect them."

The Dutch explorers
sail off after a few days,

but they're left with a
lot of unanswered questions

about the island's inhabitants

and more specifically,
why they built

these incredibly
massive stone giants.

- I think that what
intrigues people

and what continues to intrigue
people is the question why?

Why in the world
did they do this?

- [Laurence] The answer
to that riddle

may lie deep within
the island's past.

- Native people who live
on the island today

don't call it Easter Island.

That's a name that
was given to them.

Their own island, now,
they call Rapa Nui.

It's also the name of the people

and the language
that people speak.

So, they are Rapa Nui people
speaking Rapa Nui on Rapa Nui.

- The more traditional name,

which goes back further in
time, is Te Pito o Te Henua,

which could be interpreted
as the center of the world

or the end of the world.

- [Laurence] Many
experts believe the island

was first settled by
ancient Polynesians,

master seafarers who
discovered the place

well over a thousand years ago.

Yet considering just
how remote it is,

how on earth did they
ever reach Rapa Nui?

- Oral tradition tells us
that the island's founder,

Hotu Matu'a lived on
an island called Hiva.

- [Laurence] Hive was
said to be located

in the Marquesas Islands,

about 2,300 miles
northwest of Rapa Nui.

[thunder rumbling]

- Hiva was going through some
type of natural disaster,

and Hotu Matu'a was very
worried for his people.

So, he convened his counsel

and one of the
individuals was Hau Maka

and Hau Maka goes
and has a sleep.

And as he closes his
eyes and falls asleep,

his soul leaves his body.

And his soul starts
flying over the ocean

and all of a sudden he
comes up to an island,

teeming with mammal species
around it and tons of trees,

and Hau Maka says, "This is
an island for our chief."

- While we have this
incredible legend,

some people believe that
they actually may have found

the island by accident.

And that this particular place

would've looked very different
to the ancient Polynesians

than it looks to us today.

- Upon discovery, Polynesians

would begin to transform
this natural environment

into a cultural or
agricultural environment

that would then
suit their needs.

- Rapa Nui people
had a great benefit.

Before they got to the island,

they were already
architects and engineers.

And as they get to the island

that has all this
amazing stone type

and it all comes together.

- [Laurence] Still,

much of the island's ancient
past is murky at best.

- Most of our knowledge
about the past,

about the Rapa Nui usually
come from oral traditions

that are passed
down, songs, dance,

and that's the reason why
it's difficult at times

using just that evidence
to understand the past.

- Whenever we see these types
of construction projects

that we know are
intergenerational

and are massive
on a social scale,

we have to ask the question,
what is the meaning?

- Clearly the scope,
the amount of work

that went into
making these statues

shows that they're important

and they're worth
our investigation.

Most would argue that Moai
represent deified ancestors

and the way that you
can honor your ancestors

is to build something outta
stone that'll last forever,

that'll stand there,
that will protect you.

[mysterious music]

- According to oral history,

the Moai are not just
representations

of the dead ancestors,

but it is also said that
those dead ancestors

might actually inhabit the Moai.

- [Laurence] When
Dutch explorers

first land on the island,
they note that the statues

seem to be wearing hats.

And they also observe
that the islanders

seem to pray to them.

- There is evidence
that many of these Moai

were originally either
painted or dusted red.

Red is considered
to be a sacred color

in the Polynesian culture.

- The eyes are very
important pieces.

They're recessed in
and the reason why

is 'cause they would
inlay pieces of coral

with either red scoria
or black obsidian,

and these would
give the ancestors

the [speaking in foreign
language] or the living face.

- The Rapa Nui believed
that the moment

that the white coral and
the black volcanic glass

is inserted into the
eye socket of the Moai,

it is in that moment that
the spirit of their ancestor

dwells in that stone.

- [Laurence] But of
the hundreds of Moai

on the island, only seven
look out to the sea.

- Some historians have
noted that some of the Moai

are facing towards
the Marquesas Islands,

which could be the homeland
of the island's inhabitants,

which are about
2,000 miles away.

The rest of the statues,
however, are facing inward.

- They're facing inward.

They're not facing
toward the sea.

So one might think,

"Oh, maybe they're there
to be sort of guardians

of the people to
ward off dangers

that might approach
from the sea."

And so, the conclusion

is more that they're there
not to ward off enemies,

but maybe to protect
or have a relationship

with the people on the island.

- [Laurence] The
Rapa Nui also believed

the Moai possess a
divine power called mana.

