(so the statues are likely not thousands of years old as some also believe. ) these statues were designed to represent the ancestors. My guess is just that images at some point surfaced of the excavations at easter island. Upon excavating, they discover that the moai statue does not just consist of a head but has an entire “full body” connected to it! · yes — the famous “ easter island heads ” (moai) are not just heads : That’s a really good question. First, consider that these moai were first built over the span of a few hundred years. For decades, the global image of rapa nui — easter island — has been reduced to giant stone heads rising from the earth, as if the moai were incomplete sculptures missing their bodies. · what you may not have known is that those easter island heads actually have hidden buried bodies. Archaeologists have uncovered the bodies associated with the heads and found interesting. (but breathe easy: See full list on uponarriving. com There is some debate as to when exactly these were created but they were generally thought to be createdbetween 1,100 and 1,650 ad. The bodies , like the heads , are made out of stone. ) So where did this idea come from that society was all of a sudden shocked by the existence of a full body moai? Since so few people have actually visited the island or seen the standing moai on ahus (which were not restored until. However, this question is often accompanied by a narrative suggesting that this knowledge was gained by some type of major (recent) discovery when in fact it would have always been known to anyone familiar with the island or even just someone casually visiting. Some team of excavators arrive on easter island one day (in recent memory) and decide to dig up the ground surrounding a moai statue. There is this narrative that exists that goes something like this. · this post will dig into the truth behind these buried giants, explaining exactly why these world-famous heads have bodies and how they got buried in the first place. Most moai are full-bodied carved figures whose lower portions have in many cases been buried by centuries of sediment and erosion, a fact recognized by archaeologists since early 20th‑century digs and confirmed by modern excavations and documentation [1] [2] [3]. Let me explain below. · adding to the rich legacy of easter island , archaeologists have uncovered full bodies underneath each structure. Yes, the easter island heads have bodies.