Who built the mysterious statues on Easter Island?
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And now it's time for Who Smarted? Psst. Hey, smarty pants, guess what? Right now I'm in one of the coolest, most remote places on Earth, my podcast booth. But I'm pretending to be on a very cool, very remote island that shares its name with a holiday. Oh, and it's famous for some rather odd, rather mysterious statues of giant heads. Any guess what island I'm pretending to be on? If you said Easter Island, you're right. Ding!

Hey, trustee. Welcome to Easter Island. Are you ready for your private tour? Uh, sure. But I gotta say, between you, me, and the giant head statues, my podcast booth is getting a bit crowded. Maybe we better teleport to Easter Island. For real. Hold on, smarty pants. Ah, there we go. Much better. We're definitely on Easter Island now, and not still crammed in a small podcast booth.

Anyway, Smarty Pants, meet Gabriela, an Easter Island tour guide who has agreed to show us around. Hola, pantalones inteligentes. I mean, Smarty Pants in Spanish. More or less. Anyway, I'm excited to show you around Easter Island. And I'm excited to be shown around. By the way, how big is Easter Island? Easter Island is only 63.2 square miles, or 164 square kilometers.

It's almost as big as Washington, D.C., and one and a half times the size of Disney World. Minus the rides. And yet, this relatively small island has been the subject of a lot of interest and intrigue. I know I have lots of questions like, do people actually live on Easter Island? What's the deal with the giant head statues? Who built them? What do they mean? Oh, and does Easter Island have anything to do with Easter?

Get ready for another mysterious whiff of science and history on Who's Smarted? Who's Smarted? Who's Smart? Is it you? Is it me? Is it science? Or history? Listen up, everyone! It's Smarting! Lots of fun on Who's Smarted!

Hey, Smarty Pants. Trusty here with a special mission for all the Smarty Pants listening. But unlike a top secret mission, this mission requires you to tell everyone. That's right. Your job is to spread the word about Who Smarted so we can keep growing and bringing you awesome new episodes. To qualify for this mission, let's play a little game. Who do you know that would love Who Smarted but doesn't listen to the show?

Got someone in mind? Great. Question two. Pick one. Make a plan. Stick to it.

And best of all, complete this not-so-top-secret mission. I'm counting on you, Smarty Pants. The more people you tell, the bigger we grow, which means a lot more smarting for you. Okay, Gabriela, let's start by giving the Smarty Pants a sense of where Easter Island is. Well, trustee, Easter Island is in the South Pacific Ocean. It's kind of between South America and Australia. But the thing about Easter Island is that it's very, very remote.

Ah, Smarty Pants, do you know what remote means? Is it A, a place situated far away from other places? B, working from home? Or C, what you use to turn on your TV? The answer is...

Actually, it could be all of those. But in this case, we mean A, a place situated far away from other places. You got that right, trusty. In fact, Easter Island is one of the most remote spots on the planet. For example, the nearest inhabited spot is Pitcairn Island, but that's 1,289 miles, or 2,074 kilometers, away.

That's about as far as New York City is to Florida. And the closest country is Chile, in South America. And that's 2,182 miles, or 3,511 kilometers away.

So basically right now, we're in the middle of nowhere. Glad I packed a snack. Hey, smarty pants, true or false? Today, Easter Island is actually part of Chile. The answer is true.

Easter Island is considered a special territory of Chile. In fact, in 1888, Easter Island became part of Chile. And in 1966, all of the islanders were given Chilean citizenship. And I suppose the native language spoken here is Spanish. You're half right, trustee. The languages spoken here are Spanish and Rapa Nui. Rapa Nui? I've never heard of that language before. Have you, Smarty Pants?

Rapa Nui is not only a language, but also another name for the island itself. It's also the name of the Polynesian people that first settled here. It's all called Rapa Nui.