- According to the Rapa
Nui, the larger the Moai,

the more mana it possesses

and the more spiritual
power it has.

- While there is clearly
something spiritual

associated with the
Moai on Easter Island,

some scientists have speculated

that because of their
placement on the island,

there could be something
much more going on.

- [Laurence] It's been
more than 300 years

since Dutch explorers first
set foot on Easter Island,

but these towering Moai statues

continue to guard
their deepest secrets.

- Clearly, the Moai
have great significance

to the Rapa Nui people.

Why else would they have spent
valuable time and resources

carving over 1,000
of these figures?

Certainly, they mean something,

but historians have
yet to really unravel

what that true meaning is.

- One question that one can
ask when you go to the island

is why did people put Moai
in the places they did?

You don't find them
all across the island.

They're not the places
that would show off

what you've done in the
most obvious fashion.

So, it's kind of a puzzle

like why would they have done
it there and not other places?

- While we believe that Moai
serve a very sacred function,

they may have had a more
practical reason as well.

This includes demarking one
of the most important resources

on Rapa Nui, which is water.

[tense music]

- Rapa Nui is a volcanic island

made from these three
volcanoes that emerged.

It's very porous.
It's fractured rock.

It's ash and other
kinds of things.

In fact, even when it rains
today, it'll rain for hours.

And minutes later, the
surface will be dry.

Puddles will vanish
really quickly.

There's very few
sources of water

that are on the surface.

When rain falls onto the island,

it immediately goes
into the subsurface.

- [Laurence] To access
fresh water,

the Rapa Nui take advantage of
the island's unique geology.

- Rapa Nui is not
Fiji, for example,

or Hawaii, where it has
its own rivers, streams,

waterfalls, and so on.

Rapa Nui has water that's
rainwater basically,

stored in craters or
stored sometimes in caves.

- Early European
visitors thought

that the Rapa Nui
drank seawater.

They weren't drinking seawater.

They were actually drinking
fresh water at low tide.

- There's not a lot of
water sources on the island,

but one of the key ones would
be where water is seeping out.

After heavy rains, the
caves move the water through

to the coastal areas.

And once the
saltwater tide goes out,

the fresh water comes in.

And what the Rapa Nui did
was build these things

called [speaking in
foreign language] or wells.

And they would put
huge slabs of stone

to block the salty water to
let the fresh water fill it up,

and then they would use
all their bottle gourds

to fill up their water
that they would need.

- Easter Island has these
two large volcanic craters,

and when it rains,
these craters fill up

with all of this rain water.

The problem is that these
lakes are pretty far away

from where the island
inhabitants live,

so it's not possible
for all of them to go

and access fresh water
from these lakes.

- [Laurence] With fresh
water in short supply,

maybe the Rapa Nui found
a way to keep track

of this precious resource.

- Fresh water is very limited

and a key resource
for the communities,

so you have to
center your community

around those water places.

So when we compared
the presence of Moai

relative to the places where
fresh water is emerging,

overwhelmingly those
locations were tied

to freshwater sources.

- So, perhaps there is a
practical use for the Moai,

that not only were
they spiritual,

but they somehow marked
for the Rapa Nui people

where the water was located.

- [Laurence] 2022, wildfire
ravages Easter Island,

but from the ashes,
a new clue emerges.

- After the fire,
officials from the island

were inspecting areas of the
fire and what had happened.

In the dry lake bed,
they discover a new Moai.

- The Moai was found lying

on its side in the mud.

Now, this Moai was only
about five feet tall,

but this was a Moai

that was previously unknown.

Elders of the Rapa
Nui, they had no clue.

They had no recollection about
this five-foot-tall Moai.

- A statue where no one had
ever thought there was a statue,

that no one ever accounted,

no history of it ever being
mentioned by anyone's ancestor,

was suddenly found.

Sort of remarkable.

- For several hundred years,

the lake was thought
to be 10 feet deep,

and yet this five-foot-tall Moai

just appears at the
bottom of this lake.

So, was it intentionally
placed under water?

How was it moved
to this location?

Why would it be positioned
in this particular spot?

That becomes one of
the bigger questions

like what is the purpose
of this particular Moai

being found at the
bottom of this lake?

- While we've studied
the island in much detail

over the past 150 years
with lots of different crews

going there for lots
of different reasons,

there's a lot that we
simply don't know yet.

[mysterious music]

- [Laurence] For
hundreds of years,

researchers have been
trying to uncover

the secrets behind Easter
Island's iconic statues

and the people who built them.

