A new theory about who built the giant stone statues on Easter Island has shocked the archaeological community. Graham Hancock claims that the statues are over 11,000 years old and that Easter Island was inhabited about 12,000 years ago.
Hancock's theory follows a 2008 study that found evidence of shrubs and herbs on Easter Island between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. He uses this to support that a pre-existing population arrived 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Hancock estimates that the statues on Easter Island, known as Moai heads, are likely much older than the platforms, called Ahu Vinapu, on which many of them sit because the structures exhibit different construction techniques, suggesting they were built by different cultures.
Easter Island has about 1,000 large stone heads, known as Moai, scattered throughout the island. Most historians agree that the Moai statues were carved by Polynesians approximately 900 years ago. However, Hancock's theory challenges this view, proposing a much earlier date for the creation of these statues.
"What I am suggesting is that the Polynesians encountered a pre-existing population on that island, evidenced by those bananas... present there at least 3,000 years ago," said Hancock in an interview with MailOnline. He believes this supports the idea that there was already a population on Easter Island that remained until they encountered the Polynesians. He summarized that from this pre-existing population, the Polynesians inherited the older traditions and songs that we see today.
Hancock thinks settlers first arrived on Easter Island 12,000 years ago and stayed until Polynesian settlers arrived. He believes the Moai heads were carved over 11,000 years ago, supporting the theory that a pre-existing population arrived at the end of the last Ice Age.
However, Hancock's theory has faced criticism from experts. Experts pointed out that similar statues on surrounding Pacific Islands have similar poses.
"[Easter Island] is one of the most amazing places on planet Earth that I have been to. It is riddled with mystery," said archaeologist Dr. Dale F. Simpson Jr.. "But sometimes, people take micro bits of data and turn them into macro-interpretations to support claims that are not entirely substantiated," he added.
Hancock rebuffed the criticism, suggesting the Easter Island heads are independent of other similar statues and do not share many common features. "What I am arguing is that the Polynesians encountered a pre-existing population on the island, as evidenced by these bananas... which were there at least 3,000 years ago," he stated in an interview with DailyMail. "I see nothing in the ecology of the island to rule out a human presence that far back," Hancock added.
Most historians maintain that the Moai statues were carved by Polynesian settlers around 900 years ago.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq