A new Moai statue buried in a dry lake on Easter Island was recently discovered and sparked mystery among archaeologists and explorers working in the reserve, also called Rapa Nui.
The team of researchers who discovered the massive stone head believe there could be even more on the lake bed waiting to be found, after climate change caused it to dry up.
The Moai statue was discovered earlier this week, according to Ma’u Henua, a group tasked with overseeing the Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, national park.
“For the Rapa Nui people, this is a very, very important discovery,” Ma’u Henua Vice President Salvador Atan Hito told Good Morning America. “Because it’s here in the lake and no one knows that this exists, even the ancestors, our grandparents don’t know anything about this statue.”
The new Moai statue discovered on Easter Island
The sculpture is smaller than many of the nearly 1,000 statues made of solidified volcanic ash found throughout the island.
Said figures were transported across the island from their construction site by “unconfirmed means.” There are accounts from islanders that the statues “walked” or were “endowed with the power to walk in the dark.”
While this sounds absurd, there is a nice theory put forth in a 2013 article that the statues did in fact walk the island.
Why this particular moai was placed within the lake bed is unknown, but the discovery could mean it may not be the last statue found.
Also read:
· They find the remains of an Argentine adventurer in the stomach of a shark
85-year-old woman dies after defending her dog from an alligator in Florida
Video: Dog goes viral after fighting a hammerhead shark in the Bahamas