- Some say that in order
to understand the legend

and the origin of the Moai, you
have to go back even further

and try to understand the
origin of the Rapa Nui

in the Marquesas Islands.

Legend has it that the
king of the Rapa Nui

is compelled to move his people
from the Marquesas Islands

to this new island
in the South Pacific

based on a wise man's dream.

[surf crashing]

But perhaps it is possible

that there are other
factors at play here.

Ones that go beyond the
scope of human imagination.

- There's a natural tendency
to wonder how the construction

and transport of these
statues is possible

given the basic technology
that consists of stone tools.

You look at these
things, you think,

"Well, how could such a
few small number of people

with such limited technology
possibly have crafted

these gigantic things
and moved them?"

- According to oral tradition,
the Moai were carved

by a highly skilled
group of artisans,

but some theorists suggest
that there had to be

a more advanced culture
involved in their creation.

[mysterious music]

- The idea that giant monuments

like the ones found on Easter
Island were built by aliens

is called the Ancient
Astronaut Theory.

It suggests that an
advanced race of beings

came from another planet
and is responsible

for building enormous
monuments around the world,

Great Pyramids, the Sphinx,
and other giant monuments.

- Ancient astronaut
theorists hold that aliens

are able to access earth
through interdimensional portals

that are connected to very
specific places on earth,

that is connected to an
electromagnetic activity

that's called a vile vortex.

- Easter Island
supposedly sits on top

of one of these vile vortices,

which allowed this
ancient race of aliens

to transport themselves
to this location

and to make contact
with the Rapa Nui,

construct these statues, and
then move them into place.

- What's really interesting

is that all over the
Marquesas Islands,

which is where those seven
outward-facing Moai are looking,

there are several figures
of their sky god Tiki,

who looks very alienesque.

And what's even more compelling

is that there is a very similar
figure on Easter Island.

- People who ascribe to this
Ancient Astronaut Theory

point to a central
and important figure

in Rapa Nui religious
culture, Make Make,

who is the supreme being.

He's the creative force.

There are rock carvings
all around Rapa Nui

known as petroglyphs
that depict Make Make

and his very distinctive
extra-human features,

such as a very large
beak-like nose.

- Some believers say that
these non-human features

are really proof that the
Rapa Nui had encountered

some alien civilization that
had a very advanced form

of engineering.

When we see these megalithic
structures all over the planet,

you have to wonder how did
an ancient civilization

using only primitive
tools even pull it off?

- Naysayers will argue

that this is actually
a civilization

that are also very
skilled engineers,

and they do indeed have the
imagination, have the tools,

have the ability to create
these gigantic works of art.

But others still maintain

that only a highly
advanced civilization

could be responsible
for creating

these very intricately
designed, gigantic statues,

perhaps in their own image.

- [Laurence] Whatever
the Moai's purpose,

there's another question
that perplexes researchers

to this day.

How on earth were
these colossal statues,

some weighing nearly 200
tons, moved into place?

- These massive
Moai, many of them

multi-ton rock
figures were moved

as far as 10, 12 miles

depending on the
route they took.

This is absolutely phenomenal

that these massive
colossal statues

were moved to every
part of the island.

- [Laurence] Legend has
it what made the Moai move

was the chief's
spiritual energy or mana.

- Oral traditions do
suggest that the Moai

could have been commanded
to move by the chief

from their original place of
creation within this quarry

all the way across the island

to their final resting place.

- Visitors in the past
have asked the Islanders,

"How did your ancestors
move these giant Moai?"

And the answer is very
simple, "They walked."

The islanders even have a song

that recounts the story of
a chief named Tuu Ku Ihu,

and in the song he knows
how to make the Moai walk.

- In fact, there's a
word for a walking statue

called [speaking in
foreign language],

which is walking without
bending your legs.

[mysterious music]

- The oral tradition says
the Moai are walking.

They're not on their
back or on their stomach.

They have to be up and moving.

So now, this is in the '80s.

This idea of how
the statues moved

really starts to dominate
the archaeological community.

Everyone wants to try
to figure this out.

- Pavel Pavel, a Czech engineer,

was really intrigued
by this idea

that they could have been
moved in a standing position.

And built some replicas
in Czechoslovakia

and showed that it was possible

for a statute to be moved
in an upright fashion.

And he also replicated
that experiment

on the island in the 1980s

where he took a an actual
statue in an upright position

and by a series of ropes,
rotated it back and forth,

sort of swivel fashion and he
could make it move forward.