That's very interesting, Gabriela. But hold on. You said the Polynesian people that first settled here. Where did they come from and when did they settle here? Well, to answer your second question first, it's believed they arrived sometime between the years 800 and 1200. According to stories passed down through generations of Rapa Nui, the

The first settlers came from another group of Polynesian islands, known as the Cook Islands. But check this out, smarty pants. Polynesia, a sub-region of the continent of Oceania, is made up of more than 1,000 islands in the South and Central Pacific Ocean. Whoa. Can you name any other Polynesian islands, smarties? Here, I'll call out a few. Call out Yep if you've heard of it. Ready? Here goes. Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa.

Bora Bora! I heard a bunch of yeps. Nice job, Smarty Pants! Now, some of those islands are actually countries, like Samoa and Fiji, while others, like Tahiti and Easter Island, are territories.

Gotcha. But there's something I don't understand. If the Rapa Nui settled here a long time ago, and Rapa Nui is another name for the island, where did the name Easter Island come from? Does it have anything to do with the Easter holiday? Believe it or not, that name came from a land even further away. From a place known for tulips, windmills, and wooden shoes.

Hmm, any idea where that might be, smarty pants? If you said the Netherlands, you're right. In 1722, a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen sailed from the Netherlands to the South Pacific and came across Rapa Nui. And because the day he got here happened to be Easter Sunday, he called it Easter Island. Seriously? Mm-hmm.

I knew it had something to do with Easter. Of course, I wonder what he would have called it if it were just a random Sunday, Black Sunday or Super Bowl Sunday. Anywho, what were the early days like on Easter Island?

Early 1600s, it's estimated there were already about 15,000 people living on Rapa Nui. They had established a vibrant and thriving society. Nice. Oh, and they had already built the giant head statues? Smarty Pants, what do you think? Yes or no? The answer is... Yes, they had already built the statues. Woohoo! But then things went a bit... downhill. Yeah.

Oh no! What happened? Well, trusty, look around. Notice anything missing? Uh, hats for the giant statues?

No, there aren't very many trees here on Easter Island. Oh, actually come to think of it, I had noticed that. There's a theory that when the population of the island was at its height, there was a great deal of over-harvesting and deforestation. And then a certain creature arrived that only accelerated this process.

Oh, Smarty Pants, what creature do you think caused the trees to disappear? Was it A. Venomous snakes, B. A type of rat, or C. A wave of termites? You're probably thinking it's C. A wave of termites. But the answer is actually B. A type of rat. Yep, a Polynesian rat, as it became known. This influx of rats ate all the vegetation.

By 1722, there were only about 3,000 people living here. That's when the Europeans came and they brought war, disease, and even slavery. Most people either left the island by choice or were forced to leave. By the late 1800s, there were just over 100 people living on Easter Island.

Oh, wow. That's so sad, Gabriella. Smarty Pants, true or false? At that point, there were actually more statues on the island than people. The answer is surprisingly true. Yep. That's because Easter Island has almost 1,000 stone statues. Whoa. I gotta say, these huge imposing statues must have been quite a sight to see for the Dutch when they rolled up in their wooden shoes.

No doubt, trustee. Okay, so if there were barely over 100 people living on Easter Island by the late 1800s, does anyone actually live here today? Or is it just the 900-plus statues and the tourists who come to take pictures of it? Great question. The answer is, people do live on Easter Island today. Oh, hey, smarty pants, let's see if we can guess how many. Is it around 1,000 people, around 8,000 people, or around 20,000 people?

If you said around 8,000, you're right. Nice. So how did it go from 100 people in the late 1800s to over 8,000 people today? Well, the answer is... Coming up right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by IXL.

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What is Batman's personality? He's a rich guy. Find Forever Ago, Brains On, and Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts. Or head to brainson.org to learn more. Now back to Who Smarted? Okay, I really, really, really want to learn more about the statues. But first, how did the island go from being practically uninhabited to 800 times its population? Well, over time, slavery was abolished.

Some people came back, and more people arrived from elsewhere to settle on the island. It began to prosper once again, with sheep farming being the dominant industry. But of course, the main attraction of Easter Island is... Is what, smarty pants? That's right, tourism, which brings us to the famous Easter Island statues. Okay, trusty, let's talk statues.

