This discovery was published a few weeks ago: the Statues of Easter Islands have bodies! They were only known as big heads, but now we find they hid many secrets, more than half underground.
This was discovered by the Routledge couple and another group that prefers to be anonymous. One statue is covered with lots of written script.
Easter Island is volcanic. It was discovered by the Dutch navigator Jakob Roggeveen, on Easter Sunday 1722, and became Chilean in 1888. Scientist say that the population of around 4000 seems to have disappeared all at once.
No one knew there was this hidden treasure. The statues don't seem to have been buried, but that a giant flux of dirt seems to have buried them.
Easter Island heads have bodies
The Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) is a private research program and archive created by Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Principle Investigator and EISP founder and director, with Cristián Arévalo Pakarati, Rapa Nui artist and co-director of EISP. The profound and immediate need for conservation actions on the moai became apparent over the course of more than 20 years of subjective observation and field experience acquired by us during our island-wide archaeological survey, which was conducted in association with our Chilean and Rapa Nui colleagues.
The Easter Island Statue Project office is located at 225 Arizona Avenue, Studio 500, Santa Monica, CA, 90401. The EISP field office is located at the Mana Gallery, Petero Atamu s/n, Hanga Roa, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile.
The "influx" of sand is key. The ancient ruins uncovered in turkey are the same way, buried in 20 ft. of pure sand. The theory is that it was done on purpose, to preserve them. They are the oldest known site on the planet now, but of course, there is probably more !! It is interesting to me that they are being uncovered at the perfect time....
that what we see is only the tip of the iceberg!