His approach was
much like the way

in which many people
move a refrigerator

from one side of a
kitchen to another,

sort of tipping it back and
forth and shuffling it along.

- And the statue was
moved in this way

over flat ground and
a slight incline,

and he was able to do it rather
well for short distances.

- [Laurence] But the Rapa Nui

had a much more
difficult path to tread,

upwards of 12 miles
over challenging terrain.

- One thing that
I find fascinating

was the creation of the
[speaking in foreign language],

which translates
to the Moai road.

It almost looks like a
spider web leaving the quarry

with all of these
individual roads,

where most likely
the land was leveled

and rocks were put on
the side of these roads.

- You can imagine going along,

pulling one of these
massive structures

on a system of ropes,

and you could see almost
in your mind's eye

a figure walking.

But Pavel's experiment was
conducted on a flat surface,

which did not account for the
very rough and rugged terrain

between the quarry and
their ultimate destination

on the island.

- Many places of the Moai
roads, it's undulating.

It goes up and down.

You can't walk a
Moai going downhill.

You'd have to switch
your strategy.

- From looking at construction
methods that are used

by other ancient civilizations
around the world,

there is certainly
more than one way

to move a giant piece of stone.

- Easter Island's
colossal Moai statues

have been an enigma since
the day European explorers

first laid eyes on them
more than 300 years ago.

Researchers have spent years

on this remote Polynesian island

trying to understand
what the Moai meant

to the people who created them.

But an even more
intriguing mystery

is how the Rapa Nui people moved
these statues into position.

Some believe the answer can
be found not on Easter Island,

but halfway across the
world at Stonehenge.

[suspenseful music]

- Stonehenge is this
incredible ancient structure

that was created
around 5,000 years ago.

You've got a hundred stones,

some of which are 30 feet
tall and weigh about 45 tons,

very similar to the Moai
statues on Easter Island.

- So, how did the
builders of Stonehenge

move these giant stones?

A group of researchers in 2016

believe that they may
have cracked the code.

- What this study found is
that it's relatively easy

to transport stones
even that size

on this sledge system

that can be moved very rapidly.

You move about 10
feet in five seconds.

[mysterious music]

- On the Polynesian
Island of Tonga,

there's this massive
stone structure

that is similar to the
trilithon at Stonehenge,

- Ha'amonga 'a Maui
is made of coral slabs

that are tons and
tons of weight.

And these Polynesian folks,

we know they're already
moving large stone.

- Unlike the Rapa
Nui of Easter Island,

the Tongans preserved a
pretty detailed record

as to how they moved all
these coral slabs into place.

And what we discover
is this was done

through an ingenious mix
of a sledge and rollers.

- [Laurence] Despite
their islands

being thousands of miles away,

one historian believes
this information

could unlock the mystery
of how the Moai were moved.

- In 1998, Dr. Jo
Anne Van Tilburg,

who's the head of the Easter
Island Statue Project,

she decides that she's going
to test out this Tongan method

of using a sledge and rollers

on a 10-ton concrete
replica of a Moai.

- Van Tilburg is very clever.

She realized that
the same techniques

that they were
moving statues with

were the same techniques
they were using

to move their large canoes.

- The canoe ladder
concept came up,

and that is basically a ladder

that you can slide
an object up and down

over great heights sometimes.

So we attached the
statue to a canoe ladder

and we set it on the rollers

that were attached to the frame.

I was standing at the
top of the platform

and they were moving the
statue on this platform,

on this frame that we
had made so fast up there

that I had to jump off
'cause I was afraid

I was gonna get run over.

It worked like a
charm. It was fabulous.

It worked on inclines. It
worked across flat surfaces.

It just worked.

Now, would it worked with
a statue double that size?

I don't know.

We haven't tried it,
but I bet it would.

- Van Tilburg's work
ultimately shows us

that a small group, maybe 50
to a hundred Rapa Nui men,

could move a statue,
we'll say, 10 miles

in less than a month.

That's not that
hard. That's doable.

And there's probably
other techniques

that even made it easier.

- [Laurence] But skeptics point

to a number of problems
with this theory.

- It's possible that
15,000 trees were needed

to move a thousand Moai.

- When Easter
Island was settled,

we know that there was
a vast forest there

with trees perhaps
as tall as 90 feet.

And the question then becomes
as the civilization progresses

and they move into agriculture

and trees begin to be felled
for the cultivation of fields,

would there have
been enough lumber

for a system of
movement like this?

