The Statues That Walked
Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
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By:
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Terry Hunt
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Carl Lipo
About this listen
The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?
No such astonishing numbers of massive statues are found anywhere else in the Pacific. How could the islanders possibly have moved so many multi-ton monoliths from the quarry inland, where they were carved, to their posts along the coastline? And most intriguing and vexing of all, if the island once boasted a culture developed and sophisticated enough to have produced such marvelous edifices, what happened to that culture? Why was the island the Europeans encountered a sparsely populated wasteland?
The prevailing accounts of the island’s history tell a story of self-inflicted devastation: a glaring case of eco-suicide. The island was dominated by a powerful chiefdom that promulgated a cult of statue making, exercising a ruthless hold on the island’s people and rapaciously destroying the environment, cutting down a lush palm forest that once blanketed the island in order to construct contraptions for moving more and more statues, which grew larger and larger. As the population swelled in order to sustain the statue cult, growing well beyond the island’s agricultural capacity, a vicious cycle of warfare broke out between opposing groups, and the culture ultimately suffered a dramatic collapse.
When Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo began carrying out archaeological studies on the island in 2001, they fully expected to find evidence supporting these accounts. Instead, revelation after revelation uncovered a very different truth.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2011 Terry Hunt and Carl Weber (P)2011 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In ancient, pre-literate cultures across the globe, tribal elders had encyclopedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across a landscape, identify the stars in the sky, and recite the history of their people. Yet today, most of us struggle to memorize more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian song lines as a starting point, Dr. Lynne Kelly has since identified the powerful memory technique used by our ancestors and indigenous people around the world.
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Interesting topic , uninteresting listen.
- By Daniel Pisegna on 04-28-18
By: Dr. Lynne Kelly
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The First Signs
- Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols
- By: Genevieve von Petzinger
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's Origins, The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world—the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language.
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Crawling through caves-a memoir
- By GraceAgnes on 01-27-21
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Remarkable Creatures
- Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
- By: Sean B. Carroll
- Narrated by: Jim Bond
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.
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A Remarkable Journey
- By Michael Dowd on 03-22-09
By: Sean B. Carroll
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Underworld
- The Mysterious Origins of Civilization
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 31 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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From Graham Hancock, best-selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that's been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world's oceans. While Graham Hancock is no stranger to stirring up heated controversy among scientific experts, his books and television documentaries have intrigued millions of people around the world and influenced many to rethink their views about the origins of human civilization.
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Fascinating
- By Michael Beeson on 05-13-19
By: Graham Hancock
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River Kings
- A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads
- By: Cat Jarman
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into Catrine Jarman's temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings' route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain.
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Like school
- By Amazon Customer on 09-08-24
By: Cat Jarman
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Across Atlantic Ice
- The Origin of America's Clovis Culture
- By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, Denis J. Stanford
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Who were the first humans to inhabit North America? According to the now familiar story, mammal hunters entered the continent some 12,000 years ago via a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea. The presence of these early New World people was established by distinctive stone tools belonging to the Clovis culture. But are the Clovis tools Asian in origin? Drawing from original archaeological analysis, paleoclimatic research, and genetic studies, noted archaeologists Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley challenge the old narrative.
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Ice Cold story
- By S. Wells on 06-17-12
By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, and others
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Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.
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Compelling pre-history and emergent history
- By Doug on 08-25-11
By: Jared Diamond
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Cahokia
- Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi
- By: Timothy Pauketat
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Professor Timothy R. Pauketat illuminates the riveting discovery of the largest pre-Columbian city on U.S. soil. Once a flourishing metropolis of 20,000 people in 1050, Cahokia had rotted away by 1400. Its earthen mounds near modern-day St. Louis reveal “woodhenges” and evidence of large-scale human sacrifice.
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probably better in hard copy
- By Mary on 06-05-11
By: Timothy Pauketat
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The Suppressed History of America
- The Murder of Meriwether Lewis and the Mysterious Discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- By: Paul Schrag, Xaviant Haze
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Meriwether Lewis discovered far more than the history books tell - ancient civilizations, strange monuments, "nearly white, blue-eyed" Indians, and evidence that the American continent was visited long before the first European settlers arrived. And he was murdered to keep it all secret. Examining the shadows and cracks between America's official version of history, Xaviant Haze and Paul Schrag propose that the America of old taught in schools is not the America that was discovered by Lewis and Clark and other early explorers.
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Don't Bother
- By Georgia Deardoff on 03-31-17
By: Paul Schrag, and others
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The Lost Empire of Atlantis
- History's Greatest Mystery Revealed
- By: Gavin Menzies
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling historian Gavin Menzies presents newly uncovered evidence revealing, conclusively, that “the lost city of Atlantis” was not only real but also at the heart of a highly advanced global empire that reached the shores of America before being violently wiped from the earth. For three millennia, the legend of Atlantis has gripped the imaginations of explorers, philosophers, occultists, treasure hunters, historians, and archaeologists. Until now, it has remained shrouded in myth. Yet, like ancient Troy, is it possible that this fabled city actually existed?
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Absolutely abominable!
- By Magdalene on 03-05-18
By: Gavin Menzies
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Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
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Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
What listeners say about The Statues That Walked
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Merle
- 08-01-12
the secret revealed
always needed to know how the ancients moved and erected monumental structures and sculptures- simply and convincingly explained here. The history of the Easter Island people gave me a fresh view of our western history, harsh reality.
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2 people found this helpful
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- The Kindler
- 03-25-17
The History of Easter Island
As stated in the title, this is about the history of the island. It covers the natives and their culture. There is some comparison between them and others Islanders and how they survived. It explains what might have happened to the ecosystem and the interactions with foreigners. There was a lot of detail but not add much about the statues as I had hoped. Still recommend it though as an important part of history.
