Monday! I don't know how I missed this story originally...
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
We have split up the publishing duties, but we welcome everyone in IAN to do daily diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
Ok, we have a current diary schedule. If you would like to fill in, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMom a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FSNMom is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday: BadKitties
Tuesday: bigjacbigjacbigjac
Wednesday: Caedy
Thursday: weck
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:broths
Sunday: loggersbrat
If you'd like to be part of the Itzl Alert Network, please leave a comment asking to join, or send us a message asking to join. We'd love to have you. The bigger our network, the less likely someone will be stranded all alone.
The well-known picture of the Moai
The enormous stone heads on Easter Island have been absolutely iconic. But now it turns out that they were literally only part of the mystery!
During the excavation
The enduring image in the public's mind of the mysterious heads on Easter Island is simply that - heads.
So it comes as quite a shock to see the heads from another angle - and discover that they have full bodies, extending down many, many feet into the ground of the island.
The Easter Island Statue Project has been carefully excavating two of 1,000-plus statues on the islands - doing their best to uncover the secrets of the mysterious stones, and the people who built them.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
Another Moai
Hoax-slayer
The statues, called Moai, are centuries old. When the excavations began, petroglyphs carved onto the statues were revealed. Many were in the shape of canoes. And there were human remains, too.
Close-up of petroglyphs
Between the two statues, the diggers also uncovered evidence of the technology that was used to move the large statues upright — one of the statues Van Tilburg worked on stood 21 feet (about two stories ) tall.
-snip-"We found a round, deep post hole into which the Rapa Nui had inserted a tree trunk," she said. Van Tilburg said ropes were attached to the tree trunk and to the partially carved statue. "We found a rope guide that was actually carved into the bedrock near the statue." The Rapa Nui then used the tree trunk to raise the statue upright. Before the statue was upright, they carved its front. Once it stood erect, they finished the back, Van Tilburg explained.
The excavation team also found about 800 grams of natural red pigment — nearly two pounds — in the burial hole, along with a human burial. Van Tilburg believes the pigment was used to paint the statues, just as the Rapa Nui used pigment to paint their bodies for certain ceremonies. The unusually large amount of pigment found indicates that it might have been used by a priest or chief, perhaps as part of mortuary practice, she said. Human bones were found throughout the dig, indicating that people buried their dead around the statues.
Link
Even more astonishing, it turns out that Thor Heyerdal wrote a book in which he wrote about his expedition to the island in the 1950's. The book was published in 1989. I have no idea why this information wasn't widely disseminated. Recent articles that I read while researching said that the bodies (which are actually torsos; none have legs as far as I know) say that the bodies were discovered in 2011. (But that is incorrect...)
Standing some 2,000 miles west of Chile, on the Easter Island, 887 mysterious giant statues have intrigued scientists and the public for years.
For a long time it was believed that the massive statutes consisted of just the heads.
However, in October 2011, when the Easter Island Statue Project began its Season V expedition, scientists could reveal remarkable photos showing that the bodies of the statues go far deeper underground than just about anyone had imagined.
Source
A picture from Thor Heyerdahl's book, "Easter Island: The Mystery Solved"
But wait, there's MORE! The more I read, the more I find:
"The reason people think they are [only] heads is there are about 150 statues buried up to the shoulders on the slope of a volcano, and these are the most famous, most beautiful and most photographed of all the Easter Island statues," Van Tilburg, who is also a fellow at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Life's Little Mysteries. "This suggested to people who had not seen photos of [other unearthed statues on the island] that they are heads only."
In fact, archaeologists have studied the statues on the island for about a century, and have been aware of the torsos beneath the statues' heads since the earliest excavations in 1914. [The Most Monumental Monument Mistakes]
The statues, whose traditional name is "moai," were carved from volcanic rock between A.D. 1100 and 1500 by ancient Polynesians. They range in size, with the tallest reaching 33 feet (10 meters). Although their significance is still somewhat of a mystery, the moai are thought to have been representations of the indigenous peoples' ancestors. Tribespeople would probably have carved a new statue each time an important tribal figure passed away, Van Tilburg said.
LiveScience
National Geographic explains how the statues were moved from the quarry where they were carved to their final spots. However, the descendants of the original carvers have a different explanation:
Meanwhile, for many of Easter Island's 2,000 or so indigenous Rapanui, descended from the original Polynesian settlers, the answer is simple. "We know the truth," says Suri Tuki, 25, a tour guide. "The statues walked."
For more information:
Easter Island Statue Project
In conclusion, I learned more than I thought that I would =) But not why the statues don't have legs. It seems that centuries of erosion are responsible for the torsos being underground. Hope that everyone has a good Monday!