- [Laurence] The amount
of manpower needed

to build the tracks and
move the Moai into position

is also in question.

- Some studies show to move
a statue with your team,

you may need an extra 200,000
calories per group per day.

So, you can imagine then
another job of that chief

is to make sure he has
enough calories and resources

for his movers, and
carvers, and specialists.

- Regardless of
their transportation

to their final location,
we know that this process

would've created a hardship
for the Rapa Nui people,

and we have to ask
ourselves the question,

what kind of sacrifices
might have to be made

by the Rapa Nui people to
make this project possible?

- [Laurence] When
the Rapa Nui people

first settled Easter
Island many centuries ago,

they built a thriving
civilization.

But by the late 1800s,
their tropical paradise

has become unrecognizable.

- We have surviving accounts
from 19th century explorers

describing the devastation
on Easter Island.

- The population is dying out.

The island and the Moai
are essentially abandoned.

- The trees are all gone.

The quarries are full of
half-finished statues.

It is clear that something
catastrophic happened.

- [Laurence] Many
fascinating questions

about this mysterious
island remain.

Perhaps the most
puzzling of all,

what happened to the people?

[mysterious music]

- At the peak of
Rapa Nui success,

somewhere by the
1400s to the 1500s,

there were no fewer
than 12,000 people

living on Easter Island.

Other estimates go to
17,000 and maybe 25,000.

- We see maybe 200 years later,

there's maybe 3,000, 2,000
people on the island.

In 1877, a Chilean
anthropologist

does an inventory and counts
111 people living on Rapa Nui.

[mysterious music]

- Easter Island
should be a paradise.

But by the late 19th century,

it is rocky and barren.

And the Moai have
been toppled over

and the Rapa Nui themselves are
living inside of lava tubes.

- The Rapa Nui created

some of the most significant
cultural art of any age.

Could that creation
have actually sown

the seeds of their own demise?

[tense dark music]

It's worth remembering that
Easter Island is very isolated.

They are consuming
the resources

that are available to
them only on that island.

There are no supply
ships coming in.

There are no extra
resources being produced.

So once those
resources are depleted,

there's going to be a definite
impact on that civilization.

- [Laurence] Many
experts suspect

that for the Rapa Nui
cutting down so many trees

to transport the Moai
proved catastrophic.

- By cutting down trees
faster than they regrow

means eventually you're not
gonna have any trees left on it.

And then as you
cut down the trees,

you lose soil productivity,

leading to famine
and the lack of food.

- And if you don't have
trees, then the Rapa Nui

cannot create the sort of larger
canoes to go out and fish.

And all of this would
become stressors.

- There's no place
for birds to nest.

There's no shade for plants
that grow in the shade

and there's no wood for
basic human needs like fires.

- 2005, Jared Diamond
publishes the book "Collapse,"

which builds on a claim
that as populations

continued to grow, eventually
they reached a tipping point

where the island could no
longer support their people.

[mysterious music]

- The fact that the
Rapa Nui believed

that the Moai contained the
spirits of their ancestors,

and then you see this
abandonment of the Moai,

that they're toppled
and basically left,

shows the shift in their
priority of the civilization,

that they're looking more
towards basic survival,

than they are the most
important cultural artifact

they left the world with.

- [Laurence] And
as historians discover,

things go from bad to worse.

- Some archaeologists point
to a layer of subsoil,

which has spear points
in it that indicate

a sign of warfare.

But if you take a look at
the Rapa Nui oral history,

it points to an
even darker story,

which is that the Rapa Nui
were fending off starvation

by eating the flesh
of other survivors.

- [Laurence] There
is a documented history

of cannibalism in
Polynesian culture.

- We see stories and taunts.

If you wanna really
insult someone, you say,

"Ah, I'll have the meat of
your mother between my teeth

and I'll clean it out."

Other stories will say,

"Ha, I'm gonna use your
femur as a fish hook,

so I can catch fish using you."

So this idea of cannibalism,

it's imbued in
Polynesian cultures.

- The oral history suggests

that the inhabitants
of Easter Island

really did whatever they
had to do to survive,

even as the island
itself started to die.

- [Laurence] But
not everyone agrees

with this Collapse Theory.

- The idea that the Rapa Nui
civilization imploded on itself

is compelling, but
it's also contested.

Considering that by the time
Europeans arrived to the island

in 1722, we have
records that show

that the Rapa Nui are still
building the Moai at that time.

- Whatever happened to
the Rapa Nui at this time,

it didn't look
like it was fatal.