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- Jean
- 01-12-17
Fascinating
I became interested in Easter Island and the South Pacific many years ago after reading Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. In fact, it is a book I pull out and read every five years or so since about 1950. Easter Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean approximately 1500 miles from any neighbor. The Island is called Rapa Nui by its inhabitants. It is famous for its 900+ enormous stone statues called Moai which dot the landscape.
The authors are two archaeologist, Terry Hunt from the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo from California State University Long Beach. They have lived on the Island for many years bringing graduate students to work on scientific exploration and archaeological digs. They describe the first colonists to the island in 1200 A.D. of 30 to 100 Polynesians. The climate of the island wasn’t conducive to their growth. Rats that came to the island with the colonists decimated the large palm trees. The authors claim it was the rats rather than over use of the land that led to the devastation of the land. They claim the building of the statues helped maintain social networks that allowed a small closely related population to stay alive and work cohesively. They found that the large statues protected the soil from erosion and regulated the temperature changes over the day and night. In addition, the cracked surfaces of the stone on open ground added essential mineral nutrients to the ground. They also build small walled gardens, called manavai, that protected crops from the wind. They also present their hypothesis of how the statues were moved to their final location. The visits by Europeans brought disease, violence and slavery to the Island.
The book is well written and researched. The authors present a different hypothesis to the environmental conditions of the island. Unlike prior authors they have conducted extensive, long term scientific exploration and analysis to the mysteries of the island. I found the book most interesting and it was easy for the lay person to read.
Joe Barrett does an excellent job narrating the book. Barrett is a theatre actor and award winning audiobook narrator.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Randy
- 07-24-12
Rapa Nui
Is a tiny island in the South Pacific and when I mentioned I was reading this book at lunch one of my co-workers said; "oh that is the island they clear cut the trees so they could farm." I said the authors have another theory and that theory makes more sense than man kills his environment on purpose.
I was surprised at the theory about the cost of war. I was interested in how the different explorers went about their expeditions hundreds of years ago. I was shocked to learn the islanders where thief's stealing any thing and everything including the hat off your head.
It was insightful to learn how the South Pacific people viewed what we would consider normal morality. Meaning that happily traded sex much to the delight of the earlier explorers. Of course one of the trades we made was VD.
Learning about the different ways the Islanders farmed by breaking up rocks to fertilize the ground and prevent erosion from the trade winds was another tidbit that adds to the whole.
Last but not least the architecture of the statues and how they moved the really big ones (some up to and over 75 tons) is still got people scratching their heads. The walked part is a catchy title for a book that encompasses much more than statues and the enigma they hold.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Margaret
- 07-14-12
Thanks Audible!
The statues of Easter Island are an amazing mystery that have fascinated me ever since I read Thor Heyerdahl's works as a teenager. While this books does not attempt to answer the question of why they were created (the title is a bit misleading), it does present new theories of how they were created and transported. It also gives a view of the culture that is much more positive than that presented by Jared Diamond. A very good listen!
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2 people found this helpful
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- VikingBoy
- 08-06-12
A "new" theory of Easter Island history
If you could sum up The Statues That Walked in three words, what would they be?
Hunt and Lipo presents a compelling new theory about the history of Easter Island.
What did you like best about this story?
The available historical sources clearly summarised and the conclusions drawn are clear and logical.
Any additional comments?
A must for everyone with a more than passing interest in Easter Island and Polynesia.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Asako
- 08-07-12
Mystery of Easter Island is solved by archeology
If you could sum up The Statues That Walked in three words, what would they be?
Mysterious Polynesian People
Which scene was your favorite?
Engineering of Rapanui people: how they curved and moved the statues are amazing.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Not really, there were too many examples of archeological surveys in other areas.
Any additional comments?
Archeological survey does not always reveal truth, because sometimes it is based on hypothesis.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-11-16
Great structure
They did a great job of presenting "established" myths and then debunking them one by one. Really held my interest!
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- David
- 07-27-12
Interesting Listen
Any additional comments?
I've always been fascinated with the archeology of Easter Island. I hope to get a chance to go there some day, but this was a good second best alternative. Hopefully some day it will help me enjoy my trip there that much more.I was curious how they would fill 6 hours talking about the mysterious statues. They did so quite elloquently by dealing with a lot of related issues. I would certainly recommend it.
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- Diane
- 09-14-12
The "Mystery of Easter Island" remains raveled
This book summarizes recent archeological and anthropological research, some of it quite surprising, into the history of Easter Island or Rapa Nui. The large majority of the book is dedicated to explaining on how the Polynesians who settled Rapa Nui managed to survive in a very precarious ecosystem; a major emphasis is given to persuasively discrediting Jared Diamond's assertion that the behavior of the Rapa Nui is emblematic of the willful self-destructive patterns of a population whose behavior causes its own economic and cultural collapse.
Only a few chapters are dedicated to the statues themselves, relating mostly to how the statues could have been carved and moved by the islanders, and these are quite interesting. However, explanations as to WHY the islanders carved such an abundance of the statues, what they were supposed to represent, why they were placed where they were, etc., were unsatisfying, to put it mildly.
The authors' discussion on the reason for the statues almost exclusively revolves around a theory relating to status accumulation and population control in a limited environment, seeming to suggest, as far as I understand it, that the men were kept busy building and moving statues in order to limit their opportunities to father children and keep them from fighting with each other (not consciously, mind you, but as a function of population dynamics). I can't help but find this argument patronizing in the extreme and totally inadequate in explaining the astonishing creativity and energy of these island people.
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16 people found this helpful