Whoa.

Whoa, indeed. I did not know that. But hey, I can see the arms on this one. Yes, the statues have faces and arms, but no legs. I gotta say, they're pretty tall without legs. Oh, yeah.

The tallest moi is 33 feet high. Smarty Pants, that is the height of a three-story building. That is very impressive. They must weigh a ton, too. More like 13 tons. At least, that's what the average moi statue weighs. 13 tons? That's like 30 grand pianos stacked on top of each other. Wow. How did you come up with that stat so fast?

When you host Who's Smarted, you learn a lot of fun facts. Speaking of fun facts, how and when were the statues built? And what do they symbolize? Well...

It's believed that the statues were built by the original Polynesian settlers between 1250 and 1500. Archaeologists think that the statues likely represent the ancestors of the people who built them. And take a look, trusty. Which way are nearly all the statues facing? Hmm. What do you think, smarty pants? Are the Easter Island statues facing inward towards the island or outwards towards the sea? If you said inward towards the island...

You're right. What does it mean? The belief is that they face inward to watch over the villages and the people who live in them. Ah, like distant relatives serving as guardian angels. Ah!

But wait, Gabriela, a few of the statues are facing outwards. Good eye, trusty. Of the nearly 1,000 statues, only seven of them face outward toward the sea to guide people to the island. There's also a legend about an ancient island king whose soul flew across the ocean. These seven statues represent the seven men who waited for the king to return. All righty.

But wait, if these 900-plus statues were all made centuries ago with no advanced technology, how did the Rapa Nui build such massive statues? What are they even made of? Well, the Rapa Nui carved the statues out of a volcanic stone called Lapili Tuff, and it would have taken them a very long time to build. Now let me ask you something, smarty pants. Do you think the statues were carved in the spot they stand today?

where they carved elsewhere on the island and transported here. Ooh, what do you think, smarty pants? If you ask me, I say they were built right where they stand. I mean, if they weigh as much as 30 grand pianos, there is no way they could have been moved without, like, cranes and stuff. Am I right? Sorry, trustee, but for those smarty pants who said the statues were transported, you're right. Ding!

But... but how? It's one of the greatest mysteries of Easter Island. We don't know for sure how the Rapa Nui managed to move nearly 1,000 gigantic super-heavy stone statues without any modern implements, but there are theories. Such as? Well, some say a great many logs were placed on the ground, and the statues were rolled along the logs to their destination.

This would also help explain some of the early deforestation on the island. I could see that working. In fact, something similar was suggested for the building of the Egyptian pyramids. Yes. Of course, experts say this method would require between 50 and 150 people just to move one statue. So, there's another theory. Which is? That they just walked the statues to where they wanted them. Walked them? Like, helipad?

held their hands? No. They think the people of the island may have used a clever system of ropes. They'd tie ropes around the torsos of the statues with a few people pulling onto the ropes from either side and sort of tilt them left and right, thereby walking the statues over to where they wanted to place them. Huh. That works, I guess. I will say, no matter how they did it, it is amazing. Definitely. The

The very fact that these statues exist at all is incredibly impressive. It goes to show how important they must have been to the early Polynesians that made this island their home. Absolutely. I hope they don't mind me grabbing a few selfies with them. A special shout out to Angela in Cincinnati, Ohio, who loves listening to Who Smarted? because we are so funny and we talk about so many different things.

add talking about what an awesome smarty pants you are to the list, Angela, and that's no joke. This episode, Easter Island, was written by Phil, man of mystery, Jeremy, and voiced by Melissa Del Toro Schaffner and Jerry Colbert.

Technical direction and sound design by Josh, Giant Head, Han. Our associate producer is Max Kamaski. The theme song is by Brian, Statuesque Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex-Davis. Who Smarted? was created and produced by Adam Tex-Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an Atomic Entertainment production. Who Smarted?