[tense music]

- [Laurence] The
people of Easter Island

were once members of a thriving
society, capable of creating

some of the most iconic
statues on earth.

Then something
horrible happened,

decimating the population until

there were little more
than a hundred people left

and we still aren't sure why.

- One theory is that the
Rapa Nui started cutting down

way too many trees
on the island,

and that's what
caused so many things

to start spiraling
out of control.

But there's another
idea that suggests

that it wasn't the
cutting down of trees,

but something much
smaller and more invasive

that brought the Rapa
Nui to its knees.

[mysterious music]

- When the Rapa Nui
came to Easter Island,

we don't know
exactly when or how,

but the Polynesian
rat came with them.

- In most settings,
rats weren't stowaways.

They were actually
brought on board

for a variety of reasons.

One, you can eat them.

But one of the key things
about rats is using their meat

and their tails for
fishing, very important.

That rotation of a
rat tail in the water

brings the fish to attack.

- Rapa Nui would've
been a haven for rats.

And besides humans,

the rats have no natural
predators on the island.

- On an island with abundant
food in the palm nuts,

rats can double their
population every 47 days.

That means that within
about three years,

you would have tens
of millions of rats.

- There is evidence
that the Rapa Nui

were actually trying to
plant new trees and reforest,

but they're waging war against
a growing rat population

making that very difficult.

- So, the combination of
people chopping trees down

for crops combined with
rats impacting the nuts,

likely meant the demise
of the palm forest

over the period of
pre-contact time.

- [Laurence] Now,
new evidence suggests

a different timeline for
the population's downfall.

- There is a study in 2020

where they sampled radiocarbon

from the 11 sites
on Easter Island

and found that the
Rapa Nui continued

to make Moai 150 years

after it was previously
believed they had stopped.

[mysterious music]

- [Laurence] Early explorers
were filled with awe

when they first set eyes
on those stone sentinels,

but perhaps it was
the European's arrival

that actually triggered the
downfall of the Rapa Nui.

- The Viceroy of Peru
sent two Spanish ships

to Easter Island in 1770,

the Santa Rosalia
and the San Lorenzo,

and essentially claimed
Easter Island for Spain.

- So after the
Spanish came and went,

Rapa Nui was rather well known
on the maps and the charts.

Some of the ships would
stay for a day or two,

and the Rapa Nui people
saw and encountered

quite a large number
of ships from then on.

- The Rapa Nui didn't
know it at the time,

but the increasing
number of European men

arriving at the island
brings with it something

that the Rapa Nui had
never encountered before

and something that they
have no defense against.

[dark tense music]

- With the arrival
of the Europeans,

we see the introduction
of multiple diseases,

smallpox especially, and that
really decimates the culture.

- [Laurence] And that's not

the only terrible tragedy
the Rapa Nui faced.

- After the Europeans
in the 1700s,

we see the whalers
come to Rapa Nui.

And one of the things
that the whalers

were also looking to do is
something called blackbirding.

It's basically taking slaves.

They would go to the beach.

They'd put a silk sheet down.

They'd put a variety
of artifacts.

And when the Rapa Nui
people went to gather them,

they'd hit 'em over the
head, they'd enchain them,

and they would throw
them inside the boats.

And they would bring them
all throughout the Pacific

to work the sugar cane fields.

[mysterious music]

- By 1862, these slave traders

capture probably more
than a thousand islanders

and take them away.

By 1877, there were
only 111 Rapa Nui left

as survivors on the island.

- To have seen these people

create a civilization
of such magnitude

and such spectacular
accomplishment,

to see that deteriorate
and disintegrate

over just 1,500 years,

the story of Easter
Island and the Rapa Nui

is a real tragedy.

- [Laurence] Others find hope

in the Rapa Nui's
resilience and creativity.

- They were able to
organize themselves

and invest in interacting ways
that made them sustainable,

despite the fact they dealt
with limited resources

and incredible
shortfalls, challenges,

that they had to go through.

It's a really remarkable
case of survival

that I think we have a
lot more to learn from.

- Easter Island's colossal Moai

stand as silent sentinels,

guarding mysteries
as impenetrable

as the volcanic rock from
which they were carved.

Nearly 300 years after
Europeans first set foot here,

the world is still trying
to solve the riddle

of these enigmatic giants and
the people who built them.

But as rising sea levels,
fire, and torrential rains

continue to threaten
the island and its Moai,

many fear its secrets
may never be known.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."

[mysterious music]